The Royal Comedy Theatre, as it was then known, opened in London's West End on October 15, 1881. It was designed by Thomas Verity and built in just six months. By 1884 it was known as just the Comedy Theatre. In the mid-1950s the theatre went under major reconstruction and re-opened in December 1955. The West End of London is part of the city centre of London in England. ... October 15 is the 288th day of the year (289th in leap years). ... 1881 (MDCCCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... The 1950s was the decade spanning from the 1st of January, 1950 to the 31st December, 1959. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Recent productions have included Journey's End, The Old Masters, Whose Life is it Anyway?, The Home Place, Epitaph for George Dillon, The Caesar Twins, Steptoe and Son, Donkeys' Years and currently The Rocky Horror Show.
The Royal ComedyTheatre was designed by the architect Thomas Verity with seating on four levels accommodating some 1,180 people, which included 300 in the Gallery at the top of the theatre and 400 in the Pit located at the rear of the Stalls seating on the lowest level.
Since opening The ComedyTheatre has being redecorated, refurbished and even partially reconstructed on a number of occassions, most notably in the 1950s when the theatre was expanded at the rear with new dressing rooms and stage door.
Nowadays The ComedyTheatre is best known to those with an interest in British theatre as being 'the theatre that overturned stage censorship.' That might be a bit of an exaggaration, but events at The ComedyTheatre during the 1950s certainly helped to bring stage censorship to an end.
Comedy seems to have sprung into being at the vintage-festival of the Greek villagers, when all was jovial gaiety and jesting license in honor of Dionysus.
THE comedy of Aristophanes was a medley of boisterous comic-opera and of lofty lyric poetry, of vulgar ballet and of patriotic oratory, of indecent farce and of pungent political satire, of acrobatic pantomime and of brilliant literary criticism, of cheap burlesque and of daringly imaginative fantasy.
It is no wonder that the comedies of the later writer failed; he lacked the instinct of the born dramatist, who cannot help feeling the pulse of his contemporaries and responding to their unspoken demands.
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