Kingsway Theatre

Kingsway Theatre, London, in Great Queen Street, Holborn, opened in 1882 as the Novelty Theatre, and closed the same month. Renamed the Folies-Dramatiques, it reopened in March 1883 with a little more success, and in 1888 was called the Jodrell after its manageress. It had reverted to its original name when in 1889 the first production in English of Ibsen's A Doll's House, translated by William Archer, was given with Janet Achurch as Nora. It became the New Queen's Theatre in 1890, and the Eden Palace of Varieties in 1894. It then stood empty until it was taken over by W. S. Penley, who reopened it in 1900 as the Great Queen Street Theatre. An important event was the first London performance of Synge's The Playboy of the Western World by the Abbey Theatre company in 1907, and in 1908 Lena Ashwell took over the management. Outstanding events of the next few years were Arnold Bennett's The Great Adventure (1913) with Henry Ainley, under the direction of Granville-Barker, and a visit in 1925 by the Birmingham Repertory Theatre company, under Barry Jackson, during which his modern-dress production of Hamlet was seen. The theatre then continued on its erratic course until 1932, when it became the home of the Independent Theatre Club for the production of plays banned by the Lord Chamberlain. The venture was not a success, and the theatre reverted to normal use. In 1940 Donald Wolfit brought his touring company to London for the first time in a season of Shakespeare, and the last play to be produced at this theatre was a revival of Anthony Kimmins's farce While Parents Sleep. This lasted only 10 days as the building was bombed. It was demolished in 1956.