A venue like this doesn't exist elsewhere': inside the colossal arena built for The Hunger Games

"The sleek high rises chase each other up into the sky. It is a bit dystopian, isn't it? says producer Oliver Royds as we walk through Canary Wharf. Easy to feel like you're in the Capitol. London's finance hub will soon host the theatrical premiere of Suzanne Collins' dystopian novel The Hunger Games, in which the all-powerful Capitol sends children to fight to the death for sport and retribution."

"Donning hefty boots and hard hats, Royds and I snake under the city through concrete corridors, emerging into daylight to enter the building site where a bespoke 1,200-seat theatre is being made. Since March, this scrap of unused scrubland has developed into a 26-metre-tall temporary theatre covering 2,250 sq metres. When I visit in summer, the core is up and the shell is under way. Don't fall through, calls producer Tristan Baker as I hop over a hole and head into the cavernous structure."

"Royds and Baker are the pair behind the Troubadour theatre of Wembley Park, where Starlight Express is now whizzing around on rollerskates. Next year they will launch Troubadour Greenwich Peninsula theatre, a complex with two 1,500-seat auditoriums. Both men independently run theatre and film production companies Royds leads BOS Productions, Baker heads up Runaway Entertainment and together they are joint CEOs of Troubador, the company that designs, builds and operates their sites."

Canary Wharf's finance hub will host the theatrical premiere of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games. Producers Oliver Royds and Tristan Baker are building a bespoke temporary theatre on previously unused scrubland: a 26-metre-tall structure covering 2,250 square metres with 1,200 seats. The construction site features cranes, wires, power tools and workers harnessed 15 metres up. Royds leads BOS Productions and Baker heads Runaway Entertainment; both are joint CEOs of Troubadour, which designs, builds and operates large-scale theatres. The pair previously developed the Troubadour theatre at Wembley Park and plan a Troubadour Greenwich Peninsula complex with two 1,500-seat auditoriums. The team pitched a distinct staging approach to Lionsgate.

Read at www.theguardian.com