Old Vic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 is a Grade II* listed building.
It was also the name of a repertory company that was based at the theatre, and provided the basis of the Royal National Theatre company.
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[edit] History
[edit] Origins
The theatre was founded in 1818 by James Jones and James 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".
[edit] 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 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.
[edit] Wartime exile
The Old Vic was damaged badly 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 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.
[edit] National Theatre company
In 1963, the Old Vic company was dissolved and the new National Theatre Company, under the artistic direction of Laurence 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 and producer Martin Lewis arranged for the progressive folk-rock band Gryphon to premiere 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 two shows per season, and performs some directorial duties on other shows.
[edit] External links
- Old Vic Theatre official website
- Survey of London entry (1951)
- Pictures and early history of Vic-Wells
- Guide to events at the Old Vic Theatre
- Old Vic Theatre History
- UK Theatre Network
- grid reference TQ313798
