Our Heritage
1884-1977
The foundation stone of the Malvern Assembly Rooms was laid by the then Earl Beauchamp on Saturday July 6th 1884. Also present were Jenny Lind, Lady Emily Foley and Dr W. T. Fernie, a local “water cure” doctor and chairman of the board of the Assembly Rooms and Pleasure Gardens Company. In his speech, Dr Fernie said that for a long time past, the want of Assembly Rooms had been felt and that as early as 1883 an offer had been made for the land then known as the promenade gardens. A company had then been started to raise the necessary funds, and 2000 shares (of £5 each) were quickly applied for and allotted.
The construction of the Assembly Rooms was completed and the premises open by July 1st 1885. Each side of the entrance on Grange Road had three shops. The Assembly Room, or great Hall, measured 75 by 50 feet, with a recess of 20 feet “in view of an organ being erected”. The stage was 30 feet deep and 50 feet wide and the proscenium opened 21 feet wide. It was one of the best in the provinces. The seating was for 700 persons. The “Concert Hall and Theatre” was an all-purpose hall, used for a variety of purposes, and not merely for stage shows. There was a flat floor and temporary seating had to be taken in and out again. Numerous touring companies visited, with replicas of London successes, melodramas, Gilbert and Sullivan (by the D’Oyly Carte Company), pantomimes and so-called “flying matinees” (in which stars came and went on the same day). There was a regular week-long Shakespeare festival by Frank Benson and his company from the Stratford on Avon Memorial Theatre, as well as concerts by visiting celebrities and local amateur societies. Later on there were films, with the erection of the Malvern Picture House, built by the Assembly Rooms Company and opened in 1923.
In 1927, and despite strong local opposition, the Assembly Rooms were purchased for £17,000 by The Malvern Urban District Council who set about improving its new acquisition. At much the same time, Sir Barry Jackson (who had a house on the Malvern Hills) was doubtless already planning his drama festival, which started in 1929. He probably agreed with the council some drastic alterations. The auditorium floor was raked, and a circle was added. The proscenium arch was widened and a “fly tower” erected. A further change was the addition of a new auditorium ceiling, lower than the wooden barrel-shaped vaulting, which remains (unseen) to this day.
The first Malvern Drama festival lasted for a fortnight from August 19th 1929 and was dedicated to Bernard Shaw. The plays were The Apple Cart, Back to Methuselah!, Heartbreak House and Caesar and Cleopatra. By 1934 the festival had expanded to a month. In 1937 Barry Jackson severed his connection with the festival, the 1938 and 1939 festivals being presented by his co-presenter, Roy Limbert. Up to 1939, there were 65 plays performed by some 40 authors, spanning a period of some 500 years. A number of them had their first performances at Malvern, among them two by Bernard Shaw. In 1956, on the occasion of the dramatist’s 100th birthday, Malvern had a shaw centenary week. During the rest of the year, every year, anything and everything went on at the theatre, including shows, together with films and, of course, an annual pantomime.
In 1964, the Malvern Theatre Association, a supporters’ organisation, was formed, at a time in which the lease of the premises was due for renewal. The cinema was by then closed and the future of the theatre was insecure. There was also a move to form a Trust, to ensure the theatre’s future and to take over the management. The Malvern Festival Theatre Trust was incorporated in February 1965, under the Companies Act and registered under the Charities Act. Thanks to a good deal of adept fund raising, the theatre and cinema were extensively refurbished. The space below the auditorium was converted into a cellar bar, the stalls were re-seated and the entrance hall, foyer and stalls bar were replanned. The first summer season of plays presented by the theatre ran from July 8th to October 2nd 1965, with J B Priestley performing the opening ceremony.
