Macbeth
Oct 1 - Dec 14, 2024Slava's SnowShow
Dec 20, 2024 - Jan 12, 2025The Years
Jan 24 - Apr 19, 2025Location: West End
Railway station: Charing Cross
Bus numbers: (Haymarket) 3, 6, 12, 13, 19, 23, 38, 88, 139; (Piccadilly Circus) 14, 22, 94
Night bus numbers: (Haymarket) 6, 12, 23, 139, 88, N3, N13, N18, N19, N38, N97, N136, N550, N551; (Piccadilly Circus) 14, 94, N22
Car park: Leicester Square, Whitcomb Street (1min)
Directions from tube: (3mins) Take Coventry Street up to Oxendon Road; the theatre is 100 metres along on the right.
The Harold Pinter Theatre opened on 15 Oct. 1881 as a comic opera house. Its name on opening was the Royal Comedy Theatre, though its ‘Royal’ epithet was dropped in 1884.
The Comedy Theatre helped establish the New Watergate Club in 1956, a society which helped overturn the stage censorship enforced by the Lord Chamberlain’s Office. The formation of the Club meant that the plays banned by the Government could be performed at this venue as it was now being run as a private club rather than a commercial entity. Notable plays in this category include Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge and Tennessee Williams’ Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. The censorship was finally overturned in 1968.
Harold Pinter's works were often performed here: The Homecoming, The Caretaker, Moonlight, No-Man’s Land and The Hothouse all enjoyed successful runs, and Pinter directed a production of The Old Masters here in 2004. After his death, it was thought fitting to bestow the honour of naming a theatre after him, and the name was officially changed on 13 Oct. 2011 to the Harold Pinter Theatre. The Ambassador Theatre Group own the Harold Pinter Theatre.
The auditorium has four levels – Stalls, Dress Circle, Royal Circle and Balcony. The top three levels are a horseshoe shape around the stalls.
The Stalls is a single block of seats, and offers good sightlines. Some seats are impaired by supportive pillars and the overhang of the Dress Circle.
The Dress Circle doesn’t offer a great raking in the seating, but the view is not affected by the overhang of the Royal Circle.
The Royal Circle seats curve towards the stage more noticeably than the Dress Circle.
The Balcony feels very high in this theatre.
You can unsubscribe at any time. Privacy Policy