The Gaiety Theatre, Manchester was a theatre in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, England. It opened in 1884 and was demolished in 1959. It replaced a previous Gaiety Theatre on the site that had been destroyed by fire. The new theatre was designed by Alfred Darbyshire for United Theatres Co. Ltd. and built on a plot of land near to the corner of Peter Street and Mount Street. It opened as the Comedy Theatre in 1884. On 9 November 1908, it was bought by

Annie Horniman Annie Elizabeth Fredericka HornimanHarding, John, Staging Life: The Story of the Manchester Playwrights (Greenwich Exchange 2018) https://greenex.co.uk/ CH (3 October 1860 – 6 August 1937) was an English theatre matron and manager. She establ ...

for £25,000 and reconstructed to plans by Frank Matcham, reducing its capacity from 2,500 to 1,300. The theatre reopened as the Gaiety Theatre in 1912. It was Britain's first regional

repertory A repertory theatre, also called repertory, rep, true rep or stock, which are also called producing theatres, is a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation. United Kingdom ...

theatre. In 1920 the theatre was taken over by Samuel Fitton & Associates but closed in 1922. It was in use again between 1945 and 1947 but was demolished in 1959. During the time the theatre was being run by Annie Horniman, a wide variety of types of plays was produced. Anne Horniman also encouraged local writers, who became known as the Manchester School of playwrights. They included

Allan Monkhouse Allan Noble Monkhouse (7 May 1858 – 10 January 1936) was an English playwright, critic, essayist and novelist. He was born in Barnard Castle, County Durham. He worked in the cotton trade, in Manchester, and settled in Disley, Cheshire. From ...

Harold Brighouse Harold Brighouse (26 July 1882 – 25 July 1958) was an English playwright and author whose best known play is '' Hobson's Choice''. He was a prominent member, together with Allan Monkhouse and Stanley Houghton, of a group known as the Manche ...

, writer of '' Hobson's Choice'', and

Stanley Houghton William Stanley Houghton (22 February 1881 – 11 December 1913) was an English playwright. He was a prominent member, together with Allan Monkhouse and Harold Brighouse, of a group known as the Manchester School of dramatists. His best k ...

, who wrote '' Hindle Wakes''. Actors who performed at the Gaiety early in their careers include

Sybil Thorndike Dame Agnes Sybil Thorndike, Lady Casson (24 October 18829 June 1976) was an English actress whose stage career lasted from 1904 to 1969. Trained in her youth as a concert pianist, Thorndike turned to the stage when a medical problem with her h ...

and

Basil Dean Basil Herbert Dean CBE (27 September 1888 – 22 April 1978) was an English actor, writer, producer and director in the theatre and in cinema. He founded the Liverpool Playhouse, Liverpool Repertory Company in 1911 and in the First World War, a ...

. In 2008 Annie Horniman's centenary was celebrated by a performance of Houghton's play '' Independent Means'', which had been recently "rediscovered" in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

by Chris Honer, the theatre's artistic director.

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Further reading