London is likely to get a swanky new theatre
Out with the hard benches; in with the bars, VIP suites and boxes
BUILT INTO the bricks of British theatres are the aims and ideals of the ages that made them. “Social class,” says Rohan McWilliam, a historian at Anglia Ruskin University and author of a book on the West End, “was etched into the architecture of theatre.” From the gilded social stratification of Victorian theatres to the dourly democratic National Theatre (“a mixture of Gatwick airport and Brent Cross shopping centre”, as the director Jonathan Miller had it) British theatres are mirrors to their makers.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Box clever”
Britain May 22nd 2021
- Britain’s economy is hot but not overheating
- A coronavirus variant is spreading in Britain—but this time is different
- Two unionist parties are under new management
- London is likely to get a swanky new theatre
- Why the best farmland in Britain has become cheap
- Britain’s civil service remains upper-middle class
- A covid-19 inquiry will scrutinise the British state
- How to do foreign policy in a multi-ethnic society
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