Oxford Playhouse is a theatre designed by

Edward Maufe Sir Edward Brantwood Maufe, Royal Academy, RA, FRIBA (12 December 1882 – 12 December 1974) was an English architect and designer. He built private homes as well as commercial and institutional buildings, and is remembered chiefly for his ...

and F.G.M. Chancellor. It is situated in

Beaumont Street Beaumont Street is a street in the centre of Oxford, England. The street was laid out from 1828 to 1837 with elegant terraced houses in the Regency style. Before that, it was the location of Beaumont Palace, now noted by a plaque near the ju ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, opposite the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...

History

The Playhouse was founded as ''The Red Barn'' at 12 Woodstock Road,

North Oxford North Oxford is a suburban part of the city of Oxford in England. It was owned for many centuries largely by St John's College, Oxford and many of the area's Victorian houses were initially sold on leasehold by the College. Overview The le ...

, in 1923 by

J.B. Fagan James Bernard Fagan (18 May 1873 – 17 February 1933) was an Irish-born actor, theatre manager, producer and playwright active in England. After turning from the law to the stage, Fagan began his acting career, including four years from 1895 t ...

. The early history of the theatre is documented by the theatre director, Norman Marshall in his 1947 book, ''The Other Theatre''. Don Chapman also provided a comprehensive study of the theatre in the 2008 book, ''Oxford Playhouse: High and Low Drama in a University City''. The exterior design of the theatre building on the south side of Beaumont Street was by Sir

, with the interior design by F.G.M. Chancellor; the building was completed in 1938. It is faced with stone, in keeping with the early 19th century

Regency A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

buildings in the street. Actors who have appeared on the stage at the Playhouse include

Rowan Atkinson Rowan Sebastian Atkinson (born 6 January 1955) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He played the title roles on the sitcoms '' Blackadder'' (1983–1989) and ''Mr. Bean'' (1990–1995), and the film series ''Johnny English'' (2003–201 ...

Ronnie Barker Ronald William George Barker (25 September 1929 – 3 October 2005) was an English actor, comedian and writer. He was known for roles in British comedy television series such as '' Porridge'', ''The Two Ronnies'', and ''Open All Hours''. ...

Dirk Bogarde Sir Dirk Bogarde (born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde; 28 March 1921 – 8 May 1999) was an English actor, novelist and screenwriter. Initially a matinée idol in films such as ''Doctor in the House'' (1954) for the Rank Organ ...

Judi Dench Dame Judith Olivia Dench (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. Regarded as one of Britain's best actresses, she is noted for her versatile work in various films and television programmes encompassing several genres, as well as for her ...

John Gielgud Sir Arthur John Gielgud, (; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the Briti ...

Ian McDiarmid Ian McDiarmid (; born 11 August 1944) is a Scottish actor and director of stage and screen, best known for portraying the Sith Lord Emperor Sheev Palpatine / Darth Sidious in the ''Star Wars'' multimedia franchise. Making his stage debut in '' ...

Ian McKellen Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. His career spans seven decades, having performed in genres ranging from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. Regarded as a British cultural i ...

Dudley Moore Dudley Stuart John Moore CBE (19 April 193527 March 2002) was an English actor, comedian, musician and composer. Moore first came to prominence in the UK as a leading figure in the British satire boom of the 1960s. He was one of the four writ ...

Bill Hicks William Melvin Hicks (December 16, 1961 – February 26, 1994) was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, and musician. His material—encompassing a wide range of social issues including religion, politics, and philosophy—wa ...

, and

Maggie Smith Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (born 28 December 1934) is an English actress. With an extensive career on screen and stage beginning in the mid-1950s, Smith has appeared in more than sixty films and seventy plays. She is one of the few performer ...

Susannah York Susannah Yolande Fletcher (9 January 1939 – 15 January 2011), known professionally as Susannah York, was an English actress. Her appearances in various films of the 1960s, including '' Tom Jones'' (1963) and '' They Shoot Horses, Don't They?'' ...

gave her final stage performance there in August 2010, in

Ronald Harwood Sir Ronald Harwood ( né Horwitz; 9 November 1934 – 8 September 2020) was a South African-born British author, playwright, and screenwriter, best known for his plays for the British stage as well as the screenplays for ''The Dresser'' (for w ...

