Former Festival Theatre, Cambridge Geograph-2593449-by-Keith-Edkins

The Theatre Royal was built in the Barnwell suburb of Cambridge, England, in 1816. It closed later that century but reopened as the Cambridge Festival Theatre from 1926 until 1935. The building, in which part of the interior of the theatre survives, is Grade II* listed.

19th century

In the mid-18th century, Cambridge's main source of theatrical performances came from travelling companies, including the

Norwich Company of Comedians The Norwich Company of Comedians was an acting company based in Norwich, East Anglia, during the 18th and 19th centuries. They used to perform on what was known as the Norwich Theatre Circuit, which consisted of an annual tour of six theatres. Th ...

, that would perform on Stourbridge Common at the Stourbridge Fair for three weeks each autumn. As a result, three theatres were built in Barnwell in succession, but Cambridge lacked a permanent theatre. William Wilkins (1751–1815), a building contractor, was proprietor of a chain of theatres in East Anglia known as the

Norwich Theatre Circuit The Norwich Theatre Circuit was a prominent network of theatrical venues in East Anglia established in the eighteenth century. It remained one of the foremost institutions of provincial theatre in England until the mid nineteenth century. Aside fr ...

. Wilkins and his son, also William (1778–1839), built a theatre in 1807 at Sun Street, Barnwell. The younger Wilkins, responsible for Downing College and London's National Gallery during his career, designed a new theatre nearby to replace the 1807 building. The building is on the south side of the Newmarket Road in the northeastern Cambridge suburb of Barnwell. Completed in 1816, the theatre was sited outside the boundary of the town owing to prohibition of theatrical entertainment by the University authorities (a 1737 act "for the More Effectual Preventing the Unlawful Playing of Interludes within the Precincts of the Two Universities ..." forbade the performance of all plays and operas within five miles of the town). On his father's death in 1815, Wilkins inherited the leases of the new site and six other theatres – Norwich, Bury St Edmunds, Colchester, Yarmouth, Ipswich and King's Lynn – and continued to run them. Proprietorship passed to his son, W Bushby Wilkins, and a succession of lessees, but the Norwich circuit declined, despite hosting readings by Charles Dickens. The theatre closed in 1878 and became a

nonconformist Nonconformity or nonconformism may refer to: Culture and society * Insubordination, the act of willfully disobeying an order of one's superior *Dissent, a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or entity ** ...

chapel.

Cambridge Festival Theatre

Terence Gray Terence James Stannus Gray (14 September 1895 – 5 January 1986), was a theatre producer who created the Cambridge Festival Theatre as an experimental theatre in Cambridge. He produced over 100 plays there between 1926 and 1933. Later in l ...

(1895–1986) leased the building in 1926 and reopened it as the Cambridge Festival Theatre. The alleyway between the street and the building was enclosed to form a foyer. The interior was modernised, with the

proscenium A proscenium ( grc-gre, προσκήνιον, ) is the metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch (whether or not truly "arched") and on the bottom by the stage floor ...

arch widened by the removal of the private boxes, and the introduction of electric lighting, a brick cyclorama and an early example of a

revolving stage A revolving stage is a mechanically controlled platform within a theatre that can be rotated in order to speed up the changing of a scene within a show. A fully revolving set was an innovation constructed by the hydraulics engineer Tommaso Francin ...

. The theatre was the country's "first permanent indoor performing space to be based on the design of a Greek open-air theatre". The 'Festival' name reflected Grey's intention (unfulfilled) to promote summer festivals. The opening production on 22 November 1926 was '' Oresteia'', with choreography by

Ninette de Valois Dame Ninette de Valois (born Edris Stannus; 6 June 1898 – 8 March 2001) was an Irish-born British dancer, teacher, choreographer, and director of classical ballet. Most notably, she danced professionally with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, ...

. Gray retired from the theatre in 1933 and wrote on Taoism under the pseudonym "Wei Wu Wei".

Norman Marshall Norman Edgar Marshall (27 February 1924 – 11 August 2007) was a West Indian international cricketer. He was born in the Welchman Hall Plantation, Saint Thomas, Barbados and played in a Test match against Australia in 1955. His brother Roy al ...

worked at the theatre from 1926 and was its director from 1932 to 1933. From 1927,

Joseph Macleod Joseph Todd Gordon Macleod (1903–1984) was a British poet, actor, playwright, theatre director, theatre historian and BBC newsreader. He also published poetry under the pseudonym Adam Drinan. Biography Macleod was the son of Scottish parent ...

was an actor and producer at the theatre, and in 1933 he became the theatre's director and lessee. Five of Macleod's plays were staged there, including ''Overture to Cambridge'' (1933) and ''A Woman Turned to Stone'' (1934). Under Macleod, the theatre became known for avant-garde productions, and the staging of lesser known works by major playwrights. Macleod staged some of

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

's Noh plays, and also some

Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playw ...

and Chekhov (his company, The Cambridge Festival Players, was one of the first in the UK to stage Chekhov's play '' The Seagull''). The theatre was obliged to close due to financial difficulties in June 1935. The building was recorded as

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in 1950. From 1962, it was used by the Arts Theatre as a workshop and store.

Today

Cambridge Buddhist Centre, Newmarket Road

The building is in use as a Buddhist centre. Historic England describe the interior as "a virtually complete example of a Georgian theatre with a three-tiered horseshoe auditorium with the galleries supported on cast iron columns." and state that a painting of the Royal Arms remains above the

References

External links

Visit to the theatre, 2016

– archived on 9 January 2014 {{Authority control Theatres completed in 1816 Theatres in Cambridge Grade II* listed buildings in Cambridge Grade II* listed theatres