Open-air theatre being built in World War II bomb crater in Suffolk countryside

• Watch a video report from ITV Anglia's Tanya Mercer

A Second World War bomb crater is providing the home for Suffolk's newest theatre, an open-air venue built using hand tools in the village of Thorington, near Southwold.

The audience at Thorington Theatre will be seated around the inside of the giant crater, looking down onto the stage where performances will start this summer.

It will seat 350 people and the entire construction process is carbon-neutral, with the timber coming from trees cut sustainably just metres away.

Co-creator Silas Rayner said he originally thought the space could be used as a music venue.

He said: "I came up with this idea from seeing it walking my dogs, this is a natural amphitheatre and I thought you could do a great gig here.

"I didn’t envisage building a theatre I thought you could put a stage up and we’d have the audience sat around in the summer, and the idea just developed."

The land is owned by Lindy O'Hare, who said the project has been a "story of hope" through the pandemic.

She added: "Covid hit and all the producers, directors, actors were out of work, and now they want to come out again, and come alive and do things.

"The response has been phenomenal and beyond anything we could have imagined."

One of the companies looking at staging a production at Thorington this summer is Suba Das' Hightide Theatre, based in Aldeburgh.

"Having spaces like this opening up, helps us plan with more certainty," he said.

"It is that message of hope, but it is also the most dynamic statement of thinking about the future."

Amy Carroll has been using her skills as a set designer to help the construction, and said once live events start again audiences "will realise what they were missing".

She added: "I was originally a volunteer, I came because I miss my job so much.

"It is an amazing project and I'm really proud to be part of it."