Origins The theatre was founded in 1818 by James King and Daniel Dunn (formerly managers of the
Surrey Theatre in
Bermondsey), and
John Thomas Serres, then the marine painter to the King. Serres managed to secure the formal patronage of
Princess Charlotte and her husband
Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, and named the theatre the Royal Coburg Theatre. The theatre was a "minor" theatre (as opposed to one of the two
patent theatres) and was thus technically forbidden to show serious drama. Nevertheless, when the theatre passed to George Bolwell Davidge in 1824 he succeeded in bringing legendary actor
Edmund Kean south of the river to play six Shakespeare plays in six nights. The theatre's role in bringing high art to the masses was confirmed when Kean addressed the audience during his curtain call saying "I have never acted to such a set of ignorant, unmitigated brutes as I see before me." In 1825 a young American actor, Ira Aldridge, played here in this second job in the country in an abolitionist play, 'The Revolt of Surinam'. It was the start of a groundbreaking classical, international career. Aldridge was 18 years old, Black American and by the time of his death in 1867 he was one of the biggest stars of his day. More popular staples in the repertoire at the theatre were "sensational and violent" melodramas demonstrating the evils of drink, "churned out by the house dramatist", confirmed
teetotaller Douglas Jerrold. When Davidge left to take over the
Surrey Theatre in 1833, the theatre was bought by
Daniel Egerton and
William Abbot, who tried to capitalise on the abolition of the legal distinction between patent and minor theatres, enacted in
Parliament earlier that year. On 1 July 1833, the theatre was renamed the Royal Victoria Theatre, under the "protection and patronage" of
Victoria, Duchess of Kent, mother to
Princess Victoria, the 14-year-old
heir presumptive to the British throne. The duchess and the princess visited only once, on 28 November of that year, but enjoyed the performance, of light opera and dance, in the "pretty...clean and comfortable" theatre. The single visit scarcely justified the "Old Vic" its later billing as "Queen Victoria's Own Theayter". In 1841,
David Osbaldiston took over as lessee, and was succeeded on his death in 1850 by his lover and the theatre's leading lady,
Eliza Ann Vincent, until her death in 1856. Under their management, the theatre remained devoted to melodrama. In 1858, sixteen people were crushed to death inside the theatre after mass panic caused after an actor's clothing caught fire. At this time, the theatre was playing to an audience of working class patrons from the surrounding slums, and
Henry Mayhew wrote that "at each step up the staircase the warmth and stench increase until by the time one reaches the gallery doorway […] the odour positively prevents respiration." In 1867, Joseph Arnold Cave took over as lessee. In 1871 he transferred the lease to Romaine Delatorre, who raised funds for the theatre to be rebuilt in the style of the
Alhambra Music Hall. Jethro Thomas Robinson was engaged as the architect. In September 1871 the old theatre closed, and the new building opened as the Royal Victoria Palace in December of the same year, with Cave staying on as manager. By 1873, however, Cave had left and Delatorre's venture failed. In 1880, under the ownership of
Emma Cons (for whose memory there are plaques outside and inside the theatre) it became the Royal Victoria Hall and Coffee Tavern and was run on "strict
temperance lines"; by this time it was already known as the "Old Vic". The "penny lectures" given in the hall led to the foundation of
Morley College. An endowment from the estate of
Samuel Morley led to the creation of the
Morley Memorial College for Working Men and Women on the premises, which were shared; lectures were given back stage, and in the theatre dressing rooms. The
adult education college moved to its own premises nearby in the 1920s. On 24 November 1923, the theatre participated in a pioneering radio event, when the first set of the opera
La Traviata was broadcast live by the
BBC, using transmitters in London, Manchester and Glasgow, via a specially installed relay transmitter on the roof of the adjacent Royal Victoria Tavern.
Old Vic company With Emma Cons's death in 1912 the theatre passed to her niece
Lilian Baylis, who emphasised the
Shakespearean repertoire. The first radio broadcasts from the theatre were made as early as October 1923, by the
British Broadcasting Company. The Old Vic Company was established in 1929, led by
Sir John Gielgud. Between 1925 and 1931,
Lilian Baylis championed the re-building of the then-derelict
Sadler's Wells Theatre, and established a ballet company under the direction of
Dame Ninette de Valois. For a few years the drama and ballet companies rotated between the two theatres, with the ballet becoming permanently based at Sadler's Wells in 1935. Baylis died in November 1937.
Wartime exile The Old Vic was damaged badly during
the Blitz, and the war-depleted company spent all its time touring, based in
Burnley, Lancashire at the Victoria Theatre during the years 1940 to 1943. In 1944, the company was re-established in London with
Ralph Richardson and
Laurence Olivier as its stars, performing mainly at the
New Theatre (now the Noël Coward Theatre) until the Old Vic was ready to reopen in 1950. In 1946, an offshoot of the company was established in
Bristol as the
Bristol Old Vic.
The Old Vic Theatre School (1947-1952) In 1947 a theatre school was founded by
George Devine,
Michel Saint-Denis, and
Glen Byam Shaw, but it only ran until July 1952. Other staff included
Litz Pisk and Barbara Goodwin. Notable students included
Joan Plowright,
Prunella Scales,
Margaret Ashcroft,
Edith Campion,
Rosalind Knight,
Priscilla Morgan,
:fr:Catherine Dasté,
John Abineri,
Graeme Allwright,
Jack Aranson,
Jeremy Burnham,
Richard Campion,
Alan Dobie,
Jeremy Geidt,
Christopher Hancock,
James Maxwell,
Lee Montague,
Mike Morgan,
Richard Negri,
Morris Perry,
Donald Pickering,
Douglas Rain,
Clive Revill,
Jerome Willis,
Caspar Wrede and
Patrick Wymark.
