Regency Theatre Royal
Built in 1819, this Grade 1 listed playhouse is the only surviving example of a Regency theatre in this country. It is the only theatre open to the public in the National Trust's portfolio of properties. Now restored and re-opened on 11 September 2007, the Theatre, with its extraordinarily intimate auditorium and exquisite decorative scheme, provides visitors with an unforgettable and unique theatrical and heritage experience.
As the sole surviving example of a Regency playhouse in this country, the Theatre Royal has a fascinating story to tell, not just about its own eventful past, but also about a previously missing link in the history of English theatre. Rediscovering much of the undeservedly forgotten theatrical repertoire of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
You can also take a guided tour of the Theatre Royal or take a more leisurely look during one of the regular Open Doors sessions, along with workshops and demonstrations designed to reveal what theatre-going in the early 19th century would have been like. Most exciting of all and also as an integral to the ReVisit programme, the Theatre will be presenting regular productions and rehearsed readings of plays written at the time when the Theatre first opened its doors - the only Theatre in the world capable of presenting this repertoire in an authentic and appropriate setting. The aim is to do for Georgian theatre what the Globe has done for Shakespeare!