The Playhouse Theatre was a theatre in central

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. It was purpose-built for

live theatre Live Theatre, formerly Live Theatre Company, is a new writing theatre and company based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. As well as producing and presenting new plays many of which go on to tour nationally and internationally, it seeks out an ...

in 1956 and remained one of the city's principal venues for

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. P ...

for over half a century until replaced by the

State Theatre Centre of Western Australia The State Theatre Centre of Western Australia is a theatre complex located within the Perth Cultural Centre in Perth, Western Australia. The larger of three dedicated performance areas is known as the Heath Ledger Theatre in honour of Perth-born f ...

in January 2011. It was home to the National Theatre Company from its establishment until 1984, and then to its successor, the Western Australian Theatre Company, until its disbandment in 1990. The theatre was demolished in October 2012 as part of a redevelopment of Cathedral Square.

History

Background

On 11 December 1919 the Repertory Club was established in Perth, with about forty members. Its earliest productions were ''

The Amazons The Amazons (Ancient Greek: ', singular '; in Latin ', ') were a people in Greek mythology, portrayed in a number of ancient epic poems and legends, such as the Labours of Heracles, the ''Argonautica'' and the ''Iliad''. They were female wa ...

'' and ''

Lady Windermere's Fan ''Lady Windermere's Fan, A Play About a Good Woman'' is a four-act comedy by Oscar Wilde, first performed on Saturday, 20 February 1892, at the St James's Theatre in London. The story concerns Lady Windermere, who suspects that her husband is ...

'', staged in 1920. The Repertory Club initially worked out of a basement room at the Palace Hotel, then a room in Commerce Buildings, King Street, before moving into a cottage in Pier Street from 1921 to 1932. Their next move was to the old composing room of the Western Australian Newspaper Company in St George's Terrace, with their first performance there on 3 August 1933. The club organised a range of entertainments apart from plays, and usually had two productions in rehearsal while one was being staged. Its membership was restricted to 1,000 members and most shows were sold out before opening night, so advertising was seldom necessary. The need for the Playhouse arose as Perth's main theatre, His Majesty's Theatre was considered too large to provide a feasible venue for locally produced live-theatre productions, and had been functioning principally as a

cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ** Filmmaking, the process of making a film * Movie theate ...

since the early 1940s. In the mid-1950s the board and members of the Repertory Club commenced fundraising for the construction of a smaller purpose-built theatre to stage their productions.

Founding

The theatre was constructed adjacent to St George's Cathedral on Pier Street land owned by the

Anglican Church Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

, the former site of the Church of England Deanery tennis court. The building was designed by the local architectural firm of Sheldon & Krantz and constructed at a cost of

£A The pound (Currency symbol, sign: £, £A for distinction) was the currency of Australia from 1910 until 14 February 1966, when it was replaced by the Australian dollar. Like other £sd currencies, it was subdivided into 20 Shilling (Australian ...

65,000. The main lobby contained a mural by

Iwan Iwanoff Iwan Iwanoff (; 2 July 1919 – 7 October 1986) also known as Iwan Nickolow () and Iwan Nickoloff Iwanoff () was a Bulgarian-born Australian architect known for working in the modernist and brutalist architectural styles. Iwan Iwanoff studied ...

, a local brutalist architect. The theatre was formally opened on 22 August 1956 to a capacity audience of 700, with the opening production of John Patrick's 1953

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

-winning play '' The Teahouse of the August Moon''. With the opening of the Playhouse, the Repertory Club became a fully professional theatre company, the National Theatre Company, after amalgamation with the Company of Four.

Actors and crew

Notable actor

Edgar Metcalfe Edgar Metcalfe, (18 September 1933 – 13 September 2012) was an English-born actor, director and author, who widely contributed to theatre in Perth, Western Australia. Personal life Edgar Metcalfe was born in 1933 in Burnley, Lancashire, Uni ...

was a regular performer on stage and also served three terms as artistic director between 1963–1984. A rare period of box-office success was enjoyed by the theatre from 1978–1981 when

Stephen Barry Stephen Leon Reid Barry (4 July 1945 – 18 October 2000) was a British arts administrator, drama producer, and artistic director. He was chief executive of two Edinburgh theatres, the Festival and the King's, prime venues of the fame ...

was artistic director of the National Theatre at the Playhouse. He arranged outstanding guest performances by international celebrities

Warren Mitchell Warren Mitchell (born Warren Misell; 14 January 1926 – 14 November 2015) was an English actor best known for playing bigoted cockney Alf Garnett in television, film and stage productions from the 1960s to the 1990s. He was a BAFTA TV A ...

