The Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond.

The theatre is Britain’s oldest surviving Georgian playhouse still in its original form and one of the oldest working theatres in the UK. Built in 1788, it escaped major Victorian alteration, preserving an intimate eighteenth-century auditorium that offers an extraordinarily rare glimpse into the atmosphere of Georgian performance and social life.

Over twenty years ago there was another artist trying to focus his lens upon this place. I was commissioned by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings to photograph the theatre for their magazine.

Other than comfier seats, nothing has changed since then, and I find that enormously encouraging. During the theatre’s heyday, social conventions were vastly different to our own - audiences shouting at actors, cheering, jeering, climbing over one another, hundreds packed tightly into the room. And yet, despite all the changes in fashion, politics and technology that separate their world from ours, the essential desire remains recognisable: to gather together in a room and make sense of existence through story, performance and imagination.

The Georgian Theatre Royal is another conduit to sharpening our focus on things. Imagine all of the lessons absorbed within those walls over the centuries - audiences encountering the hubris of Macbeth, the crumbling pride of Ozymandias, the great dramas and cautions of existence unfolding beneath candlelight.

I do recommend the tour which takes you to front and back stage.

Oh no it doesn't!

Here are more photos:

Original Georgian wording: Shakespere [sic]

Beneath the stage is an authentic reconstruction of the lift to the trap door. They do weddings here - and it has been known for the groom to suddenly appear on the stage via the trapdoor.

Actors have a cosy Georgian fireplace to keep them warm during change of sets.

View from the stage.

The paintings of people were completed during lockdown by two artists from London.

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