Fear in world of theatre over threat to Assembly

The City of Edinburgh Council is pursuing plans for a 12 million revamp it says is long overdue, turning the building into a year-round venue for drama, dance and music, including rock concerts.

However, the Assembly venue director, William Burdett-Coutts, has warned that the closing of the site for two festivals, with the conversion of the ground-floor Fringe spaces into a fine-dining restaurant and shops, would sound the death knell for his operation.

Yesterday, Guy Masterson, the actor and director whose 12 Angry Men at the Assembly Rooms was a celebrated Fringe success, expressed incredulity at the proposals.

He has six productions at the Assembly this year, many using the venue's smaller spaces.

"My relationships with the Edinburgh Festival are shaken to the foundation by the idea of the rooms being turned into shops," he said yesterday.

Masterson was among a group of respected Festival participants who said they feared for the Assembly Rooms as a core Fringe brand with a UK and even worldwide reputation.

The Lyceum Theatre chairman, Donald Emslie, a former chief executive of SMG, warned of a "significant loss to the Fringe and the wider cultural and artistic reputation of Edinburgh".

The American director and writer John Clancy, a five-times Fringe First winner, called it an "essential, vital hub".

Mr Burdett-Coutts said this week that the council's plans were driven purely by financial concerns, borrowing 6 million and seeking the other 6 million from funding bodies. For anyone working in the cultural sector, the idea that it would be self-supporting was absurd, even without building cost overruns, he said.

"When it reopens, Assembly Theatre will have lost at least three performance spaces – the Wildman Room, the Supper Room and the Edinburgh Suite – along with the Club Bar," he said. "We operate on a very tight financial model and the building in its new guise will not be commercially viable."

It was in the Wildman Rooms that the US comedian Demetri Martin first performed in Edinburgh in 2003, to just 120 people. He won the Perrier Award, came back the following year to play the 300-seater Assembly Ballroom and now has a career that sees him playing the lead role in the latest film from director Ang Lee, along with a comedy show on US television.

"It's a very prestigious venue, and if you are going to bring someone over from America for the killer first show, you want to go somewhere very respectable. It still has that image, though it may not be cutting-edge for all new comedy," said Hannah Chambers, the comedy manager and promoter, who first brought Martin to Edinburgh.

But yesterday the council said it was determined to proceed. Deidre Brock, the Edinburgh culture and leisure chief, said: "Businesses that use the venue in the past have said it is in need of refurbishment. We do feel this is the right way forward for the city and the Assembly Rooms.

"This will enhance its use, not just in the four weeks of the Festival period, but throughout the whole year."