Honor Blackman Honor Blackman (22 August 1925 – 5 April 2020) was an English actress and singer, known for the roles of Cathy Gale in '' The Avengers''Aaker, Everett (2006). ''Encyclopedia of Early Television Crime Fighters''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. ...

Robyn Nevin Robyn Anne Nevin (25 September 1942) is an Australian actress recognised with the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards and the JC Williamson Award at the Helpmann Awards for her outstanding contributions to Australian theatre performance art. F ...

Timothy West Timothy Lancaster West (20 October 1934 – 12 November 2024) was an English actor with a long and varied career across theatre, film, and television. He began acting in repertory theatres in the 1950s before making his London stage debut in 19 ...

Tim Brooke-Taylor Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor (17 July 194012 April 2020) was an English actor and comedian. He was best known as a member of The Goodies. Brooke-Taylor became active in performing in comedy sketches while at the University of Cambridge and beca ...

and

Judy Davis Judith Davis (born 23 April 1955) is an Australian actress. In a career spanning over four decades of both List of Judy Davis performances, screen and stage, she has been commended for her versatility and regarded as one of the finest actresses ...

, among others. Barry commissioned

Dorothy Hewett Dorothy Coade Hewett (21 May 1923 – 25 August 2002) was an Australian playwright, poet and author. She wrote in a number of different literary styles: Modernist poetry, modernism, socialist realism, Expressionism (theatre), expressionism a ...

's play, ''The Man from Muckinupin'', for the State's

sesquicentennial An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded. Most countries celebrate national anniversaries, typically called national days. These could be the date of independence of the nation or the adoption o ...

(150th) anniversary celebrations in 1979 ( WAY '79), despite hostile resistance from then state premier

Charles Court Sir Charles Walter Michael Court (29 September 1911 – 22 December 2007) was an Australian politician who was the premier of Western Australia from 8 April 1974 to 25 January 1982. A member of the Western Australian Liberal Party, Liberal Par ...

. However, soon after Barry's departure, the company lost its audience appeal. Despite an extensive renovation in 1982, with reduction of seating capacity, the National Theatre was liquidated in February 1984 and the building and company taken over by the

Perth Theatre Trust The Perth Theatre Trust is a statutory authority which manages and operates cultural venues in Western Australia. It manages His Majesty's Theatre, the State Theatre Centre of Western Australia, the Subiaco Arts Centre (leased from the City o ...

. The theatre company continued to operate under the names Threshold Theatre Company and then XYZ Theatre Company for a short while, in May 1985 becoming the Western Australian Theatre Company. This name was retained until they dissolved in July 1990. The Playhouse Theatre remained one of the city's principal venues for performing arts until replaced by the

in January 2011. It was demolished in October 2012 as part of a redevelopment of Cathedral Square.

Facilities

A traditional

proscenium A proscenium (, ) is the virtual vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch (whether or not truly "arched") and on the bottom by the stage floor itself, which serves as the frame ...

arch theatre with a raked auditorium, the Playhouse had bar and conference facilities, and hosted productions from the annual

Perth International Arts Festival Perth Festival, named Perth International Arts Festival (PIAF) between 2000 and 2017, and sometimes referred to as the Festival of Perth, is Australia's longest-running cultural festival, held annually in Western Australia. The program features ...

. It was the performance and administrative home of the

Perth Theatre Company Perth Theatre Company was a live theatre company in Perth, Western Australia. History Perth Theatre Company was founded as SWY Theatre Company by graduates from the specialist Theatre Arts course at John Curtin Senior High School in 1983. Bet ...

for sixteen years, until the company's relocation to the new State Theatre Centre of Western Australia in January 2011. The Company's last production was of

David Williamson David Keith Williamson (born 1942) is an Australian playwright, who has also written screenplays and teleplays. He became known in the early 1970s with his political comic drama '' Don's Party'', and other well-known plays include '' The Clu ...

's '' The Removalists'' in April 2010. Demolition was originally planned for 2010 but postponed when the Perth Theatre Trust sought to extend its lease due to delays to the construction of the State Theatre. The final production was the

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment, generally combining gender-crossing actors and topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or ...

production of ''

Puss in Boots "Puss in Boots" (; ; ; ) is a European fairy tale about an anthropomorphic cat who uses trickery and deceit to gain power, wealth, and the hand in marriage of a princess for his penniless and low-born master. The oldest written telling version ...

'' in December 2010, produced by the MS Society of WA.

History

Background

Founding

Actors and crew

Facilities

See also

Notes

References

Further reading