"The Citizens Theatre is probably more important as part of Britain's heritage than perhaps many imagined. It is Britain's oldest fully functioning professional theatre which retains the greater part of the historic auditorium and stage... This leaves the
Grand Theatre, Leeds which opened six weeks before the Citizens (née Her Majesty's) but which had all its stage machinery destroyed 30 years ago. The Citizens is thus a British national treasure." - Iain MacIntosh,
Theatre Specialist, November 2007.
Early history The theatre was built in 1878 (as Her Majesty's Theatre and Royal Opera House) and designed by leading architect James Sellars. It was one of 18 theatres built in Glasgow between 1862 and the outbreak of
World War I in 1914 (during the same period seven were built in
Edinburgh). It was the first theatre opened on the south side of Glasgow. Eventually there were four theatres built in the south side: The Palace, next door to the new theatre (now demolished), The Princess's Royal (formerly Her Majesty's, and now the Citizens), the Coliseum (now demolished), and the Lyceum in Govan . The remaining theatres built in this period still operating in Glasgow are the
Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, the
King's Theatre, Glasgow, the
Theatre Royal, Glasgow and the Citizens Theatre. The theatre was built and owned by John Morrison, as part of his development of tenements close to Gorbals Cross, when the city was becoming the Second City of Empire. As Her Majesty's Theatre and Royal Opera House, he leased it to James F McFadyen, who had studied at Glasgow University and then became a lessee of theatres in England. The theatre seated 2,500, and presented plays, revues and
pantomimes. Reflecting the quality of Morrison's work the new building was very safety conscious, substantially built; with fire hydrants on each level and on stage. The stairways were extremely wide and the lobbies spacious. For over twenty years the pantomimes staged by Beryl were written by Fred Locke. After seven years Beryl assumed a business partner Rich Waldon (a writer and producer of pantomines) who would soon take over and buy the theatre from the builder. By 1914, Rich Waldon was the busiest theatre operator with five theatres in the city – the Royal Princess's, the Palace, the Lyceum in Govan, the Pavilion and the West End Playhouse/Empress On his death in 1922 he bequeathed the Royal Princess's to his deputy Harry McKelvie, who as a boy had started as a bill poster for him and now was the mastermind behind each year's longest running pantomime in the United Kingdom. When Harry McKelvie let it be known he was retiring in 1944 he offered a generous ten-year lease to the new Citizens Company, who took it up and moved from the Athenaeum Theatre in Buchanan Street. The Citizens Theatre Company was formed in 1943 by a group of theatre-minded men led by Dr
Tom Honeyman and
James Bridie, one of Britain's leading playwrights. The name of the new company was taken from the manifesto of 1909 of
Alfred Wareing's newly formed
Scottish Playgoers Co Ltd for their repertory company, which was to provide live theatre for the citizens of Glasgow, staging new Scottish and international drama, opening at the
Royalty Theatre. The 1909 manifesto of the Glasgow Repertory Theatre expressed these tenets: "The Repertory Theatre is Glasgow's own theatre. It is a citizens' theatre in the fullest sense of the term. Established to make Glasgow independent from London for its dramatic supplies, it produces plays which the Glasgow playgoers would otherwise not have the opportunity of seeing." Originally based at the Athenaeum Theatre Bridie's Citizens Company relocated to the Royal Princess's Theatre in the
Gorbals in 1945 at the invitation of Harry McKelvie, "The Pantomime King". Bridie renamed it the Citizens Theatre and the Citizens Company opened there on 11 September 1945. Bridie, was a popular playwright and theatre persona, who helped the Citizens to become popular and a wide selection of productions were staged in its first 25 years. By coincidence, her uncle, H. Cecil Beryl was lessee of the Royal Princess's Theatre from 1879 to 1887. The board of directors included R.W.Greig, chairman of the Scottish National Orchestra, Norman Duthie, chartered accountant, and Sir John Boyd, lawyer. The Citizens remained in its Gorbals site. During the period from the 1970s to the 1990s, the Citizens was associated with innovative play selections and stagings by
Giles Havergal,
Philip Prowse and
Robert David MacDonald. The three were responsible for the Citizens Theatre being again recognised as one of the leading theatres in Britain. Havergal's production of
Travels with My Aunt adapted from the
Graham Greene novel of the same title, was first presented in Glasgow in 1989 and then played in the
West End where it won a
Laurence Olivier Award in 1993, and
off Broadway in 1995. His production of his and Robert David Macdonald's adaptation of
Death in Venice by
