An eleventh-hour but temporary reprieve has quelled fears that that Thursday’s opening night of Canberra Rep’s Christmas show, Bloody Murder, would be destroyed by the closure of its adjacent car park.

Rep, the ANU Schools of Art and Music and the nearby Street Theatre will all ultimately be affected by changes, which will see several car parks on the ANU campus closed for 12 months for the light rail operation.

Canberra Symphony Orchestra CEO Rachel Thomas, during last week’s Llewellyn concerts, told audiences of the imminent closures, but on Tuesday the ANU’s Facilities and Services Division has told CityNews that originally the carparks 105B-S (Rep and Llewellyn Hall) and 121-N (Peter Karmel Building) were slated to be closed from November 21 for 12 months, but that the ACT light rail team had just written advising that  105B-S would remain open and free for the remainder of the year, potentially to the end of January.

But Carpark 121-N, near The Street and the ANU Jazz Department, will still close on November 21.

The Facilities and Services Division has confirmed that the ANU supports the ACT government in its endeavour to deliver the light rail project and that two carparks were slated to be closed.

“The impacted parking lots will still be available for the public to use outside of business hours, additionally, there are a number of nearby parks not impacted by this closure that will continue to be available during business hours and outside of business hours,” the statement reads.

Caroline Stacey, artistic director and CEO of The Street Theatre said they had received no communications from ANU on the car parks.