THEATRES, CLOSED OR DISAPPEARED

The Gaiety Theatre

Location: The Gaiety Theatre, Aldwych, WC2B 4BZ. Demolished in 1903. The Silken Hotel occupies the site. (orange, grey)

Gilbert & Sullivan

W.S. Gilbert was one of the West End s leading playwrights and Arthur Sullivan was a respected composer. They were introduced to one another by John Hollingshead, the owner of The Gaiety Theatre. Their first collaboration, Thespis: or The Gods Grown Old (1871), was staged at The Gaiety. It was not a success and they each went their own way.

The pair were re-introduced to one another by the impresario Richard d Oyly Carte. Trial By Jury (1875) was enough of a success to prompt the impresario to commission further work from them.

Website: www.gsarchive.net http://www.eno.org/discover-opera/beginners-guide-gilbert-sullivan

Electric Lighting

In 1878 Hollingshead installed six electric lights in The Gaiety Theatre.

Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre

Sir William Davenant's (1606-1668) parents were Londoners. His father acquired a taste for the theatre, and was a particular admirer of the plays of William Shakespeare (1564-1616). The couple moved to Oxford, where they established a tavern. Shakespeare would stay with them as a guest when making his annual trip to Stratford-upon-Avon. Davenant would have grown up with his father's accounts of how Richard Burbage (1568-1619) had performed the playwright s words.

Davenant moved to London. His first work to be performed was The Cruel Brother: A Tragedy, a revenge play. Others followed. In 1630 he contracted a venereal disease. It almost killed him and left him with a badly disfigured nose. He recovered and resumed his dramatic career. In the late 1630s Davenant and architect Inigo Jones (1573-1652) worked together on a series of masques for the royal court. In 1639 King Charles I (1600-1649) granted Davenant a warrant for a playhouse to be built between Shoe Lane and Fetter Lane. During the Civil War. He fell into Parliamentarian hands. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London before being released. He achieved the extraordinary feat of staging operas during the Commonwealth regime.

In 1660 the monarchy was restored. Thomas Killigrew (1612-1683) was on good terms with King Charles II (1630-1685). A warrant to establish the King's Company of Players. Davenant's company was established under the patronage of the Duke of York (the future King James II (1633-1701)). He secured a temporary home in a tennis court in Salisbury Court, Whitefriars.

Killigrew claimed that his company was the successor to the pre-war King's Men and that he therefore had the exclusive right to perform almost all the English language in existence, including Davenant s. In late 1660 the Lord Chamberlain made a redistribution of the plays. Davenant received a share of Shakespeare's plays, John Webster's (c.1580-c.1625) Duchess of Malfi (1623), and his own works. Overall, Davenant's troupe of actors were less able than those who had chosen to work for Killigrew. However, the company did contain Thomas Betterton (1635-1710), who was to prove to be the leading actor of the age. Davenant and ten of his leading actors signed articles of agreement that clearly gave him control over the theatre's management.

Davenant moved his company from Whitefriars to The Duke's Theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields. The dearth of new plays led Davenant to adapt Shakespeare's plays in order to give them a contemporary context.

Location: Lincoln's Inn Fields, WC2A 3PE. The Hunterian Museum now occupies the site. (orange, brown)

The New End Theatre

The building that houses The New End Theatre in Hampstead used to be a morgue.

Location: 27 New End, Hampstead, NW3 1JD

The Open Space

Charles Marowitz (1934-2014) was an American who arrived in Britain in 1956. He brought with him ideas from the New York Actors Studio. He used the G.I. Bill of Rights to pay to study at L.A.M.D.A.. He established his own acting group. Those who passed through it included Prunella Scales, Liz Smith, and Timothy West.

Joe Orton's Loot had a disastrous pre-London tour. The playwright reworked the piece. Charles Marowitz then staged it at the Jeanette Cochrane. This brought Marowitz to Brook's attention. In 1964 the Royal Shakespeare Company's Theatre of Cruelty season included Brook's staging of Marat/Sade at The Aldwych. This rehabilitated the reputation of Antonin Artaud and helped to create the Fringe.

The Open Space mounted experimental productions. It was founded in a basement on the Tottenham Court Road by Marowitz and Thelma Holt in 1968. The backers included Harold Pinter and Michael Winner. The latter was a director who ran the Royal Shakespeare Experimental Group with Peter Brook. In 1976 E.M.I. started to redevelop the block. The Open Space relocated to premises on the Euston Road. In 1977 sections of the press attacked Marowitz in the Pink Bathroom affair. The director stated that the suite was required for a play, the press implied that it was for his own use. The affair damaged his reputation. Holt left The Open Space the same year,

In 1980 Arts Council funding was reduced. The Space was closed.

Location: 32 Tottenham Court Road, W1T 1BX

The Roxy

The Roxy was a fringe venue in the 1960s and 1970s. The building was a garage that was owned by Time Out's theatre critic John Ashford.

The Savile Theatre

Brian Epstein had won a place to study acting at R.A.D.A.. However, after a year, he had chosen to return to Liverpool and work for the family retail business. He had become The Beatles manager. In 1965 he leased The Savile Theatre. There, he staged Sunday night concerts.

Location: The Odeon, 135 Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2H 8AH (purple, turquoise)

David Backhouse 2024