Theatres - Haymarket Theatre Royal

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Flare Path ( Haymarket Theatre Royal ) - Play

Trevor Nunn directs Sienna Miller in Terence Rattigan's Flare Path - his first production as Artistic Director of the Theatre Royal Haymarket Company. A story of love, loyalty and desire set at the height of the Second World War. In a country house hotel on the edge of RAF Bomber Command airfield, the women wait for news of their husbands return from a dangerous bombing mission behind enemy lines. The lives of a newly married RAF bomber pilot and his actress wife, Patricia, are thrown into upheaval by the unexpected night mission. The arrival of Peter Kyle, a Hollywood star, and the outcome of the night raid on Germany, throws up a conflict of love and duty for Patricia. With life and relationships hanging in the balance, will the lights of the flare path welcome the courageous airmen back home? Based on Rattigan's own experiences as a tail gunner in the RAF during the Second World War, he later reworked Flare Path into a screenplay and in 1954 the re-titled The Way to the Stars starring Michael Redgrave was released.Cast will also include Sheridan Smith (Legally Blonde the Musical) and James Purefoy.

Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead ( Haymarket Theatre Royal ) - Play

Trevor Nunn realizes a forty year old dream by at last directing Tom Stoppard's first masterpiece Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead as the second production of his captivating season at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. A verbally scintillating and richly inventive play, Stoppard retells Hamlet through the eyes of two of its minor characters. Vaguely conscious that they are bit parts in a much bigger story of which they have no direct knowledge, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hilariously and poignantly inhabit a world completely beyond their grasp. The cast features Samuel Barnett as Rosencrantz, Jamie Parker as Guildenstern and Tim Curry as The Player.

Haymarket Theatre Royal

Haymarket
London SW1Y 4HT

Nearest Tube: Piccadilly Circus
Nearest Bus Stop: 14, 19, 22, 24, 29, 38, 40, 176

There has been a theatre in this part of the Haymarket since 1720, the first one being called The Little Theatre In the Haymarket. The theatre was granted a Royal patent in 1766. The present theatre, which was designed by John Nash and opened in 1821, was so designed so that the front Corinthian portico could be seen from St James Square. The auditorium was rebuilt twice, firstly in 1979 (reopening on 31 January 1880) when works included the enclosure of the stage in the first complete picture frame proscenium. More controversial was the abolition of the pit by the introduction of stalls seating which caused a small riot. The interior was again completely reconstructed 15 years later (reopening 2 January 1905) and it is the 1905 one that can be seen today. More alterations were made from 1939 to 1941 which included the construction of the large bar area under the stalls seating area. In 1994 some Â£1.3 million was spent in a major refurbishment of the theatre.

During the 1730's Henry Fielding produced a number of satires attacking both political parties and the Royal Family which so incensed the government of the day that censorship of plays by the Lord Chamberlain was introduced in 1737, the act was not repealed until September 1968.

It was at this theatre that Lily Langtry made her debut in 1881. Oscar Wilde's "An Ideal Husband" and "A Woman Of No Importance" both premiered here. The theatre has a reputation for presenting good serious plays, and the list of actors and actresses who have appeared here over the years, reads like a who's who of the British acting establishment.