Bristol Old Vic

The Bristol Old Vic is a theatre complex and theatrical company in the centre of Bristol, England. The complex includes the 1766 Theatre Royal, which claims to be the oldest continually-operating theatre in England, along with a 1970s studio theatre, offices and backstage facilites. It also incorporates the eighteenth-century Coopers' Hall as its foyer. The Theatre Royal is a grade I listed building, while the Coopers' Hall is grade II*. The present company was established in 1946 as an offshoot of the London Old Vic theatre. It also runs the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, a well-regarded school for both actors and technicians.

The theatre is situated on the quiet cobbled King Street, a few yards from the Floating Harbour. The Coopers' Hall is the earliest building on the site, having been built in 1744 for the Coopers' Company, the guild of coopers in Bristol, by architect William Halfpenny. It has a "debased Palladian" façade with four Corinthian columns. It only remained in the hands of the Coopers until 1785, subsequently becoming a public assembly room, a wine warehouse, a Baptist chapel and eventually a fruit and vegetable warehouse.

The "Theatre in King Street" was built between 1764 and 1766 on land behind and to one side of the Coopers' Hall, with a passage through one of the houses in front of it serving as an entranceway. The interior was modelled, with some variations, on that of the Drury Lane Theatre Royal in London. The first performance, on 30 May 1766, included a prologue and epilogue by David Garrick. However, the theatre was initially unable to obtain a Royal Licence, and had to advertise its productions as "a concert with a specimen of rhetorick" to avoid prosecution under the Licensing Act, 1737. This pretence was dropped after two years, though a touring production playing in the Coopers' Hall in 1773 did run into legal trouble.

The Royal Licence, and the name "Theatre Royal", were eventually gained in 1778. At this time the theatre also started opening for the winter season, and a joint company was established to perform at both the Bath Theatre Royal and in Bristol, featuring famous names including Sarah Siddons. The auditorium was remodelled with a new sloping ceiling and gallery in 1800. After the break with Bath in 1819 the theatre was manged by William M'Cready, the father of William Charles Macready, with little success, but slowly rose again under his widow Sarah M'Cready in the 1850s. After her death in 1853 the M'Creadys' son-in-law James Chute took over, but allowed the Theatre Royal to decline again when he opened the Prince's Theatre in 1867. A new, but still unsatisfactory, entranceway was constructed in 1903.

The Theatre Royal remained in the shadow of the Prince's for over 70 years, until the Prince's was destroyed by German bombs during the Second World War. The threat of closure in 1942 led to a public appeal to preserve the historic theatre, and as a result a new Trust was established to buy the building. The Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts leased the building from the Trust and in 1946 CEMA's successor the Arts Council arranged for a company from the London Old Vic to staff it, thus forming the Bristol Old Vic. The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School was also established in 1946. The Bristol Old Vic had its greatest triumph when its 1954 production Salad Days transferred to the West End and became the longest-running musical on the London stage. The Arts Council remained involved until 1963 when their role was taken over by the City Council. The Bristol Old Vic also put plays on in the council-owned Little Theatre from then until 1980.

The present theatre complex, designed by Peter Moro, was completed in 1972. The entrance building was demolished, as were a number of surrounding buildings and, more controversially, the stage area of the 1766 theatre. A new stage and fly tower were built along with technical facilities and offices. The 150-seat New Vic Studio Theatre was built in place of the old entrance, and the Coopers' Hall provided the theatre with the grand façade and foyer area it had previously lacked.

The theatre has enjoyed a small renaissance since a new Arts Coucil funding package and the appointment of David Farr and Simon Reade as joint artistic directors in January 2003. The company has now branded itself as the "new bristol old vic" and its two theatres as the "main house" and the "studio". It remains the main venue for highbrow professional theatre in the city, while commercial touring productions generally visit the much larger Bristol Hippodrome. Farr has announced that he will leave Bristol to join the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, in the summer of 2005.

Despite a number of closures, due to reconstruction, economics and war, the Theatre Royal has remained a playhouse continually since 1766. The auditorium retains a small area of the original bench seating in the gallery and the original "thunder-run" in which cannonballs would be rolled down a wooden frame in the roof to simulate the sound of a storm.

The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School now operates under Principal Christopher Denys as an affiliate of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama with some courses validated by the University of the West of England. It has its own premises in Clifton, bought with proceeds from the London success of Salad Days. It was previously associated with the Drama Department of the University of Bristol, which still holds many papers of the Bristol Old Vic in its Theatre Collection.

The theatre school was opened in 1946, and its list of distinguished alumni includes the following.

• Miranda Richardson - Best Actress Academy Award nominee
• Daniel Day-Lewis - Best Actor Academy Award winner
• Greta Scacchi
• Jeremy Irons - Best Actor Academy Award winner
• Patricia Routledge
• Patrick Stewart

References

• B. Little &, P. Moro, The Story of the Theatre Royal Bristol, Trustees of the Theatre Royal, 1981
• K. Barker, The Theatre Royal Bristol: The First Seventy Years, Bristol Branch of the Historical Association, 1961
• A. Gomme, M. Jenner & B. Little, Bristol: an Architectural History, Lund Humphries, 1979
• Walter Ison, The Georgian Buildings of Bristol, Kingsmead Press, 1952

External links

• Bristol Old Vic (http://www.bristol-old-vic.co.uk/)
• Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (http://www.oldvic.ac.uk/)
• University of Bristol Theatre Collection (http://www.bristol.ac.uk/theatrecollection/bov.html)