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Articles
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Articles |
Theatre in Southern England: AvonThe Georgian spa town of Bath, a great favourite with Jane Austen's heroines, still retains its upper-class image and is the seat of a bishopric (Bath and Wells), but has only one professional theatre venue, the Theatre Royal and Ustinov Studio. This is a national touring house which seats 900 in the main auditorium and 140 in the Studio. Bristol, on the other hand, is a hotbed of theatre. In addition to the nine venues mentioned here, it has many amateur dramatic and amateur operatic socities, and both Bristol University and the University of the West of England are the focus of a gteat deal of dramatic activity. The first venue we list is not a theatre or an arts centre, or even a leisure centre, but a pub. The Alma Tavern is one of the very few regular pub theatre venues outside of London. It is small, both in terms of performance area and audience size, but its reputation is growing. The Arnolfini, an arts centre, has an international reputation for its gallery, which has always been in the forefront of innovation in the visual arts, and it attempts to carry that innovative thrust into the performing arts, using its 231-seater space primarily for dance and non-narrative theatre. The Bristol Hippodrome was theatre architect Frank Matcham's last major work (1912). It presents a wide range of performances, from ballet to major drama. It seats 1977. The Bristol Old Vic is known the world over and claims to be the oldest continually working theatre in the country, having opened in 1766. A producing theatre, it presents a broad range of work in its three spaces: the Theatre Royal (645), the New Vic Studio (150) and the New Vic Basement (50). The Hope Centre is Bristol's arts centre. Seating 200, it presents a programme of professional arts and community work and is especially interested in new performers, new theatre and new audiences. The QEH Theatre is also an arts centre and is the home of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital School Drama Department. As such it is closed during August. It hosts profesional performing arts and describes itself as a community resource. It seats 210. The Redgrave Theatre (327 seats) devotes just a third of the year to professional touring theatre and dance; the rest of the time it is used by amateurs. The Studio (745 seats) is interested in any form of entertainment, and the Wickham Theatre, which is part of the Bristol University Drama Department, concentrates on student productions but also has visiting professional companies. Its space is flexible and seats 160 with an open stage set-up, 100 when used as a proscenium arch theatre.
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