A resident repertory company was formed, which played in Malvern and at the Swan Theatre, Worcester and mixed programmes were presented in the years that followed. There was more than one attempt to revive the festival idea. This really came about, centred on the works of Shaw and Elgar, in 1977. The play was Man and Superman, with Richard Pasco, Susan Hampshire and Nicky Henson, directed by Clifford Williams. Yehudi Menuhin performed, Elisabeth Soderstrom sang in a tribute to Jenny Lind and concerts were given by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the CBSO.
The above is gratefully taken from the pamphlet written in 1979 by Gerald Morice entitled A Brief History of the Malvern Festival Theatre.
1980 – 2002
During the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, the festival continued but became less drama orientated and centred more around music, particularly orchestral concerts and recitals. In the mid-1980s the local council once again took over the management of the building although in 1995 it once again became the Malvern Festival Theatre Trust under the leadership of Nic Lloyd.
January 1997 saw the Malvern Theatres closed for a major refurbishment project, following an award from the National Lottery for £5.2 million. Central to the aims of the refurbishment was the expansion of the foyer areas to give a spacious atrium with ample bar and restaurant areas and exhibition space. The Festival Theatre, too was refurbished, with a new seating layout (increasing the capacity to around 850 seats) and a new fly tower designed to accommodate scenery from many of the larger productions touring from the west end. The Winter Gardens was also refurbished to produce a new and versatile space with excellent acoustics, a balcony section and multiple possibilities with regard to seating and stage positions. It was in this new space (now the Forum Theatre) that the first performance in the refurbished Malvern Theatres (Beethoven’s violin concerto played by Nigel Kennedy) took place on Friday April 24th 1998, a little over a year after the building had closed.
Since opening, Malvern Theatres has continued in the pioneering spirit shown by the founders of the original assembly rooms. In August 1998, the Almeida Theatre Company produced four plays in Malvern as part of a new drama festival. These included Alan Howard and Frances de la Tour in the World Premiere of The Play About the Baby by Edward Albee and Diana Rigg in the Almeida’s production of Racine’s Phaedre in a new translation by Ted Hughes. Other events included David Hare introducing Mildred Pierce in the cinema, Edward Albee “in conversation” and Michael Nyman giving a rare solo piano recital.
Since then, Malvern Theatres has built on its reputation for attracting the biggest names and the finest drama. In 1999, Richard Dreyfuss and Charlton Heston both performed in the Festival Theatre and in 2000, theatregoers saw Leslie Nielsen and Donald Sutherland tread the boards. The drama festival too continued that year as The Royal National Theatre opened their new production of Hamlet with Simon Russell Beale in Malvern prior to an international tour and Sir Derek Jacobi headed an all-star cast in God Only Knows, a new play by Hugh Whitemore.
But although the refurbishment was completed on time and only around 5% over budget, trading was challenging in the years 1998-2003. One problem was that even the comparatively small overspend on the project proved difficult to pay off and left the theatres needing a cash injection in order to trade. Two solutions were proposed: a sale of the venue to the Ambassador Theatre Group or continuing independence for the Trust under the management of Nic Lloyd, with an ex-gratia payment from Malvern Hills District Council. The second solution was adopted after the Ambassador Theatre Group formally withdrew its bid in August 2002.
2009 – 2019
Sean Mathias’ acclaimed production of Waiting for Godot, starring Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart, opened in the Festival Theatre in 2009 for two weeks prior to a nationwide tour and West End transfer.
In 2012, the theatre founded the Malvern Theatres Young Company, which staged ten full-scale productions, two of which toured to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival by the end of 2019. Over 140 young people from the local area have participated since the company began, many of which are now studying or working professionally in the creative arts. Past productions include Les Misérables, The Crucible, Jesus Christ Superstar, Antigone and Under Milk Wood.
In January 2018, after a hugely successful fundraising campaign, all 850 seats in the Festival Theatre were replaced, and new carpets were laid to get the auditorium ready for many more years of service. As part of the fundraising campaign, members of the public were given the opportunity to own a piece of theatre history and purchase theatre seats (first installed in 1965) to take home. This followed the successful refurbishment of the cinema seats in 2014, when 384 theatre-style seats were replaced with 303 bespoke modern cinema-style seats.
