The Queen’s was an early colonial theatre built on occupied land in South Australia only five years after the colony was established in 1836.
Its theatrical importance lies in the history of Shakespeare performance within the context of British Imperial expansion.
Queen’s Theatre in Adelaide, built in 1841, still stands today, sandwiched between apartment tower blocks. The façade was added to the original theatre in 1850.
The Queen’s Theatre today. Exterior photographed by Julie Holledge, 2021.
Today the theatre is an empty shell with three original extant walls; it is still used as a festival performance venue.
Adelaide, 1840s
A sketch from 1842 shows the original façade of the building. It was a key source for the VR modelling project.
Queen’s Theatre, 1842. State Library of South Australia, B4502.
Ground-plan
There are no illustrations of the interior of the original theatre, but this sketched ground-plan was created in 1843 when the theatre was leased as the Colony’s Law Courts. It shows that the auditorium took up two-thirds, and the stage one-third, of the interior space. These spaces are separated by a deep orchestra pit.
Queen’s Ground plan drawn for conversion to Law Courts 1843. Courtesy of State Records of South Australia, Attorney-General’s Department, GRG24/6/0/6/373-1843.
Model
The 1842 sketch and the 1843 ground-plan were key documents for the modelling of the exterior of the building.
The Queen’s Theatre, Adelaide; still from model fly-through by Ortelia.
Auditorium
To model the Queen’s original auditorium, we relied on written descriptions of the seating arrangements that were published as newspaper adverts for the theatre opening in 1841.
Three different seating levels are mentioned in the advertisements: the ground floor pit, the dress circle with side boxes, and the upper gallery.
Description of auditorium from advertisement for opening of the Queen’s theatre, Southern Australian (Adelaide), Friday, 8 January 1841. National Library of Australia.
To ascertain the supports and floor joists for the upper levels, an examination was undertaken of the three extant walls.
Photographs of three extant walls with measurements to create auditorium interior of 1841. Photographed by Peter Kelly; annotations by Peter Kelly and Mary Moore, 2019.
And findings were consulted from an archaeological dig of the stage area conducted in the 1990s.
Diagram from the archaeological report, Queens Theatre Site: Conservation Study (1990), showing excavation of stage area. Important evidence to determine the placing of support posts for dress circle and gallery.
Plans
Combining all the evidence, it was possible to draw up plans of the interior of the building.
CAD drawings created by Peter Kelly and Mary Moore based on archival evidence, 2019.
British Theatres
The shape of the inner edge of the dress circle and the positioning of the machinery on the stage were surmised through research into the British theatres that could have influenced the design of the Queen’s.
This sketch shows the Richmond Theatre in Yorkshire, which is still in use. It is a Georgian theatre, but many of the features remain the same in Regency theatres. It is this latter architectural style that was used for the Queen’s, even though the theatre was built a few years into Queen Victoria’s reign.
Georgian Theatre in Richmond, Yorkshire. Georgian Theatre Royal Richmond and Victorian and Albert Museum.
To get close to the Regency style, we examined the Barnwell Theatre in England because it showed the construction of a dress circle using nine panels to create a curve.
– Barnwell Theatre, Cambridge, UK opened in 1814 (1816?), designed by William Wilkins.
Interior
Using all these archival sources, Mary Moore the VLT designer, created a 3D model, which was translated into CAD drawings by her assistant Peter Kelly, and delivered to Ortelia, for the technical development of the VR Queen’s. This image from inside the VR model is taken from the prompt side boxes in the dress circle.
Mary Moore’s design for Queen’s dress circle.
And this image is taken from the back of the pit in the VR model and shows the stage with the extended proscenium arch with the proscenium doors that are typical of Georgian and Regency British theatres. It also shows the pit that accommodated seven hundred people on the benches and standing along the walls. This number challenges our perceptions of personal space in public places. The spectators would have been packed together like commuters in today’s rush hour public transport, unless they were members of the Adelaide elite sitting on the comfortable chairs in the side boxes of the dress circle.
Mary Moore’s design for extended proscenium with doors.
Designing the interior of the Queen’s auditorium.
Stage Setting
Our next task was to re-create a stage setting from the opening night. The most important item on the playbill was Othello.
Like Komediehuset in Bergen, the scenic design used two-dimensional painted surfaces placed on multiple planes to create the stage picture. The major difference being the proscenium arch at the Queen’s has a large forestage with doors and Juliet balconies.
Silk theatre program for the opening night of Shakepeare's Othello, Queen's Theatre, Gilles Arcade, Currie Street, Adelaide, 1841. State Library of South Australia. The opening was also advertised in the Southern Australian, 8 January 1841, p.. 2.
Reference from Regency Theatre production of Othello. Shows convention of upstage bed and the merging of auditorium decoration and design of interior using wings and borders. Pen and ink and watercolour by Robert Blemell, 25 April 1816, Royal Collection Trust, RCIN 917069.
This illustration from a production of Othello in a major Regency theatre in London demonstrates how the proscenium and auditorium design merges the worlds of the spectators with the fictional location on the stage.
A ground-plan drawn up by Mary Moore for the setting of the last act of Othello on the VR Queen’s stage shows the forestage with the proscenium doors taking up nearly a third of the stage space, while behind it are wings, borders, and a platform to create an inner bed chamber.
Mary Moore’s groundplan for Othello set on Queen’s stage showing proscenium doors, wings, borders, drops, bed and rostra.
This is an example of the artwork showing one set of the wings and a curved border for suspension above the stage.
Example of wings and borders creating stage interior, designed by Mary Moore.
And here is the finished result showing the design for Othello. The harmonising of the décor for the proscenium arch and auditorium has the effect of drawing together the fictional world of the play and the world of the spectators.
Venice setting for Othello at the Queen’s Theatre, designed by Mary Moore.
Bed chamber setting for Othello at the Queen’s Theatre, designed by Mary Moore.