's ''Quartet''. The journalist and writer

Christopher Hitchens Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British-American author and journalist who wrote or edited over 30 books (including five essay collections) on culture, politics, and literature. Born and educated in England, ...

worked as a stagehand at the Playhouse during his time as an undergraduate at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

. The Oxford Playhouse was the base from which

Prospect Theatre Company The Prospect Theatre Company was an English company founded, as Prospect Productions, in 1961. Based at the Arts Theatre, Cambridge from 1964 until 1969, the company, with Toby Robertson as artistic director and Richard Cottrell as associate direc ...

was created by manager Elizabeth Sweeting and resident stage manager

Iain Mackintosh Iain MacKintosh (20 July 1932 – 28 August 2006, Glasgow, Scotland) was a Scottish singer and songwriter. Early life MacKintosh' father was from the Outer Hebrides, a watchmaker and goldsmith who owned a pawnshop in Glasgow; his mother came ...

in 1961. Between 1963 and 1976, the Prospect Theatre Company toured 75 productions to 125 theatres in 21 countries. The Greek theatre director

Minos Volanakis Minos Volonakis ( el, Μίνως Βολανάκης; 1925 or 1926, Athens – 15 November 1999, Athens) was a Greek theatre director and translator.See his obituary in ''The New York Times'', November 20, 1999. He studied with Karolos Koun, for who ...

was an associate director at the Playhouse; his productions included

Jean Genet Jean Genet (; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels ''The Thief's ...

's ''

The Maids ''The Maids'' (french: Les Bonnes, links=no) is a 1947 play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. It was first performed at the Théâtre de l'Athénée in Paris in a production that opened on 17 April 1947, which Louis Jouvet directed. The pla ...

'' (1963–4) and ''

The Balcony ''The Balcony'' (french: Le Balcon) is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. It is set in an unnamed city that is experiencing a revolutionary uprising in the streets; most of the action takes place in an upmarket brothel that functions as a ...

'' (1967), and

Jean Giraudoux Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux (; 29 October 1882 – 31 January 1944) was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II. His work ...

's ''

Madwoman of Chaillot ''The Madwoman of Chaillot'' (french: La Folle de Chaillot) is a play, a poetic satire, by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux, written in 1943 and first performed in 1945, after his death. The play is in two acts. The story concerns an eccentric woma ...

''.

Present

A charitable trust runs the Playhouse as a theatre for the local community, through a professional management and direction team. The freehold of the building is owned by St John's College. The theatre was closed for some years for lack of funding, but is now refurbished with a 663-seat capacity in the main auditorium.

Burton Taylor Studio

Oxford Playhouse has close relations with the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

and is the home stage of the

Oxford University Dramatic Society The Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS) is the principal funding body and provider of theatrical services to the many independent student productions put on by students in Oxford, England. Not all student productions at Oxford University a ...

. On behalf of the university the Playhouse also manages the nearby Burton Taylor Studio, named in honour of

Richard Burton Richard Burton (; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. Noted for his baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s, and he gave a memorable pe ...

and

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...

. "The BT" is a 50-seat

studio theatre A black box theater is a simple performance space, typically a square room with black walls and a flat floor. The simplicity of the space allows it to be used to create a variety of configurations of stage and audience interaction. The black ...

in Gloucester Street, close to the Oxford Playhouse. It originated in 1966, when Richard Burton donated money towards the creation of a rehearsal space, also occasionally used for performance, named the Burton Rooms. A couple of decades later, students from the

(OUDS) established the current tradition of the venue as a home for regular student productions. The Burton Taylor Studio programmes a mix of student and professional productions throughout the year.

References

Sources

* Anonymous. 1999
Obituary
in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', 20 November 1999. * Chapman, Don. 2008. ''Oxford Playhouse: High and Low Drama in a University City.'' Hatfield:

University of Hertfordshire Press University of Hertfordshire Press was formed in 1992 as the publishing wing of the University of Hertfordshire. Its first publication was a book celebrating the institution's change in status from polytechnic to university. ''Our Heritage'' (Unive ...

. . * Marshall, Norman. 1947. ''The Other Theatre''. London: John Lehmann. * Parkinson, David. 2003. ''Oxford at the Movies''. P.Ink Books.

External links