Nottingham Playhouse

Nottingham Playhouse, repertory theatre situated on Wellington Circus, Nottingham. It started out in 1948 in a disused cinema in Goldsmith Street under the artistic directorship of Andre Van Gyseghem, and its first production was Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw. In 1958, Nottingham City Council presented plans for a purpose-built venue and building work started in 1961. The new theatre, designed by Peter Moro, opened in 1963 with a production of Coriolanus directed by Sir Tyrone Guthrie, starring John Neville, Dorothy Reynolds, Leo McKern, and Ian McKellen. The building is a proscenium theatre and seats over 750. In 1996 it acquired Grade II listed status.

From 1963, Frank Dunlop, John Neville, and Peter Ustinov shared the leadership of the theatre, with Neville taking sole charge from 1965-1968. He was succeeded by Stuart Burge, who directed The Ruling Class (1969) by new playwright Peter Barnes, and early in his stage career Jonathan Miller directed The School For Scandal (1968) by Richard Sheridan. During Burge’s tenure, his production of Lulu (1970) by Frank Wedekind transferred to London’s Royal Court and Apollo theatres, and The Devil is an Ass (1973) by Ben Jonson transferred to the National Theatre (both adapted by Barnes).

Richard Eyre, later to become artistic director of the National Theatre, led the theatre from 1973 to 1978. Eyre cultivated the writers Howard Brenton, whose The Churchill Play he directed in 1974, and Trevor Griffiths, whose Comedians (1975) transferred to London’s Old Vic and Wyndham’s theatres, and Broadway; David Hare and Brenton’s jointly written Brassneck was also staged at the Playhouse in 1974. In 1977, Eyre directed Touched by Nottingham playwright Stephen Lowe, which won the George Devine Award.

Subsequent artistic directors have been: Geoffrey Reeves (1978-1980), who with Peter Barnes staged the early 17th-century John Marston tragedies Antonio and Mellida and Antonio's Revenge (1979); Richard Digby Day (1980-1984), who directed Hugh Grant in Lady Windermere’s Fan, Hamlet, and Coriolanus (1983); Kenneth Alan Taylor (1984-1990), who introduced traditional pantomime to the theatre’s repertoire; Pip Broughton (1990-1994), whose productions included Thérèse Raquin starring Toyah Wilcox (1990) and Crimes of Passion (1992), both by Émile Zola, and The House of Bernarda Alba starring Helena Bonham Carter; and Martin Duncan (1994-1999), whose directorship included productions of Time and the Room (1996) by Botho Strauss, The Servant of Two Masters (1997) by Carlo Goldoni, and A Fool and His Money (1998; Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme) by Molière. Under the current director Giles Croft, the theatre has hosted British premieres of Wonderful Tennessee (2000) by Brian Friel and Polygraph (2001) by Robert Lepage, and the world premiere of Rat Pack Confidential (2003), which transferred to London’s West End.

In 2001 a sculpture by Anish Kapoor, Sky Mirror, was unveiled in the theatre’s forecourt. The Playhouse also has an extensive Theatre in Education programme through its Roundabout company, which was founded in 1973.