Malvern Theatres

The Festival Theatre, now known as Malvern Theatres, is a theatre complex on Grange Road in Malvern, Worcestershire, England. Malvern Theatres, housed in the Winter Gardens complex in the town centre of Great Malvern, has been a provincial centre for the arts since 1885. The theatre became known for its George Bernard Shaw productions in the 1930s and from 1977 onwards, along with the works of Edward Elgar. Up until 1965, 19 different plays of Shaw were produced at the Malvern Festival Theatre, and six premiered here, including The Apple Cart at the opening Malvern Festival in 1929, Geneva, a Fancied Page of History in Three Acts in August 1938 and In Good King Charles's Golden Days in August 1939.

Over its history the theatre and festival has closed several times, including during World War II, in the early 1960s, in the early 1970s, and in the late 1990s when a new complex was built with an 850-seat Festival Theatre, a Forum Theatre, a 400-seat cinema, and a bar and restaurant.

In 1883, a bid was put in for the land in Malvern, then known as the Promenade Gardens, with the idea of building a centre of the arts in the town. Funding was raised by a company dedicated to building the theatre, and 200 shares amounting to £5 each were allotted. The foundation stone of the assembly rooms of the theatre was laid down by the Earl Beauchamp on 6 July 1884, attended by Jenny Lind, Lady Emily Foley and Dr. W. T. Fernie. The theatre was inaugurated on 1 July 1885.

The Festival Theatre of Malvern became known for its George Bernard Shaw productions in the 1930s. Michael W. Pharand considers the friendship and artistic relationship between Bernard Shaw and Barry Vincent Jackson to have "probably had its greatest flowering with the Malvern Festival". Shaw, a resident of Malvern. also regularly enjoyed watching theatrical productions by other playwrights for pleasure. The first Malvern Drama Festival took place for a fortnight from 19 August 1929, and was organised by Jackson and dedicated to Bernard Shaw. The English première of The Apple Cart took place at this festival and was performed four times, and Shaw's Back to Methuselah,Heartbreak House and Caesar and Cleopatra were also shown.The Apple Cart, starring Julian d'Albie and Rita John, went on to appear at the New Theatre, Cambridge, in May 1930. Shaw's Geneva, a Fancied Page of History in Three Acts, a satire on European political ideologies, was first performed at Malvern on 1 August 1938 by Roy Limbert, and after four runs, productions were put on at the Saville and St. James Theatres in London. A year later, Shaw's In Good King Charles's Golden Days, his last before World War II, premiered at Malvern on 12 August 1939 and was performed six times before moving to Streatham Hill Theatre and the New Theatre in 1940.James Bridie's The Sleeping Clergyman in two acts was performed at the theatre from 29 July 1933. A summer Malvern festival production of Volpone in 1935 received much greater acclaim here than it had at previous theatres such as Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

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