It was at the end of last week that a fire broke out at the Stora theater, Östgötateatern's house in Norrköping. The fire occurred in connection with the lightning strike in the building, something that Culture News has previously reported.

The rehearsals resume

The fire, which started in a wind space, caused damage to the wind, roof and stairwells but could be extinguished before reaching the stage and salon.

- When I got the phone call from our CEO at five o'clock that morning my imagination shone. I was just thinking: now it's over. But then this has fared much better than I could have imagined, says Nils Poletti, theater director for the Östgötateatern, to the Culture News.

Since then, work has been done on cleaning the salon on smoke odors, and on Wednesday the theater's technical staff received a green light to resume work for the premiere of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play Faust II.

Nils Poletti can finally breathe out.

- My big fear has been that we couldn't have the premiere of Faust II at the Grand Theater so it feels incredibly nice. Now the only question is when we will have a premiere, says Nils Poletti, theater manager for the Östgötateatern, to the Culture News.

Ongoing repairs

The fire-damaged parts of the house have been closed off until further notice, and repairs are expected to start in late September and continue until the end of the year. The uncertainty about when the theater house could be put back into use has been difficult to relate to, says Nils Poletti.

- We have been waiting and waiting for answers. Not knowing how it will be has been the big challenge. But as it seems now, we only seem to lose a week's stage time, even though we the theater world always want another week when we repair.

The actors, however, have to wait to take the stage that would start at the Grand Theater this week, however, may continue in other premises until further notice.