Midway through The Testament of Mary, the Mother of God was recounting the miracle of Lazarus being raised from the dead, when the sound of fireworks burst through the theatre. The impromptu interruption unsettled the audience somewhat. Actor Alison Whyte ploughed on with her performance, despite the din of unscripted pyrotechnics outside.
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"She was mid-monologue when the fireworks started to go off somewhere on the harbour," said Sydney Theatre Company artistic director Kip Williams. "She adapted to it beautifully, but it is not an ideal theatrical experience."
The opening night interruption of the one-person play, in January, was among the devilish challenges of working within aged wharves at Walsh Bay. Shows within the poorly soundproofed spaces often compete against rattling catering trolleys or the hullabaloo of helicopters and the heavens opening overhead.
"With all the rain we have had lately, you have to stop rehearsing because of noise interruptions," Williams said. "It is a beautiful building but when it's leaking water and you can barely hear the actors, it is hardly ideal."
That's set to change after the NSW government awarded $30 million to the STC for the renewal of its heritage headquarters. The money will be matched by the theatre company, which plans to modernise its home with sound-proofed rehearsal rooms, flexible performance spaces and additional public entry points to the wharf.
The $60 million project, scheduled to start in 2018, will reconfigure seating within the Wharf 1 and Wharf 2 theatres to allow for performances in-the-round and a traverse stage. The small theatres will also be shifted back-to-back and separated by a retractable door, to allow them to be transformed into a large, single-performance space.
Williams says the changes will offer audiences a broader range of theatrical experiences. "Theatre makers will be given entirely new possibilities for how they might tell stories," he says. "It's a win for audiences and artists alike."
The STC renewal forms part of a $68 million government grant to the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct, which will also include substructure engineering works to support the redevelopment.
The spend comes on top of the $139 million the government had already committed to the area, through the state's $600 million cultural infrastructure fund.
Arts Minister Don Harwin said the extra money would help turn Walsh Bay into a "renowned cultural precinct". "It will attract visitors and boost the economy, while preserving the wharf's iconic heritage," he said. "The precinct will host up to 2 million people every year and the extra funding will give them better access to a special experience."
The Walsh Bay revamp, scheduled to start in August 2017, will also include a public square over the water between Wharf 4/5 and Pier 2/3, with large steps leading down to the water.
But museum and heritage consultant Kylie Winkworth criticised the extra spend on the STC, saying that NSW already had the most city-centric and inequitable funding structure in Australia. "What is so special about Walsh Bay as opposed to all the other projects that are begging for money," she said.
"We can't be just funding high-quality cultural infrastructure in the city without looking at the needs of western sydney and regional NSW. That hasn't been done and I don't see a plan to do so at the moment."
The government has also allocated $202 million to upgrade the Sydney Opera House under the $600 million cultural infrastructure fund, which it promised from the sale of electricity assets before the 2015 election.
Mr Harwin declined to say where the government will allocate the fund's remaining $191 million.
