Hampstead Theatre

Hampstead Theatre, London, opened at the Moreland Hall, Hampstead, in 1959, the first London productions of Pinter's The Room and The Dumb Waiter being seen there in 1960. In 1962 the theatre moved to its own prefabricated premises at Swiss Cottage; among many notable productions on its open-end stage were Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie (1963) and Roy Dotrice's solo performance as John Aubrey in Brief Lives (1967). In 1970 the building was moved to a new site near by, where the theatre, seating 157, enhanced its reputation, its numerous West End transfers including Michael Frayn's Alphabetical Order (1975), James Saunders's Bodies (1978), and Pinter's The Hothouse (1980). It also staged the British premières of such foreign plays as Tennessee Williams's Small Craft Warnings and Peter Handke's The Ride across Lake Constance (both 1973), both of which transferred to the West End, Dürrenmatt's Play Strindberg (1973), Sam Shepard's Buried Child (1980), and Arthur Miller's double bill Danger: Memory! (1988). Two of Brian Friel's plays were seen there, Translations (1981) moving on to the Lyttelton, and Aristocrats (1988) having its British première.