Barbican Theatre

Barbican Theatre, in the Barbican Centre in the City of London, is the London home of the RSC, which moved there on its completion in 1982. Seating 1,160, it was specially built, with financial help from the Corporation of the City of London, the architects and the artistic directors working closely together. Structurally it is an adaptation of a traditional theatre, with shallow balconies thrusting downward round the stalls audience. The raked stage has a forestage backed by a proscenium 44 ft. wide. No spectator is more than 65 ft. from a point centre stage 8 ft. inside the forestage. The theatre presents productions from Stratford-upon-Avon and original productions of other classical plays, usually non-Shakespearian. It opened with Henry IV, Parts One and Two, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and All's Well That Ends Well, and its own productions included Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac (1983; NY, 1984), with Derek Jacobi, and Chekhov's Three Sisters (1988). It also presented musicals: Peter Nichols's Poppy (1982; Adelphi, 1983), the enormously successful Les Misérables (1985; Palace, 1986; NY, 1987), and The Wizard of Oz (Christmas 1987 and 1988). The Barbican Centre also contains the RSC's second London theatre, The Pit.