The Swan Theatre is a theatre belonging to the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...

, England. It is built on to the side of the larger

Royal Shakespeare Theatre The Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) (originally called the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre) is a grade II* listed 1,040+ seat thrust stage theatre owned by the Royal Shakespeare Company dedicated to the English playwright and poet William Shakespea ...

, occupying the

Victorian Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

structure that formerly housed the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre that preceded the RST but was destroyed by fire in 1926.

Trevor Nunn Sir Trevor Robert Nunn (born 14 January 1940) is a British theatre director. He has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed dramas ...

and

Terry Hands Terence David Hands (9 January 1941 – 4 February 2020) was an English theatre director. He founded the Liverpool Everyman Theatre and ran the Royal Shakespeare Company for thirteen years during one of the company's most successful periods; h ...

were joint artistic directors of the RSC when the company opened The Swan. Designed by Michael Reardon, it has a deep

thrust stage In theatre, a thrust stage (also known as a platform stage or open stage) is one that extends into the audience on three sides and is connected to the backstage area by its upstage end. A thrust has the benefit of greater intimacy between perform ...

, and is a galleried, intimate auditorium holding around 450 people. The space was to be dedicated to playing the works of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's contemporaries, the works of European writers and the occasional work of Shakespeare. The theatre was launched on 8 May 1986 with a production of ''

The Two Noble Kinsmen ''The Two Noble Kinsmen'' is a Jacobean tragicomedy, first published in 1634 and attributed jointly to John Fletcher and William Shakespeare. Its plot derives from " The Knight's Tale" in Geoffrey Chaucer's '' The Canterbury Tales'', which ...

'' by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher (not published until 1634 and thought to be Shakespeare's last work for the stage). It was directed by Barry Kyle. The Swan has subsequently been used for many other types of drama including the works of

Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playw ...

and

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thr ...

. The Swan Theatre has recently been refurbished as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's £112.8 million transformation project. Improvements to the Swan include re-carpeting of the auditorium on all levels and re-upholstering of seats. The project also saw the installation of a new induction hearing loop, an upgrade to the sound and lighting infrastructure and the replacement of the air conditioning system which has enabled roof-space to be freed up, returning the capability for flying and hanging scenic items over the stage. The project also enabled a number of structural changes, so the Swan Theatre now has more storage space and shares back-of-house and public spaces with the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. The two theatres are linked together for the first time by a new Colonnade. The Transformation project included new facilities and public spaces for the Royal Shakespeare and Swan Theatres – a Rooftop Restaurant with views over the River Avon, a Riverside Cafe and Terrace, the PACCAR Room exhibition space, a 36m high tower which provides circulation and outstanding views from its 32m-high viewing platform, a new public outdoor space, Weston Square, to connect the theatre with the old medieval town to the west, and a riverside walk which stretches from the Bancroft Gardens, past the theatre, towards Holy Trinity Church. The whole building is now accessible for the first time for all visitors, performers and staff. Both the Royal Shakespeare and Swan Theatres opened in November 2010 for preview events and activities in advance of the first full Shakespeare performances from the RSC's existing repertoire from February 2011. The first new productions designed specifically for the transformed stages began from April, with

Gregory Doran Gregory Doran (born 24 November 1958) is an English director known for his Shakespearean work. ''The Sunday Times'' called him 'one of the great Shakespearians of his generation'. Doran was artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RS ...

's production of ''

Cardenio ''The History of Cardenio'', often referred to as simply ''Cardenio'', is a lost play, known to have been performed by the King's Men, a London theatre company, in 1613. The play is attributed to William Shakespeare and John Fletcher in a Stati ...

'' opening in the Swan Theatre as part of the RSC's 50th Birthday Season celebrations which ran from April to December 2011. In 2011 the theatre (with the Royal Shakespeare Theatre), won a British Construction Industry Award. Noted metalworker Antony Robinson, whose works appear in the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, designed and crafted the wind vanes and door handles of the theatre for the 1986 construction.

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* * {{Coord, 52.1904, -1.7044, display=title, region:GB_scale:1000 Theatres in Stratford-upon-Avon

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External links