The Five Year plan (1953-1963) In 1953,
Michael Benthall became the Artistic Director. Michael devised the Five Year plan during his tenure. The plan was to produce Shakespeare's First Folio in five years, starting the plan with Hamlet, starring
Richard Burton and
Claire Bloom as Hamlet and Ophelia respectively, and ending the plan with Hamlet, starring
John Neville and
Judi Dench in the leading roles. Michael remained at the Old Vic company until 1962.
National Theatre company (1963-1976) In 1963, the Old Vic company was dissolved and the new
National Theatre Company, under the artistic direction of
Sir Laurence Olivier, was based at the Old Vic until its own building was opened on the
South Bank near
Waterloo Bridge in 1976. In July 1974 the Old Vic presented a rock concert for the first time. National Theatre director
Peter Hall arranged for the progressive folk-rock band
Gryphon to première
Midnight Mushrumps, the fantasia inspired by Hall's own 1974 Old Vic production of
The Tempest starring
John Gielgud for which Gryphon had supplied the music.
Prospect Theatre Company (1977-1981) For two years prior to the departure of the
National Theatre Company,
Toby Robertson, director of the
Prospect Theatre Company, sustained a campaign that the Old Vic should make Prospect its resident company. For the Old Vic, Robertson's overtures proved increasingly hard to resist in the face of poor box office returns achieved by productions staged by other visiting companies; against this, Prospect staged a highly successful season which opened in May 1977, including
Hamlet with
Derek Jacobi,
Antony and Cleopatra with
Alec McCowen and
Dorothy Tutin; and
Saint Joan with
Eileen Atkins. In July the Governors of the Old Vic announced "a marriage that was all but a merger" between the Vic and Prospect. In September Toby Robertson, director of Prospect, was asked to take artistic control of the Old Vic, and Christopher Richards, general manager of the Old Vic, became general manager of Prospect. One major problem, though, was the terms of Prospect's funding by the
Arts Council of Great Britain: this was on the basis of it being a touring company, and the council – already funding the National Theatre and the
Royal Shakespeare Company in London – could not accept a case for another theatre company in the capital and repeatedly refused requests to fund any London seasons staged by Prospect. Therefore, any London-based productions would have to succeed financially without Arts Council support. Prospect's first season at the Old Vic recouped its costs but left no surplus to fund future productions. Further stagings by visiting companies were box office failures and stretched the theatre's finances to breaking point. Yet Prospect continued to draw audiences to the Old Vic where other companies failed. In December 1978, the governors of the Old Vic agreed to a five-year contract with Prospect, announcing to the press on 23 April that henceforth they would be styled "Prospect Productions Ltd., trading as the Old Vic Company". Unfortunately Prospect's touring commitments kept the company out of the theatre for the first half of 1979, leaving the theatre to sink further into debt. The company returned in July with Jacobi's
Hamlet (toured afterwards to Denmark, Australia and China, the first English theatre company to tour that country), Robertson was in effect fired as artistic director in 1980 while he was abroad with the company in
China,
Timothy West replacing him. The following season, West's first as Robertson's successor, saw
Macbeth with
Peter O'Toole,
The Merchant of Venice with West as Shylock, and a gala performance presented to the Queen Mother to celebrate her eightieth birthday. The company gave a final season at the Old Vic in 1981, staging
The Merchant of Venice, then gave a final tour of Europe, giving its last performance in Rome on 14 June before disbanding. In the wake of the scandal, The Old Vic released a statement apologising for "not creating an environment or culture where people felt able to speak freely", and announced a "commitment to a new way forward". In 2018, the Old Vic announced that it had established the Guardians Programme, a group of trained staff who offer a confidential outlet for colleagues to share concerns about behaviour or the culture at work. Additionally, a Guardians Network has been formed to bring together the group of organisations from all sectors (not just the arts) who have implemented the principles of a Guardian Programme.
Matthew Warchus (2015-26) Since 2015,
Matthew Warchus has been Artistic Director of The Old Vic. His debut season opened in September 2015 with Warchus's production of a new play about education,
Future Conditional by Tamsin Oglesby. He also has directed productions at the theatre such as the world premiere of the musical
Groundhog Day by
Tim Minchin and
Danny Rubin,
Present Laughter by
Noël Coward and from the Christmas 2017 season directed
Jack Thorne's new version of
A Christmas Carol which has returned to the theatre every Christmas season since raising £1.5million for food poverty and deprivation-focused charities. He announced his resignation in May 2024, leaving the position in September 2026 after 11 years. On 27 November 2024, it was announced that
Rupert Goold would take over as Artistic Director with
Rebecca Frecknall as Associate Director.
Bicentenary (2018) On 24 October 2017, The Old Vic announced its bicentenary season. The theatre celebrated its 200th birthday on 11 May 2018 with a free performance of
Joe Penhall's
Mood Music, featuring
Ben Chaplin. ==Recent and current productions==