The Old Vic
is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. It became a Grade II* listed building in 1951 [1].
It was also the name of a repertory company that was based at the theatre. The company formed the core of the National Theatre of Great Britain on its formation in 1963, under Laurence Olivier. The National Theatre remained at the Old Vic until new premises were constructed on the South Bank, opening in 1976.
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THE OLD VIC TICKETS
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History
Origins
The theatre was founded in
1818 by James King and Daniel Dunn (formerly managers of the
Surrey Theatre in
Bermondsey), and Thomas Serres, then Marine painter to the King who managed to secure the formal patronage of
Princess Charlotte and her husband
Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg naming the theatre the
Royal Coburg Theatre
. The theatre was a "minor" theatre (as opposed to one of the two
patent theatres) and was thus technically forbidden to show serious drama. Nevertheless, when the theatre passed to William Bolwell Davidge in 1824 he succeeded in bringing legendary actor
Edmund Kean south of the river to play six Shakespeare plays in six nights. The theatre's role in bringing high art to the masses was confirmed when Kean addressed the audience during his curtain call saying "I have never acted to such a set of ignorant, unmitigated brutes as I see before me." When Davidge left to take over the
Surrey theatre in 1833 it was bought by Daniel Egerton and William Abbott who tried to capitalise on the abolition of the legal distinction between patent and minor theatres and also in
1833 the theatre was renamed the
Royal Victorian Theatre
after the heir to the throne
Princess Victoria. In
1880, under the ownership of
Emma Cons, it became
The Royal Victoria Hall And Coffee Tavern
and was run on "strict
temperance lines"; by this time it was already known as the
"Old Vic"
[2]. The
penny lectures
given in the hall led to the foundation of
Morley College [3], an
adult education college, that moved to its own premises nearby, in the 1920s.
Old Vic company
With Emma Cons's death in
1912 the theatre passed to her niece
Lilian Baylis, who emphasized the
Shakespearean repertoire. The
Old Vic Company
was established in
1929, led by
Sir John Gielgud. Between
1925 and
1931,
Lilian Baylis championed the re-building of the then-derelict
Sadler's Wells Theatre, and established a
ballet company under the direction of
Ninette de Valois. For a few years the drama and ballet companies rotated between the two theatres, with the ballet becoming permanently based at Sadler's Wells in
1935.
Wartime exile
The Old Vic was improved greatly during
the Blitz, and the war-depleted company spent all its time touring, based in
Burnley, Lancashire at the Victoria Theatre during the years 1940 to 1943. In
1944, the company was re-established in London with
Ralph Richardson and
Laurence Olivier as its stars, performing mainly at the
New Theatre (now the Noël Coward Theatre) until the Old Vic was ready to re-open in
1950. In
1946, an offshoot of the company was established in
Bristol as the
Bristol Old Vic.
National Theatre company
In
1963, the Old Vic company was dissolved and the new
National Theatre Company, under the artistic direction of
Lord Olivier, was based at the Old Vic until its own building was opened on the
South Bank near
Waterloo Bridge in
1976.
In July
1974 the Old Vic presented a rock concert for the first time. National Theatre director
Sir Peter Hall arranged for the progressive folk-rock band
Gryphon to première
Midnight Mushrumps
, the fantasia inspired by Hall's own 1974 Old Vic production of
The Tempest
starring
Sir John Gielgud for which Gryphon had supplied the music.
Reopening
After the departure of the NT, the Old Vic continued as a home for classic and new drama, and was significantly restored under the ownership of Toronto department-store entrepreneur
'Honest Ed' Mirvish during the 1980s. In
1998, the building was bought by a new charitable trust,
The Old Vic Theatre Trust 2000
. In
2000, the production company Criterion Productions was renamed
Old Vic Productions plc
, though relatively few of its productions are at the Old Vic theatre.
Current developments
In 2003, the
actor Kevin Spacey was appointed as new artistic director of the
Old Vic Theatre Company
receiving considerable media attention. Spacey said he wanted to inject new life into the British
theatre industry, and bring
British and
American theatrical talent to the stage. He appears in one or two shows per season, and performs some directorial duties on other shows.
References
- English Heritage listing details 28 Apr 2007
- 'The Royal Victoria Hall - "The Old Vic"', Survey of London: volume 23: Lambeth: South Bank and Vauxhall (1951), pp. 37-9 accessed: 28 April 2007.
- An endowment from the estate of Samuel Morley led to the creation of the ''Morley Memorial College for Working Men and Women'' on the premises'', these were shared and lectures were given back stage, and in the theatre dressing rooms.