Theatre Royal panto may move if building work over-runs

The pantomime is due to be the first performance staged in the theatre if the £4.1 million makeover is completed by the official deadline of October 1.

But the theatre said it has considered the possibility of staging Berwick Kaler's production of Dick Whittington And His Meerkat in a 1000-seat tent at the National Railway Museum should there be delays.

Liz Wilson, chief executive of the Theatre Royal, said: "There's always the danger the completion date won't be hit; we would be naive not to think that may be the case.

"At the moment we are still confident in hitting the practical completion date, which is October 1. We have not agreed another date."

She said developers were under a tight programme and there are many reasons for complications in the project.

But Ms Wilson said the pantomime would never be cancelled and that if the theatre was not ready, an option "could be this massive and wonderful structure at the NRM."

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The theatre tent is being set up at the NRM for York Theatre Royal's summer residency. The tent, which seats almost 1,000, will be used to stage In Fog and Falling Snow and The Railway Children.

The work at the theatre is due to include reconfiguring the stalls and stage to create much better views for audiences, glazing-in the colonnade in St Leonard's Place, creating new and more spacious welcome areas and installing a foyer lift to improve access and provide new seating areas for wheelchair users in the dress circle.

Archaeologists have been working on site excavating underneath the stage and stalls of the theatre, which is is built on the 12th century remains of what was once a hospital.

York Archaeological Trust has said it hoped to find evidence for the use of a medieval close and possibly a medieval lane which was thought to have continued north from Blake Street to Petergate.