2020 – Present
Along with all the nation’s theatres, Malvern Theatres closed its doors to the public on March 17th 2020 following the then government’s instruction to ‘lockdown’. The ensuing months saw over 300 performances cancelled or rescheduled. During this time the theatre received incredible support from its audiences for which it will always be grateful. Over 20,000 ticket holders were contacted and offered refunds with almost half either donating their tickets or opting for credit. An ensuing fundraising campaign saw individual donations to the theatre total some £400,000. There was strong support from government too, through its ‘Here for Culture’ fund and through its furlough scheme, which ensured the venue’s workforce remained substantially intact at time of re-opening.
The theatre endeavoured to open its doors whenever regulations allowed. Malvern Cinema resumed screenings (with ‘social-distancing’ in place) on 30th July 2020 and live performances re-commenced that September. Three in-house productions took place during the autumn, all involving alumni from the Malvern Theatres Young Company. Following a resurgence of Covid infections, the theatre again closed its doors on Christmas Eve, not to re-open until 3rd June 2021. Thereafter, ‘social-distancing’ remained until the lifting of all Covid restrictions on 19th July. That day saw Ralph Fiennes perform TS Eliot’s Four Quartets on the Festival Theatre stage and a few days later The Forum Theatre enjoyed its first sell-out for 17 months when Robert Plant and Saving Grace performed live to an audience of over 700.
As well as putting a hold on live theatre and cinema the Covid-19 pandemic also saw the postponement of the major capital project mentioned above. This was scheduled for completion in April 2021 but, as it was, work didn’t commence until September 2022. The project saw the installation of the Malvern Hill’s District’s first Changing Places Facility and the building of Studio One: a workshop, rehearsal space, cinema and studio theatre with up to 100 seats. Studio One opened its doors to the public on 15th July 2023 and use of the venue soon reached capacity. By the autumn of 2024, it was home to a programme of some 25 classes and workshops each week during term time and in its first two years Studio One welcomed more than 25,000 users.
In 2023, Malvern Cinema celebrated 100 years of independent cinema.
At the end of January 2023, Malvern Hills District Council was awarded £20 million of central government funding, with the expansion of Malvern Theatres as its chosen project. The project builds on the success of Studio One and will add a 240-seat studio theatre to the venue’s four existing auditoria. Beneath this studio will be two additional studios for classes and workshops. The redevelopment will also improve access to the building from Priory Park and enhance the existing Forum Theatre, making it more comfortable and more accessible. An outdoor amphitheatre will also be built overlooking Priory Park, with capacity to seat 100 people. Planning permission for the project was granted in November 2024 and, following a tender process, local construction company Speller Metcalfe were awarded the contract to build it in April 2025. Work began on-site in early January 2026.
The project has a number of core aims: to increase community use of the theatres, to provide opportunities for participation in the arts, to promote well-being and to enrich the programme with a greater range of shows on offer. In particular, the 240-seat will be ideal for work that demands a smaller-scale, more intimate performing environment than the existing 800-seat venues can provide. The completed building will have six seated venues in total and will comprise almost 2,500 seats. The new building is scheduled for completion in autumn 2027 and once open, will be one of the largest multi-venue arts centres under a single roof in Europe.
As well as putting a hold on live theatre and cinema the Covid-19 pandemic also saw the postponement of the major capital project mentioned above. This was scheduled for completion in April 2021 but, as it was, work didn’t commence until September 2022. The project saw the installation of the Malvern Hill’s District’s first Changing Places Facility and the building of Studio One: a workshop, rehearsal space, cinema and studio theatre with up to 100 seats. Studio One opened its doors to the public on 15th July 2023 and use of the venue soon reached capacity. By the autumn of 2024, it was home to a programme of some 25 classes and workshops each week during term time and in its first two years Studio One welcomed more than 25,000 users.