Crossword Genius

Old theatre crumbled around me in high temperature (7,4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

extreme heat

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'temperature' is the definition.
(I know that extreme heat is a type of hot)

'old theatre crumbled around me in high' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'old' could be 'ex' (prefix meaning former or onetime) and 'ex' is present in the answer.
'me' is found in the answer.
an anagram of 'theatre' is 'treheat' which is within the left over letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.
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