The Excess and Potential of the Movie Theatre Ruin: The Midnight Star

Abstract

Abandoned and derelict movie theatres are some of the most striking of contemporary ruins. Movie theatres of the interwar ‘picture palace’ era were designed to create an atmosphere of leisure, fantasy and escapism, qualities which continue to inform understandings of these places in ruins. Movie theatre ruins have a heightened quality of excess, both in terms of their original atmosphere of fantasy, and their obsolescence as ruins. Theatre ruins are vital entities, sites of temporal flux and multiple, intersecting narratives provoking strong affective responses. This narrative potential is investigated using the Midnight Star theatre in suburban Sydney as a case study. Drawing on the theatre’s material presence and media traces, this article explores the narrative and critical power of the theatre ruin in the contemporary urban landscape.