Crossword Genius

Country club I rebuilt next to theatre (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

republic

'country' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'club i rebuilt next to theatre' is the wordplay.
'rebuilt' indicates anagramming the letters.
'next to' says to put letters next to each other.
'theatre' becomes 'rep' (I've seen this in other clues**).
'club'+'i'='clubi'
'clubi' anagrammed gives 'ublic'.
'ublic' put after 'rep' is 'REPUBLIC'.

(Other definitions for republic that I've seen before include "Country in which supreme power is held by the people" , "Strange pub relic of a political system" , "France, for example, is one" , "Type of state" , "Non-monarchical state" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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