Buxton Opera House

About The Buxton Opera House. 
Buxton Opera House is one of Britain’s leading receiving theatres, presenting around 450 performances each year including dance, comedy, children’s shows, drama, musical concerts, pantomime and opera as well as a lively Fringe Theatre and Community and Education Programme. The theatre is also home to the prestigious Buxton Festival and The International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival and The Four-Four-Time Festival of Live Music. Lovingly restored to its former glory in 2001, Buxton Opera House is an exquisitely beautiful Edwardian theatre and one of the country’s finest examples of Frank Matcham theatre design.

Frank Matcham’s glorious Opera House at Buxton, with its warm and intimate design, always guarantees a night to remember for theatregoers – Knutsford Guardian

There is no better place for a panto than this gilded fairy palace, especially filled with hundreds of clap-happy, singalong children – Manchester Evening News

History
Buxton Opera House opened amidst great celebration on 1 June 1903. An appreciative full house was treated to The Prologue written specially for the occasion followed by the first plays to be staged, Mrs Willoughby’s Kiss and My Milliners Bill. This set the scene for the next three decades with the Opera House running as a successful and vibrant theatre. Touring Shakespeare companies, West End successes, ballets, concerts and musical comedy were regular visitors to the Opera House and in 1925 the great Anna Pavlova performed the Dance of the Dying Swan.

In 1927 the theatre was turned into a cinema. Silent films were shown at first and in 1932 the theatre was wired for sound and ‘talkies’ took over. The demand for live theatre persisted though, and Lillian Bayliss, a woman of immense energy and vision, and manager of London’s Old Vic, presented summer Festivals in Buxton in 1937 and 1939. Among the stars to delight Buxton audiences at this time were Sybil Thorndike, Lewis, Casson, Robert Donat, Anthony Quayle, Robert Morley and Alec Guinness.

Despite its success as a cinema through the fifties and sixties, audiences began to diminish and the Opera House fell into disrepair. In October 1976 the theatre was closed until the Spring and rumours began to circulate that it would never reopen. In 1979 following dedicated work by many people both locally and nationally the Opera House was lovingly restored and an orchestra pit was added to th original Frank Matcham design, otherwise largely unaltered since 1903.

In the late 1990s however it became apparent that the Opera House required further urgent restoration work in order to secure its future into the next century and beyond. An extensive programme of external and internal restoration was undertaken between October 1999 and June of 2001.
Since the completion of this restoration work Buxton Opera House has been at the centre of a remarkable success story and has developed as a community theatre catering for wide-ranging tastes and ages. The theatre continues to attract a host of famous names including Elvis Costello, Steven Berkoff, Peter Kay, Timothy West, Bill Wyman, Ken Dodd, Jo Brand, Honor Blackman, Courtney Pine, Prunella Scales and Willard White.

Festivals Overview
Buxton Opera House is internationally famous as the host of the annual Buxton Festival, International Festival of Gilbert & Sullivan Festivals and most recently, Four-Four Time – The Buxton Opera House Festival of Live Music. Rapidly becoming known as the festival capital of England, Buxton Opera House also stages a number of other festivals throughout the year.

Fringe Information

Fringe Seasons
Buxton Opera House Fringe Seasons are a varied and vital mixture of drama, film and comedy on a smaller scale. Running alongside the main house programme in the more intimate setting of the Paupers Pit Theatre and Upstairs at The Old Clubhouse, the Fringe Seasons offer an opportunity to experience imaginative and unusual performances, classic plays performed in an alternative setting, new works by emerging writers, critically-acclaimed and cutting edge cinema as well as the best in emerging stand-up comedy talent.

Highlights from previous Fringe Seasons have included Café Society’s MEN Drama Award nominated Café Sinatra, In Yer Space’s Hannah and Hanna (Winner of the Buxton Festival Fringe Best Young Actors Award), University of Derby Theatre Arts presentation of Fringe Box Office hit Bess of Hardwick and George Telfer’s critically acclaimed one-man show Gielgud – A Knight in the Theatre. A 2004 Buxton Buzz comedy night also saw an appearance from Alan Carr, now a regular on Channel 4.

Tickets for all Fringe Season performances can be booked in advance from the Opera House Box Office on 0845 127 2190 or on the door.

The Venues
The Paupers Pit Theatre
This 40-seat theatre, downstairs at The Old Hall Hotel, is the main home of our Fringe Seasons: an intimate, black-box space, in the basement of one of Buxton’s most historic buildings.

The theatre derives its name from its proximity to the former Pauper’s Well, a space reserved for the use of poor people wishing to bathe in Buxton’s health giving waters. It offers a varied programme of drama, music and comedy all performed to a high professional standard in an intimate setting. Access to the theatre is via the hotel’s main entrance.

The Old Clubhouse
The upstairs room of The Old Clubhouse is home to our monthly Buxton Buzz comedy nights. With its own bar, and non-smoking in the auditorium itself, it is a friendly, cabaret-style venue, situated immediately across the road (Water Street) from the Opera House, with access via the main entrance. Meals, snacks and bar all available, phone 01298 70117.