Citizens' Theatre

Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow, company founded in 1943 by James Bridie, Paul Vincent Carroll, and others. In 1945 they leased the Royal Princess's Theatre in the Gorbals which had been built in 1878 and renamed it the Citizens' Theatre (seating currently 657). Many of Bridie's plays were premièred at the theatre, two of them posthumously, The Baikie Charivari (1952) and Meeting at Night (1954). Tyrone Guthrie's notable revival of Lyndsay's Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis (1552) presented at the Edinburgh International Festival of 1948 showed the high standard reached by the company in the first five years. Other important productions were William Douglas Home's Now Barabbas (1947), John Arden's Armstrong's Last Goodnight (1964), and Peter Nichols's A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1967). There were also notable productions of plays by Brecht including Arturo Ui (1967). Michael Blakemore began his directing career here.

Under Giles Havergal (1938– ), who has been Director with Philip Prowse (1937– ) and Robert David MacDonald (1929–2004) since 1969, the theatre has presented a unique repertoire of plays from the British and European classical canon and some new plays and adaptations. Outstanding productions include Kraus's The Last Days of Mankind (1983), Goethe's Faust (1985), an adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina (1987), and Coward's The Vortex (1988). The company has presented eight new plays by Robert David MacDonald and toured extensively to the major European theatre festivals. Experimental works staged at the Close Studio Theatre from 1965 until its destruction by fire in 1973 included Artaud's The Cenci and Weiss's Marat/Sade. The Citizens' Theatre receives subsidy from the Scottish Arts Council, the City of Glasgow District Council, and Strathclyde Regional Council. The productions are cast from a pool of actors all of whom receive the same salary. The Citizens' Theatre for Youth Company founded in 1967 has now become the TAG Theatre Company, which does extensive middle-scale touring in Scotland and beyond and presents productions in primary, secondary, and special schools in Strathclyde Region.