THE Liverpool Everyman has hit its £25.2m public funding target needed to go ahead with the venue’s redevelopment plans.

A £5.9m European Regional Development Fund grant completes the public investment needed to build a new theatre on its existing Hope Street site.

The Everyman will close its doors in July after a newly announced programme celebrating the building’s renewal.

Deborah Aydon, the theatre’s executive director, said: “After 10 years of planning and many funding setbacks, we are absolutely delighted to reach this point.

“We are enormously grateful to the funders and to other supporters such as the city council, who have made this happen by working together.

“In just a few months, we will be on site working to create an inspiring new Everyman for generations to come.”

Macbeth, starring David Morrissey and Jemma Redgrave, will continue to be the last major production in the current Everyman and has been extended by one week to Saturday, June 11, due to high demand.

The final month will also see performances from The Mersey Sound poets Roger McGough and Brian Patten as well as Liverpool band and Everyman favourites Deaf School, who formed on Hope Street in the 1970s.