[5] There were many delays in starting the project and galloping inflation meant additional funds had to be raised[6] and, under the circumstances, Sheila Winn announced she was unwilling to provide them.

It diagonally faces and is within metres of Wellington's Embassy Theatre made famous by the world premiere of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, in Majoribanks Street the Campion family business and over at the end of Roxburgh Street, for many years, "Monde Marie" the bijou coffee house of Mary Seddon, only daughter of Tom Seddon.

[7][8] It was designed to be a dinner theatre with a flexible space that could accommodate an audience seated for dining, with options for the staging of the performance that could change for each show.

[10] The building is part of a small group of unique performance spaces because of its asymmetric design, they include the Heinrich Tessenow's Hellerau Festpielhaus (1911) in Dresden, Germany, Manchester Royal Exchange (1976) in England, and São Paulo's Teatro Oficina (1984) in Brazil.

[12] In the book that accompanied the exhibition the building is described thus: "It asserts itself ... by adopting a sculptural, asymmetric roof form that addresses the corner site; and by taking its lead from brutalism's uncompromising, anti-bourgeois spirit, typified by the enthusiasm for unpainted off-form concrete."