How the Barbican Theatre has rivalled the West End for four decades
Our Toast the City Awards are celebrating the City’s top spots and takes place this October. This week: the Barbican Theatre.
Think of the Barbican Centre and you might picture the lakeside suntrap or Brutalist passageways that feel purposefully designed to get lost in. You might not immediately think of the Barbican Theatre, but here’s why you should.
The smaller sibling to the main Barbican Hall, the Barbican Theatre is every bit as attractive as the capital’s more opulent Edwardian venues.
Designed by the Royal Shakespeare Company alongside Barbican Centre architects Chamberlin, Powell & Bon, the Barbican Theatre opened in 1982 alongside the wider Barbican Centre complex. Following an official opening with Queen Elizabeth II in attendance, the first production to play in the space was Trevor Nunn’s Henry IV, Parts I and II.
With a capacity of 1,156 across foyer levels of tiered seating, it was home to the Royal Shakespeare Company until 2002.
The joyful quirks of the Barbican Theatre’s Brutalist architecture
There are some unique features to the building’s Brutalist architecture. Each of the balconies are made with concrete, and their wide, simplistic design contrasts with the classical feel of West End theatres.
Coffee-brown seats are embossed with their number in gold trim and have in-fitted armrests and offer plenty of space. They feel incredibly spacious and luxurious compared with the rest of the capital’s theatres. The most remarkable features are the entrance ways to the stalls: polished wooden doorways automatically open, like the doors to some futuristic rocket ship, to make the journey into the space memorable. There’s a touch of drama to an evening at the Barbican Theatre before the show has begun.
As the lights dim and the performance starts, the doors shut at precisely the same time. It’s incredibly pleasing watching them twist closed as a final moment before turning to face the stage.
The Barbican Theatre has lately played host to some incredible shows, including a five-star adaptation of the musical Follies, a brilliant production of Fiddler on the Roof and Sean Hayes’ West End debut in new musical drama Goodnight, Oscar. After the show have a drink at the Martini Bar, an intimate late-night space that feels surprisingly hedonistic.