The Theatre Royal Waterford is a

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

located in

Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

, Ireland.

History

Vincent Wallace bust outside Theatre Royal Waterford

The Theatre Royal was founded as a

patent theatre The patent theatres were the theatres that were licensed to perform "spoken drama" after the Restoration of Charles II as King of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1660. Other theatres were prohibited from performing such "serious" drama, but w ...

in 1785, with playhouse and Assembly Rooms designed by local architect

John Roberts John Glover Roberts Jr. (born January 27, 1955) is an American lawyer and jurist who has served as the 17th chief justice of the United States since 2005. Roberts has authored the majority opinion in several landmark cases, including ''Nati ...

; ''

As You Like It ''As You Like It'' is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has b ...

'' was the first production. The Ball Room (Large Room) opened in 1788.

James Sheridan Knowles James Sheridan Knowles (12 May 1784 – 30 November 1862) was an Irish dramatist and actor. Biography Knowles was born in Cork. His father was the lexicographer James Knowles (1759–1840), cousin of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. The family mov ...

's first work, ''Leo; or, The Gipsy'', premiered at Waterford in 1810. The actress

Maria Ann Campion Maria Ann Campion (1777 - 18 June 1803) was a popular Irish actress and the second wife of Alexander Pope the actor. She was born in Waterford, Ireland and died in London on 18 June 1803, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Life When she was ...

was also associated with the theatre. The theatre suffered a fire on 5 April 1837. In November 1846, during the early part of the Great Famine, the theatre was "compelled to close its doors prematurely." At the time, a Mr Watkins Burroughs was manager. The building was upgraded to its current form in 1876, under John Royston, who showed comedies and

opera buffa ''Opera buffa'' (; "comic opera", plural: ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramm ...

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

lectured at the Theatre Royal after his famous 1882 tour of the U.S. In January 1882 there was a small fire during a performance of ''

H. M. S. Pinafore ''H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which ...

'', but the manager calmed the audience and the fire was extinguished without loss of life. Smoking was forbidden in 1882, as a fire control measure, rather than as a public health issue. Fred Jarman's ''Sarah'' was shown in 1892. In the 1900s it showed

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ...

and silent movies, with guests including

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...

. In 1929 it showed the city's first

talkie A sound film is a motion picture A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, percep ...

, ''

The Singing Fool ''The Singing Fool'' is a 1928 American musical drama part-talkie motion picture directed by Lloyd Bacon which was released by Warner Bros. The film stars Al Jolson and is a follow-up to his previous film, ''The Jazz Singer''. It is credited wit ...

''. In the 1950s it was suggested that the performance area be closed and the theatre be converted into council offices, but instead it reopened in 1958, and a festival of

light opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

was founded. Jim Nolan founded Red Kettle Theatre Company in 1985 and staged his experimental play, ''The Gods Are Angry, Miss Kerr''. Recently the theatre has been renovated again. In 2016 the Theatre Royal was the victim of a

bomb hoax A bomb threat or bomb scare is a threat, usually verbal or written, to detonate an explosive or incendiary device to cause property damage, death, injuries, and/or incite fear, whether or not such a device actually exists. History Bomb threats ...

, along with other buildings in the city. The theatre closed during the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic; it reopened in August 2020 with a capacity of 100 people due to

social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious disea ...

requirements.

Description

The theatre sits 430 people; the stage is under a

proscenium arch 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 ...

and measures wide. Its depth is variable: at stage right and at stage left.

References

External links

* * Theatres in Waterford Theatres completed in 1785 1785 establishments in Ireland Organisations based in the Republic of Ireland with royal patronage {{Ireland-theat-struct-stub