Arts Theatre

Arts Theatre, London, in Great Newport Street, off St Martin's Lane, opened in 1927 for the production of unlicensed and experimental plays for members only. Seating 347 in an intimate two-tier auditorium, it has a proscenium width of 20ft and stage depth of 18ft. Its first important production, Young Woodley (1928) by John Van Druten, transferred to a commercial theatre, as did several other new plays including Gordon Daviot's Richard of Bordeaux (1932), and Norman Ginsbury's Viceroy Sarah (1934). In 1942 Alec Clunes took over, and for ten years made the theatre a vital centre, producing a wide range of plays and winning for it the status of a ‘pocket national theatre’. Christopher Fry's The Lady's not for Burning had its first performance here in 1948, with Clunes as Thomas Mendip. The theatre changed hands in 1953, but continued to stage new plays, including Beckett's Waiting for Godot (1955) and Anouilh's The Waltz of the Toreadors (1956). Harold Pinter's The Caretaker received its first performance here in 1960. In 1962 the theatre was leased for six months by the RSC for a major experimental season, which included new plays and revivals of Gorky's The Lower Depths and Middleton's Women Beware Women. In 1975 Robert Patrick's Kennedy's Children came to this theatre from the King's Head, Islington, the first Fringe theatre production originating in a public house to transfer to the West End. A double bill by Stoppard, Dirty Linen and New Found Land (1976), ran for four years. John Godber's Bouncers (1986) and Teechers (1988) and the musical A Slice of Saturday Night (1989) all did well. Since 1967 the theatre has been shared with the Unicorn Theatre for Children, which gives afternoon performances. The evening productions are brought in from outside managements.