It was the biggest relaunch in Southend's theatrical history.

The Palace Theatre, consigned to the past tense by most theatre-goers, dark for more than a year, last night lifted the curtain on an action-packed future.

The dustsheets and the safety curtain were lifted to reveal a refurbished theatre. Simultaneously, the new team was able to announce the fullest ever programme of future plays and shows.

Artistic director Roy Marsden and the cast of A Christmas Carol, the new regime's first production, joined sponsors, councillors, and members of the Palace Theatre Trust in a toast to the future.

Around £100,000 has been spent on a new foyer, extended bar and improved toilet facilities, along with backstage technical improvements and electrical work.

Julius Green, of the management company Green and Lenagan, gave details of productions for the next three months.

They include Prunella Scales' one-woman play about Queen Victoria, Seven Berkoff's controversial play East, works from Jane Austen, Dylan Thomas and George Orwell, and the Palace's first in-house Shakespeare production for many years, the Merchant of Venice.

"It's nice to be able to tell you that four of the country's leading actresses - Prunella Scales, Eileen Page, Maggie Steed and Nichola McAuliffe - will be appearing within the space of a month," Mr Green said.

He also announced that the Dixon Studio Theatre, closed some time before the main house, will now be open again on a full-time basis.

Ian Downie, chairman of the Palace Theatre Trust, paid tribute to the sponsors who had paid for much of the refurbishment.

The entrance area will now be known as the Keymed foyer.

"The re-opening of the Palace Theatre is a tremendous achievement, and everyone who has played a part in it can be duly proud," he said.

An exhausted but beaming Roy Marsden was in high spirits as the Christmas Carol cast went through their paces in a short selection of scenes from the lavish production.

"We have a superb team and an absolutely lovely building to work with," he said.

"I had not been aware until I actually started to work here just how much loved this theatre is," he said. We have a huge responsibility not just to the play and the audience, but also to the building and the vast affection that it inspires."

Robert Demeger, the actor playing Scrooge, revealed he has encountered anything but Scrooge-like attitudes.

"People in Westcliff have been absolutely lovely," he said.

"The lady at the baker's shop was so worried about the cast being here over the holiday period, with all the shops shut, that she's going to bake us a big cake to see us through."

Opening time - Fezziwig, played by David Lumsden, checks out the new ticket office with box office assistant Sally Graham

Picture: MAXINE CLARKE

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.