Building Name

Extensions and Decorations to the Prince's Theatre Manchester.

Date
1869
Street
Oxford Street
District/Town
Manchester
County/Country
GMCA, England
Client
Charles Culvert
Work
Extensions and Alterations:
Status
Demolished

In 1869 an expensive reconstruction of the Prince's Theatre was carried out when Alfred Darbyshire added three hundred seats to the upper circle, widened the proscenium  and the removed the original gallery. Also in 1869 the auditorium acquired the scheme of decoration which in general gave it its character. A writer in the Illustrated London News described in November of that year, the large oil painting by H S Marks, then newly painted, which formed a frieze over the proscenium: "The subject is Shakespeare, seated on a throne on the steps of which Tragedy and Comedy recline. The great poet sits under a bay-tree. On his right, beyond Tragedy, are the principal characters in his tragic and classical plays - namely Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth, Ophelia, Lear (seated and attended by the Fool), Romeo and Juliet, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar and Timon of Athens. On the poet's left are the heroes of his comedies and historical plays - Prospero, Shylock, Touchstone and Audry, Falstaff (seated), Puck, Benedict and Beatrice, Henry VIII, Richard III and Henry IV."  "This elegant theatre," it was explained in 1869, "was built a few years ago by a joint-stock company of limited liability consisting of a few influential gentlemen in Manchester who wished to provide for dramatic entertainment of the highest class ... and we are happy to learn that the division of profits, after paying a good rent for the handsome building has yielded not only a good and fair remuneration to Mr Calvert (the theatre manager), but a satisfactory dividend to the shareholders."

Reference    Manchester Guardian Wednesday 19 January 1938 Page 11, column 6-7.
Reference    Illustrated London News 27 November 1869, with illustration.