Old Vic Theatre

Old Vic Theatre, theater in London, known for its productions of the plays of English poet and playwright William Shakespeare. Called the Royal Coburg Theatre when it opened in 1818, it was for many years a popular site for the production of melodrama, the most widely performed theatrical fare of the 19th century. In 1833 it was renamed the Royal Victoria Theatre. In 1880 the building was bought by the British social reformer Emma Cons for the presentation of lectures, concerts, and other offerings for the moral and spiritual enlightenment of the neighborhood. It was then known as the Royal Victorian Music Hall, and later, popularly, as the Old Vic. In 1898 Cons was joined in the management of the music hall by her niece, Lilian Mary Baylis.

In 1914, under Baylis's management, the theater was organized as a nonprofit institution, devoted to the production in repertory of Shakespeare's plays and of opera performed in the English language. By 1923 the Old Vic had produced all of Shakespeare's plays. From 1946 to 1951 the Old Vic Theatre School, connected with the Old Vic Theatre, flourished under the French director Michel Saint-Denis. The Old Vic Theatre building itself, severely damaged by bombs during World War II (1939-1945), was rebuilt and reopened in 1950. The repertory company appeared from 1946 to 1963, performing in many countries of the world and including many leading actors of the British theater.

In 1943 the Old Vic sent a company to perform at the Theatre Royal in Bristol, England. In 1946 the Bristol Old Vic was established as a permanent repertory company. The National Theatre of the United Kingdom, under the direction of noted English actor, producer, and director Laurence Olivier, took over the London Old Vic in 1963, and the Bristol group continued separately, subsidized by the Arts Council of the United Kingdom; the Bristol group also maintained a theater school and a repertory company. In 1970 the National Theatre created the experimental Young Vic Theatre; housed in its own London theater, the Young Vic soon became independent. When the National Theatre moved into its own headquarters in 1976, the Old Vic Theatre was closed. It was refurbished and reopened late in 1983, but closed again in late 1997 after its Canadian owners put the building up for sale. A group of supporters formed The Old Vic Theatre Trust to purchase and maintain the theatre, and the theatre reopened in 1998. American actor Kevin Spacey was appointed artistic director of the Old Vic in 2003.