Royal Lyceum Theatre

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh. Opened in 1883 to accommodate touring companies, mainly from London, this theatre, seating 904, was named after the London theatrical home of Henry Irving, whose company was the first to appear in it, its repertory including Much Ado about Nothing, Hamlet, and Lewis's The Bells. Built at a cost of £17,000 by C. J. Phipps, it remains one of the most beautiful of Phipps's buildings. It played host to most of the prominent touring companies, and between the late 1930s and the mid 1950s the company formed by the grandson of Wilson Barrett played regular seasons there. From 1947 the theatre was used as one of the principal stages for the Edinburgh Festival. In 1965 it was purchased by the Edinburgh Corporation to house the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company, to be administered by the Edinburgh Civic Theatre Trust. Opening with Servant o' Twa Maisters, a Scots version of the play by Goldoni, the newly formed company flourished and developed a national reputation. It toured abroad and created a successful offshoot, the Young Lyceum Company, based nearby in a converted Gaelic church. From the mid-1970s, however, there was continuing controversy about proposed developments to the building and the funding needed to enable the company to play continuously. The policy of staging contemporary and classic international drama continued, but further problems with funding in the 1980s caused reductions in the company's programme and the closure of the studio theatre.