Théâtre des Vampires is the home of a Parisian vampire coven from the earlier books in Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series, specifically Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat.
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Interview with the Vampire offers little detail about the history of Théâtre des Vampires, other than it being a theatre that mocks the existence of mortals. The vampire actors perform plays that utilize their vampiric traits, strength, movement, etc. and even drink blood in front of their audiences. Due to the nature of the establishment, the audience leave the production still believing what they have seen to be an act.
In Interview with the Vampire, we meet Armand, the owner and Patriarch of the theater, and we learn a little bit about him, although very little in comparison to what is revealed in the next book.
In the next book, The Vampire Lestat, we learn a lot more about this theater. Before his death, Lestat was an actor at the Theatre in its previous form. Once he is turned, he purchased it because of its director's insistence. The theatre remains with its regular human actors and director, until Lestat finds a Satanic cult of vampires in Paris, under the cemetery of Les Innocents, and challenges their beliefs, destroying the sect. He closes the Theatre and sends the crew to England to protect them. Four of the vampires ( Eleni, Laurent, Felix and Eugenie) that ran away from the sect beg him to give them the Théâtre so they may hide from their leader, Armand, who is destroying all of the coven's members because of the mass desperation Lestat caused, as it could endanger their privacy. They make an agreement with Armand so he may stay in the Theatre as an actor or the director, if he wishes. Before they make the agreement, Nicolas de Lenfent, an old friend of Lestat's who had moved to Paris with him, demands that Lestat give the Theatre to him, but Lestat refuses. This was mostly because he is driven mad shortly after becoming a vampire. Still, he stays in the Theatre as a writer and musician, and is actually the one that baptizes it as "Théâtre des Vampires". Lestat then gives the ownership and funds to Eleni, one of the ex-members of the coven. After this we see Lestat returning from America after living with Louis and Claudia, and he discovers all the troupe he had left in Paris (the ex-members of the coven) have disappeared and Armand owns the Theatre. He (Armand) continues to reside in the Theatre, along with a changing troupe of vampires until it is burnt down by Louis de Pointe du Lac in vengeance for killing Claudia.
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