It opened on 30th May 1766 and it has been the oldest continuously working theatre for the past 241 years.
It is the only surviving example of the larger town theatre of the 18th century.
It is a miracle of survival. Since Shakespeare's Globe Theatre first burned down in 1613, many theatres have been destroyed by fire; Drury Lane twice, and Covent Garden three times. Apart from periods of rebuilding, the Theatre Royal has been in almost continuous seasonal production since 1766, its wood and plaster auditorium lit first by candles, then oil lamps and gas until the relatively safe provision of electricity in 1905. During World War Two, when so much of ancient Bristol was destroyed, the Theatre sustained only slight damage.
Its history accurately reflects much of the social history of Bristol from the middle of the 18th Century. In 1766 King Street was in the very heart of the city, and just one block from Queen Square, then the largest residential square in Europe.
The later 19th Century saw social and theatrical decline as King Street became a rough and undesirable riverside slum with the Theatre known as the Old Gaff.
In 1942, when the Council for the Encouragement of Music and Arts leased the building from the newly formed Theatre Royal Trust, it became the first State theatre in Britain.
It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade 1 Listed Building, which since 1972 has been linked to another The Coopers Hall.
It is a microcosm of British Theatre History from its earliest days in the provinces. Each period has left its mark on both sides of the curtain.
The auditorium has been repeatedly painted and embellished; the Georgian background has been largely overlaid with Victorian moulding and gilt. The decoration in 1881 gave us the theatre, which we see today, most notably the star studded ceiling around the great centre rose.
The 1881 alterations also saw the loss of the forestage, cut back by 5' to its present position, but as late as 1943 many peculiarly British features of stage development were still to be seen: the sloat system of raising scenery from below stage level, the drum and shaft method of hanging scenery, the groove and shutter fixing for flats. Modern stage technology, notably the 1972 fly tower, has replaced them all.
The proscenium doors set into the proscenium arch and always a feature of the 18th Century English theatre, had to be bricked up in 1949 because of fire regulations, as they were just on the auditorium side of the safety curtain.
The Thunder Run, a unique and early form of sound effect, is still thankfully in situ above the auditorium.
There is a working model housed in the theatre that shows the stage machinery as it was about 1850, and includes the Hamlet grave trap and the two fast traps.
Appearing this month in 1997
Title: With Love From Nicolae Author: Lin Coghlan