If you stand back and take a good look you can just about see it. You have to cross the road and look at the whole thing though. Thousands of people walk past it every day without noticing.

Between 1802 and 1918 thousands of people were walking into it.

What we know as the recently derelict bus depot halfway down Queen Street on the left was once Colchester’s Theatre Royal.

A grandiose theatre which could seat 1,200 people. What sits behind what are now blue and battered corrugated iron doors is the site of this old theatre.

You can just about make out from the white facade that surrounds those doors the sense of that theatre. It is reported that in 1849 Charles Dickens performed one of his electrifying readings in this very theatre.

What a night that must’ve been.

Packed to the rafters, this A list celebrity on stage, the whole building illuminated by gas light, the audience enraptured by Nicholas Nickleby or whatever his latest novel would have been.

It’s the type of stuff that makes the hairs on the back of the neck bristle.

This weekend the building returns to its former glory, as I have invited the Art House electro pop band The Neutrinos to invade the space with their massive noise and light installation Klanghaus.

It is a journey through sound and light and theatre.

The derelict detritus of the bus depot and the historic ambience of the Theatre Royal make for the perfect backdrop for this captivating piece of work.

The audience will enter by a secret side door in Priory Street and the show will unfold from there.

There are two performances each day, presented in conjunction with the Roman River Festival and produced by Colchester Arts Centre.

They are today and tomorrow and on Sunday at 6.30pm & 8.30pm. Tickets are available from Colchester Arts Centre on line or by call the box office on 01206 500900