The sleek high rises chase each other up into the sky. “It is a bit dystopian, isn’t it?” says producer Oliver Royds as we walk through Canary Wharf. “Easy to feel like you’re in the Capitol.”

London’s finance hub will soon host the theatrical premiere of Suzanne Collins’ dystopian novel The Hunger Games, in which the all-powerful Capitol sends children to fight to the death for sport and retribution. Donning hefty boots and hard hats, Royds and I snake under the city through concrete corridors, emerging into daylight to enter the building site where a bespoke 1,200-seat theatre is being made.

Since March, this scrap of unused scrubland has developed into a 26-metre-tall temporary theatre covering 2,250 sq metres. When I visit in summer, the core is up and the shell is under way. “Don’t fall through,” calls producer Tristan Baker as I hop over a hole and head into the cavernous structure. The soon-to-be-stage is filled with cranes, wires and a constant buzz of power tools. A man harnessed 15 metres up waves hello with his drill.

Royds and Baker are the pair behind the Troubadour theatre of Wembley Park, where Starlight Express is now whizzing around on rollerskates. Next year they will launch Troubadour Greenwich Peninsula theatre, a complex with two 1,500-seat auditoriums. Both men independently run theatre and film production companies – Royds leads BOS Productions, Baker heads up Runaway Entertainment – and together they are joint CEOs of Troubador, the company that designs, builds and operates their sites. Fronting both sides of the production, they knew they could offer something unique for a show that demands such space and spectacle. “We said to Lionsgate [the film distributors] we could do this differently,” says Royds.

Their team also has a unique contact in Baker’s business partner at Runaway: Charlie Parsons, known as the father of reality TV. Flicking between his reality show Survivor and footage of the Iraq war first sparked Collins’ idea for The Hunger Games, a fact Parsons didn’t know until 2018, when they began talks about securing the rights. “Nobody would buy Survivor because they couldn’t understand it,” Parsons recalls. The show is now on its 50th season in the US. He nods ahead to Baker and Royds. “They have the same big vision – of being able to do anything even when it seems impossible.”

Where Troubadour’s previous theatres have redeveloped existing spaces, the Canary Wharf site required filling a massive pit in the ground, with the tight proximity to other buildings meaning huge steel slabs had to be individually placed by a tower crane. As we walk around, the pair are enthusiastically nerdy about the construction, from the ballast-engineered approach to the sustainable soundproofing they failed to find globally before designing their own.

Made with 42,000 hunks of aluminium and steel components, the theatre is entirely modular. That means when time’s up, 95% of the site can be packed into 150 or so trucks and reused elsewhere. “We like to say we’re the new travelling circus,” Royds jokes, raising his voice as a circular saw starts up in the corner. “A building like this doesn’t exist elsewhere,” adds Baker, ushering us through a gap in the wall to see the river outside; you can, if you wish, take a boat to the theatre. “We’re trying to give the audience something new and thrilling.”

When the audience chooses their tickets, the arena is divided into districts – with the pointed exception of District 12, home of our hero, Katniss Everdeen. “You’re only ever 12 seats away from the action,” says Baker, pointing up to the back row of the stalls. “Every seat is a brilliant seat.” They want the action to feel right in front of us, the fights choreographed by Kev McCurdy pressing close.

With the task of creating fire, fatal battles and genetically engineered animal mutations on stage, the creative team face high expectations. Conor McPherson’s adaptation uses the first book and first film as source material, while Matthew Dunster directs and Miriam Buether is the designer. Collins has been deeply involved with the process, offering new details of the world she has been inventing since the early 00s. “What’s exciting is there’s an audience of 25-40-year-olds who read the books when they came out and loved them,” says Royds. “But it’s now come back.” His nine-year-old son is avidly racing through them.

They have the rights for the first three Hunger Games novels. Do they plan to stage them all? “If the audience wants it,” says Baker, nodding. If not, the space can be twisted and rearranged like a Rubik’s cube for other productions. “We built this specifically for The Hunger Games,” says Royds. “But the flexibility is key. You can do stuff here that you can’t do in any other venue.” He indicates upwards, where metal rods lace the entire ceiling. Each of these can carry four tonnes of weight – ideal for holding enormous set pieces or supporting actors as they fight upside down, as has been trailed for this show.

Down a rickety ladder, a concrete mass of pillars form what will be London’s biggest sub-stage and largest hydraulic stage, which will raise most of the set up from the floor. Through the dusty gloom you can imagine the tributes waiting down here to rise up into the Cornucopia at the start of the games. “We’ve obviously got a few tricks up our sleeves,” Royds smiles. Upstairs, the theatre will feature three huge bars, a restaurant looking out over the O2, and masses of toilets. “We want people to be queueing for the bar, not the loo,” Baker says with a laugh. Combined, the show and the theatre cost £26m. “That’s the same price as a large Broadway musical,” he notes. “Plus we can reuse the structure.”

The cast of 23 are booked for the next year, with the actor playing Katniss, Maria Carragher, already in archery school. “Matthew keeps talking about it as a dance troupe,” Royds shares. “Because it’s such an ensemble piece.” This is the unique challenge of adapting a story so beloved: “It’s got to deliver for those who love the books but it has to be uniquely different. Otherwise,” Royds shrugs, “you can just rewatch the film.”

• The Hunger Games: On Stage is at Troubadour Canary Wharf theatre, London, from 20 October-15 February