Bristol Old Vic

In 1766 George III was on the throne, William Pitt the Elder was prime minister and there were 'bread and butter riots' across the country after a poor harvest.

But civil unrest did not stop the doors opening at the Bristol Old Vic, then known simply as Theatre Bristol.

Against the odds the theatre survived and flourished - over the next 250 years some of the most famous names in acting have treaded the boards.

Bristol Old Vic is internationally acclaimed as a creative powerhouse and Pamela Parkes looks back at its story. 

"It's extraordinary to think about it," says artistic director Tom Morris. 

“No theatre in Great Britain has survived for 250 years – this theatre is the first one.”

“By sheer luck this is the one that happened to survived and it’s here in Bristol.”

It was a risky business investing in 18th century theatrical enterprises.

Lit by candles and with a distinct lack of health and safety, most theatres lasted on average 17 years before burning down or closing. Getting a return on your money was no sure thing, but the odds did not put off 50 enterprising Bristol citizens who invested £50 each into the project. 

In exchange they received a 'silver ticket', which entitled them to a "sight" of any show in the theatre for the rest of their life. 

The stakes were high - the theatre did not have a royal patent and was illegal when it opened on May 30 1766.

With politicians often the subject of satirical plays 18th century theatre was heavily censored.

The 1737 Licensing Act made it illegal to stage plays without royal permission, so management had to be creative - when the theatre opened it was hidden away with no direct access to the street.

To gain admission people would knock on the door of a house belonging to a man called Mr Foote and walk through his backyard to the theatre entrance. 

The first performance in the theatre was of Richard Steele's The Conscious Lovers - it included a prologue and epilogue given by David Garrick.

It took another 22 years of creative marketing to stay open and avoid the authorities, but the theatre was finally awarded its Royal Patent in 1788.

It was finally allowed to openly advertise its performances and to call itself The Bristol Theatre Royal or the Theatre Royal, Bristol.

With royal patronage came redevelopment. 

In 1800, the actor-manager William Wyatt Dimond took over the lease of the theatre and built a new gallery into the attic and converted the old gallery, at upper circle level, into boxes. 

During this period, the theatre was run jointly with the Theatre Royal, Bath with a single company performing in both theatres on different days of the week.

The good times were not to last though and by the 1930s the theatre was in a state of disrepair - a victim to the thrills of the cinema.

By 1942 all seemed lost when The Bristol Theatre was sold at auction for £10,500 to the Metal Agencies Company, who planned to turn it into a banana ripening warehouse. 

Bristolians rose up in support and at a crowded public meeting, inspired by the success of the Old Vic in London, it was suggested that the theatre should become “Bristol's Old Vic”. 

It was a turning point and throughout the 1940s and 50s, the new Bristol Old Vic Company was on a roll with a dazzling array of actors from Peter O'Toole,  Rosemary Harris to Cyril Cusack and a range of hit productions. 

But the good times were not to last and a refurbishment in the 1970s was highly controversial. 

In order to achieve a huge flat stage and fly-tower the original stage housing was knocked down and the original stage and 19th century machinery beneath it moved. 

It badly damaged the acoustics and made much of the auditorium useless, because the audience couldn’t see the new stage from the old seats. 

The refurbishment ran out of money, which meant that the rehearsal rooms were never finished and the whole seating area in the auditorium was left entirely untouched. 

The theatre floundered on until 2007 when a new board of trustees was formed. 

London theatrical luminaries Tom Morris, co-director of War Horse, and Emma Stenning, who worked closely with Morris when the pair were both at the Battersea Arts Centre, were appointed in 2009 and a multi-million pound refurbishment project began.

By September 2012 the first phase of the £12m works was completed to restore the Georgian auditorium, rehearsal and office spaces.

The continuing transformation of the theatre falls on the shoulders of chief executive Stenning. 

She is overseeing the second stage of the refurbishment to transform the front of house spaces, including the removal of the 1960s extension so that the theatre will be able to seen from King Street for the very first time.

"What we need to do is cherish and celebrate the heritage aspect of the building while putting in place the kind of facilities that modern audiences want," she says.

“I have a...10-year timeframe thinking about what the Bristol Old Vic is as a business and how we protect that. 

"I want to make sensible decisions to stay strong, solvent and stable and able to continue to make shows.”

Ever since the theatre's opening production in 1766, which featured a performance by the great David Garrick, some of the biggest names in the acting world have played at the theatre.

Sarah Siddons, Peter O’Toole, Daniel Day-Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite, Brian Blessed, Olivia Colman, Jeremy Irons, Patrick Stewart and Judi Dench have all performed.

In 1955 a little known Peter O'Toole joined the company as a junior player. 

He quickly went on to dominate the Old Vic stage in a series of memorable roles playing everyone from panto dames to his iconic performance in Hamlet in 1957.

He revived the role at the National Theatre in 1963 under the direction of Laurence Olivier, and in an interview with Huw Weldon in October 1983 for the BBC's Monitor he speaks about the pivotal effect the role had on his career.

The theatre has not just attracted on-stage stars - Tom Morris, known the world over for his work on War Horse at the National Theatre, has been one of the driving forces behind the Old Vic since he came to Bristol as artistic director in 2009.

It fell to him to put together a year-long celebration of 250 years of theatre in Bristol and he has written a new adaptation of Shakespeare's play called Lear: 2016, with Timothy West playing the titular role.

The cast will include 18 actors from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2016. 

West – who first performed at BOV in 1967 – said: "To step out onto the stage at Bristol Old Vic again is something I'm hugely looking forward to. 

"2016 is a very important year for the theatre but also quite an important year for William Shakespeare, so it is a special occasion for me to do King Lear with Bristol Old Vic and the theatre school."

The theatre is not celebrating its 250 year history quietly.

An anniversary programme featuring five world-class productions – one from each century of the theatre's life – as well as the Tom Morris adaptation of King Lear to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, has been planned.

"Since it was built this theatre has always been about the future," says Morris.

"It has a 250-year history of looking forward. The theatre survived by being inventive. The theatre survived by being playful.

"At the same time as feeling the weight of that history our job is to work with the imagination, to do unusual things and to inspire people."

The 20th Century will be celebrated through Richard Eyre's staging of the classic Long Day’s Journey Into Night, starring Jeremy Irons and Lesley Manville.

This is the first time the acclaimed director has directed a production at Bristol Old Vic, the place which inspired him as a schoolboy to work in theatre after seeing Peter O’Toole play Hamlet in 1957.

"That evening ignited a lifetime's attraction to theatre," said Eyre.

"To be back here over 50 years later to direct a play during the 250th anniversary is a real thrill. To direct Long Day’s Journey Into Night - one of the greatest (and saddest) plays ever written - is a real privilege."

Starring in the production is Jeremy Irons, who studied at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and began his career on stage at Bristol Old Vic.

"I am so proud to be returning to my roots. Where I studied and began to learn about acting. And to be accompanied by Richard Eyre and Leslie Manville and possibly America's greatest play, is a dream come true

Returning to the Old Vic to represent the 21st century is Pink Mist, the critically acclaimed Bristol Old Vic production written by poet Owen Sheers. 

The verse play about Bristolian servicemen returning from Afghanistan, comes back after its premiere at Bristol Old Vic in 2015 and a run at the Bush Theatre, London.

The 19th Century is represented by the return of Bristol Old Vic's Jane Eyre which transfers back from the National.