The curtain is up on Brighton’s smartest new venue – New Venture Theatre celebrated its re-designed main auditorium on Saturday with a splendidly cheerful grand re-opening.

NVT operates in a listed Victorian building, a former Church of England schoolhouse needing constant investment to keep it running. The main stage went dark unavoidably in 2005. Between then and now, £50,000 had to be raised to bring it up to standard – with another £25,000 to be spent on lighting. The new space emerges in bold green and red with smart seating widely-tiered with knees in mind.

The first major productions will come in spring 2014: Saturday’s audience was offered a fragment from Tons Of Money, the company’s first show from 1956, done here as knowing farce, and a closing scene from The Weir, the last show on the stage in 2005.

In between, long-time company members spoke on-stage about their experiences, some funny, others thoughtful. A 97-year-old told us what it was like to be a schoolboy there in 1926 – disciplined.

The evening was MC’d by Gerry McCrudden, his confident enthusiasm surely a good trailer for the entertainment to come.