A brief history

The Theatre Royal was designed and built in 1819 by William Wilkins. With many of its original features still intact, it is a superb example of a Regency playhouse and one of the most beautiful, intimate and historic theatres in the world.

The Theatre Royal's designer, William Wilkins (1778-1839), was an architect of national repute, responsible for, amongst other buildings, the National Gallery in London and Downing College, Cambridge. He opened the Theatre Royal on 11 October 1819.

As the proprietor of the Norwich circuit he employed a small company of players to undertake an annual tour of six theatres; Yarmouth, Ipswich, Cambridge, Bury, Colchester and Kings Lynn. Each was open for just one or two short seasons during the year. The Bury theatre opened for the Great Fair in early October to mid-November and was only available for special events at other times of the year. At that time, it would certainly have enjoyed large audiences particularly as the local community would not have been able to travel far for entertainment, until the arrival of the railway in the 1840's.

A world premieré

The Norwich comedians were disbanded in 1843 and at Bury there followed more than half a century of economic difficulty and theatrical gloom. This was alleviated briefly in 1892 when the world premiére of Charley's Aunt was staged at the Theatre. In 1903 the Theatre Royal was closed but it opened again in 1906 when alterations to the building were made by the architect Bertie Crewe.

Greene King, the local brewery, purchased the freehold, which it still owns, in 1920. However, in 1925, in the face of overwhelming competition from two new cinemas, the Theatre Royal closed once more. Greene King had struggled to keep the theatre in operation but was now content to use the building as a barrel store. So it remained until the 1960's when a group of local people led by Air Vice Marshall Stanley Vincent raised over £37,000 to restore and re-open the Theatre Royal in 1965. The building was vested in the National Trust in 1975 on a 999 year lease.

The Theatre Royal is now managed as an independent working theatre by the Bury St Edmunds Theatre Management Limited.

Theatre today

The Theatre Royal today is widely regarded as one of the most thriving performing theatre and arts venues in the country with a year round programme of professional drama, music, comedy and dance attracting over 80,000 customers each year. It has a long-standing tradition of presenting new drama, including the world premieres of Charley's Aunt in 1892 and Out of Joint's acclaimed Talking To Terrorists by Robin Soans in 2005.

In 1998, the Theatre Royal produced its first major touring piece of drama for over thirty years. Othello played at eight venues across East Anglia. This has been followed by further UK tours, co-productions as well as an annual Rural Tour which takes live, professional theatre into village halls across Suffolk.

Education and Community work forms a major part of the Theatre Royal's activities. As well as working closely with visiting companies on the provision of workshops and residencies, the Theatre runs a Youth Theatre and Summer School, as well as a number of children's drama groups in Bury St Edmunds and surrounding villages.