Thomas Mann was first presented in Glasgow in 2000. Since 1970, Prose was a co-director of the Citizens Company with Havergal and Robert David MacDonald. In 2003 both Havergal and MacDonald stepped down from their posts as directors of the company. Prowse however, continued his role as artistic collaborator with newly appointed artistic director, Jeremy Raison, until 2004. He directed and designed over 70 plays with the Citizens Theatre and has worked throughout the world designing and directing for opera, ballet and drama. Macdonald became a co-director of the Citizens Company with Havergal and Prowse in 1971. Macdonalad wrote and adapted fourteen plays for the company: Dracula (1972); Camille (1974); De Sade Show (1975); Chinchilla (1977); No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1978); Summit Conference (1978); A Waste of Time (1980); Don Juan (1980); Webster (1983); Anna Karenina (1987); Conundrum (1992); In Quest of Conscience (1994); Persons Unknown (1995); The Ice House (1998), Britannicus (2002), Cheri (2003) and Snow White (2003). Macdonald played leading roles in more than twenty productions and directed fifty productions including ten British or world premieres with the company. Macdonald died in 2004. During the 1970s the Citizens started to attract controversy with its productions and advertising. In December 1970 city councillors called for an end to the £12,000 annual grant the Glasgow Corporation gave to the theatre after it was announced that anyone presenting a trade union card on 8 December would be granted free entry to the theatre. The
Evening Times reported "The free tickets were suggested as a gesture of the actors' solidarity with the trade unionists' strike protest against the Industrial Relations Bill" (
Evening Times, 7 December 1970). This was the first of many altercations between the theatre and the
city council throughout the decade. Earlier in the autumn season of 1970 a controversial new staging of
Hamlet caused outrage in the press for the nudity and alternative acting styles of the company. In 1975 a flier advertising the spring season was condemned by
Labour councillor Laurence McGarry for its depiction of "
Shakespeare, in drag with large cleavage, painted lips, corsets, suspenders and hand on hip". The councilor felt the theatre was guilty of "playing to an intellectual minority rather than the great mass of the public". In 1977 the
Lord Provost Mr Peter McCann called for the sacking of theatre bosses after a performance of
Dracula which featured nude scenes he described as "kinky claptrap appealing only to mentally ill weirdos" (
Sunday Express, 13 March 1977). The Provost's calls were not supported by his councillors and his attempts to gain city council control of programming at the Citizens failed. The entire run of Dracula at the Citizens was a sell-out.
1980s and 1990s After the fire and demolition of the Palace Bingo Hall (née Theatre) in Glasgow in 1977, the citizens theatre rescued the best of the Victorian fittings, including the six statues which stood atop the columns. Following these works, almost the entire tenement block which had sat in front of the auditorium was razed, leaving the Citizens' foyer as the only remaining piece This state of affairs lasted until 1988, when the remaining foyer and bars were torn down as part of a new development on Gorbals Street by
Strathclyde Regional Council, which included a new foyer and bars for the theatre. During the reconstruction, a limited 250 seat theatre operated on the stage behind the safety curtain, accessed via a temporary foyer located at an emergency exit. The main theatre was reopened for the Christmas show, in slightly makeshift fashion due to uncompleted works, as it had been identified as essential to the company's finances. The new foyer, fronted in glass and yellow brick, opened in 1989. Further works throughout the 1990s included the creation of two studio theatres in 1991–92; office space on the north side in 1996–1998 which also included a new rehearsal room, scene dock, front-of house offices and lift access with
National Lottery funding.
21st century The Citizens Theatre and
TAG Theatre Company came together as one company in April 2007. The Citizens Theatre announced on 18 February 2013 that architects Bennetts Associates had been selected to work on the plans for the most comprehensive redevelopment of the building since it opened as a theatre in 1878. The theatre closed in 2018 to allow for the demolition and modernisation plans. This included the demolition of the 1989 foyer. the south and west of the building, including the 1989 foyer, were demolished completely with the intention to rebuild both front and back-of-house facilities. During these works, the theatre closed completely, with shows from the Company taking place at
Tramway and projects at
Scotland Street School Museum. In August 2025, the theatre reopened following completion of 7 years of works. The works had originally been planned for only three years at a cost of £20 million, however delays meant the final cost was much higher. ==Foyer statues==