The Theatre Royal closed on 2 May 1970 with a performance of As You Like It, after which Dame Sybil Thorndike delivered an epilogue.
The impetus for the redevelopment around an unaltered auditorium came from the availability of the Coopers. Hall and the land behind it for inclusion in the scheme, made possible by the move from King Street of Bristol's Covent Garden quarter. For many years the Coopers. Hall had been used as a fruit and vegetable warehouse and auction room.
By linking two famous 18th Century buildings, the Theatre and the Cooper's guildhall, a splendid new entrance and much needed foyer and bar space were created.
Behind the proscenium arch, a new, much enlarged, and unranked stage and fly tower were constructed, with a large paint-frame and workshop area adjacent. A rehearsal room, wardrobe, dressing rooms, and production offices completed the new facilities backstage. The redevelopment produced five times the floor area of the old building.
New administrative offices were built on the site of the old entrance to the theatre over a Studio Theatre, the New Vic. This was always seen as the artistic crux of the redevelopment: a small, flexible, and black box space to balance and complement the traditional 18th Century auditorium. It was paid for by a grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
The total cost of redevelopment, £800,000, was financed by grants from the Arts Council, the City of Bristol, various Charitable Trusts, the proceeds of a Public Appeal and a mortgage.
From 1972, the Bristol Old Vic ran three theatres concurrently in the City, presenting more than thirty plays a year, until relinquishing the Little Theatre in 1980¸ a unique achievement in British regional theatre.
Artistic Directors that have led the Company through its history have been, Hugh Hunt, Alan Davies, Dennis Carey, John Moody, Val May, Richard Cotterell, John David, Leon Ruebin, Paul Unwin, Andy Hay, David Farr and Simon Reade.
Appearing this month in 1951
Title: Love's Labour's Lost Author: William Shakespeare