Remembering Leeds Playhouse

If you take a walk up Calverley Street, which starts between Leeds Town Hall and the Central Library, you will eventually come to a large white-painted building. Now signed as a ‘Conference Auditorium’, if you step inside you will discover a plaque which states:

“Leeds Playhouse. This foundation stone was laid on 25 September 1969 by the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Alderman A.R. Bretherick”.

More well-known is the present Leeds Playhouse on Quarry Hill (even if it is still referred to by many as the West Yorkshire Playhouse) which opened in 1990. But how many people who visit this theatre, perhaps to see one of the usually spectacular Christmas productions, know about the first Leeds Playhouse? It should be better known that without that theatre on Calverley Street, we might not have a Leeds Playhouse today.

Speakers included the actor Peter O’Toole and local playwright Keith Waterhouse, all arguing for a professional repertory theatre in Leeds.The story begins in 1964, when a small group of people, mostly with connections to the University, decided to campaign for a theatre in Leeds, one which would stage its own productions: a regional repertory theatre. They wrote a letter to the Yorkshire Post, and when a reporter decided to run the story he was given an exaggerated number of existing campaigners (150, not 13). So, recruitment was urgently necessary! Also necessary was finding a site for such a theatre. Once the building on Calverley Street became a possibility, campaigners started a petition, presented to the City Council in March 1968 with 21,568 signatures.

If City Councillors were less than enthusiastic about the idea of a new theatre in Leeds, it was perhaps the public meeting which took place at the Town Hall on 5th March 1968 that made all the difference. Speakers included the actor Peter O’Toole and local playwright Keith Waterhouse, all arguing for a professional repertory theatre in Leeds. Waterhouse claimed that a city without such a theatre is a “city without a heart”.

Eventually the City Council committed to support the campaign financially, so when the foundation stone was laid, the majority of the necessary £150,000 had been raised. This might sound cheap: the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield opened a year later at a cost of £884,000. However, the Leeds theatre was only a temporary one: the shell of the building was to be sold to the University after ten years, and the internal structure moved elsewhere.

As things turned out, this first Leeds Playhouse stayed open for twenty years: it took this long to find somewhere else. Nevertheless, it is still fondly remembered by so many people: a smaller, friendly theatre where there was always something going on.

The Leeds Playhouse opened on 17th September 1970 with a play that proved very controversial. Called Simon Says!, it was written especially for the Playhouse by Alan Plater who was at that time better known for his Z-Cars television episodes and for his other play, Close the Coalhouse Door. Simon Says! (Simon was played by Tony Robinson), even if full of music and comedy, was an attack on the establishment. It hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons: Joseph Hiley, the MP for Pudsey, walked out before the end and later told the Yorkshire Evening Post, “As well as being utterly boring, it was vulgar … I have never seen anything so dreadful before”.

Fortunately, when the Royal Gala Performance was held three months later, our future king – just 22 years-old at the time – saw a much less controversial play, Oh Glorious Jubilee!. Nevertheless, the audience reflected the Playhouse’s aim - to be a theatre for all people: some tickets were distributed for free to ‘groups of school children, students, factory-floor workers, seniors and immigrant citizens’.

...the theatre most definitely helped the career of many others who are big names today, including Zoë Wanamaker, Lesley Manville, and Imelda Staunton. Natasha Richardson, who sadly died at the age of just 45...In the twenty years that this first Leeds Playhouse was open, over 200 plays and musicals were produced at the theatre. Every season included a Shakespeare play; 1994 was particularly memorable for The Tempest which starred Paul Scofield as Prospero. The production transferred to London where it achieved the record for being the longest continuous run of a Shakespeare play in the West End.

Paul Scofield was already a very well-known actor when he performed at the Playhouse, but the theatre most definitely helped the career of many others who are big names today, including Zoë Wanamaker, Lesley Manville, and Imelda Staunton. Natasha Richardson, who sadly died at the age of just 45, made her professional stage debut at the Playhouse.

The theatre also gave career breaks to several directors, most significantly Nick Hytner who later became the Artistic Director of the National Theatre (and directed many of Alan Bennett’s plays and films). Michael Attenborough worked at the Playhouse, directing 22 plays over five years. He recently said that, “to work there from the age of 24 was a real privilege, teaching me so much both about directing and being an Artistic director”.

For the first four years, plays were produced in repertory: a company of actors performing three or more plays in the same week. This was hard work for actors, who might be performing two matinees and six evening performances during a week, whilst also rehearsing the next play to join the repertoire. This system was very popular with audiences, who delighted in seeing the same actors in many different and varied roles. Unfortunately, after 1974 the Playhouse could not continue this repertory system – purely for financial reasons.

The first Leeds Playhouse was about much more than the evening and matinee performances. The public could also attend lunchtime short plays, or just enjoy the open-all-day bar and restaurant. They could also visit the regularly-changing art exhibitions in the foyer, mostly the work of Leeds-based painters and sculptors.

The Playhouse was also an important venue for film screenings. The opening Film Gala on 27th September 1970 was attended by Harold Lloyd, the American actor and comedian. Films were regularly shown on Sunday evenings, but there were also late-night screenings, including a season of sci-fi films – and for two 3-D ones full houses were achieved, with people being turned away. There were also screenings for children on Saturday afternoons.

Many people still remember Marc Almond being at the Playhouse, not as a performer in his band Soft Cell but working, flamboyantly dressed, behind the bar.The Playhouse became a significant venue for live music, ranging from jazz bands to string quartets. Particularly popular were performances on Friday evenings, starting at 11:15 p.m. In 1974, the American punk rock band Iggy Pop and The Stooges was booked to appear, but sadly the performance was cancelled: the group had disbanded following a concert which ended in a fight between band members and a group of bikers! Many people still remember Marc Almond being at the Playhouse, not as a performer in his band Soft Cell but working, flamboyantly dressed, behind the bar.

On 20th January 1990, the curtain came down for the last time, with a production of Twelfth Night. Present were many of those who began the campaign for a repertory theatre in the city. Doreen Newlyn, interviewed on that evening for the Yorkshire Post, commented:

“Tonight is wonderful, although we are sad at its closing, it is a birth, in a way, of a new theatre too. We saw this as the little man’s struggle against insuperable odds”.

That new theatre was, of course, the West Yorkshire Playhouse, which opened just two months later. Then began another story!


This article was conceived and written by Dave Stannard

Dave is the author of Leeds Playhouse: A Tale of Two Theatres, published by Naked Eye (2024)

More information here.