Happy birthday Swan Theatre

This weekend marks 30 years since we opened the Swan Theatre.

Opened in 1986, the Swan Theatre is a favourite space for many actors, directors and audiences.

When the theatre was constructed, its brief was ‘to present the plays that inspired Shakespeare and which he inspired’. It was a space to stage the plays of Shakespeare's contemporaries, the writers alongside whom he worked, and who shaped the plays he wrote.

group of men and women seated on wooden staging in burgundy opulent dress. Gregory Doran is perched above them on a banister — Our now Artistic Director Gregory Doran seated on the bannister in Ben Jonson's The New Inn, 1987.
Joe Cocks Studio © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Browse and license our images

Shakespeare’s contemporaries in the Swan Theatre

Since the Swan Theatre opened in 1986, we have presented nine of Ben Jonson plays, from Every Man in his Humour, with Pete Postlethwaite and Simon Russell Beale, to this year’s The Alchemist
With Dido, Queen of Carthage next autumn we will have presented all the major works by Christopher Marlowe in the Swan, with the exception of the incomplete The Massacre at Paris
We have mounted productions of a number of great plays by (or attributed to) Thomas Middleton, including The Revenger's Tragedy, The Changeling directed by Michael Attenborough in 1992, and Women beware Women in 2006 and The Roaring Girl
John Webster's two great plays The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil have both been performed in the Swan
John Ford wrote only a few plays and we have produced the most famous: Tis Pity she's a Whore in 1991, with Saskia Reeves and Jonathan Cullen as the incestuous siblings
We presented Thomas Dekker’s greatest play The Shoemaker's Holiday in 2014

Here are some of the highlights from plays by Shakespeare's contemporaries during the past 30 years:

Annette McLaughlin as Lady Politic Would-Be, wearing a blue dress and bending over Henry Goodman's Volpone, who is in a hospital gown, to take a selfie

Annette McLaughlin and Henry Goodman as Lady Politic Would-Be and Volpone in Volpone, Swan Theatre, 2015

Photo by Manuel Harlan © RSC – Image Licensing

Production image of David Troughton as Simon Eyre.

David Troughton as Simon Eyre in The Shoemaker's Holiday.

Photo by Pete Le May © RSC – Image Licensing

A production photo from the 2005 show Believe What You Will

Believe What You Will (renamed from Believe as You List), written by Philip Massinger was performed in 2005 as part of our Gunpowder season.

Photo by Manuel Harlan © RSC – Image Licensing

A picture from The Roman Actor which shows Paris the tragedian on the left and Domitian Caesar on the right, wearing a green toga, gauntlets and a crown

A picture of Paris and Domitian on stage in the The Roman Actor, directed by Sean Holmes. This powerful show took to the stage of the Swan in 2002, and was also staged in London and Newcastle.

Photo by John Haynes © RSC – Image Licensing

A black and white picture from The Silent Woman 1989 showing Epicoene (left) in a wedding dress, Sir Amorous La Foole (middle) dressed as a jester, and Madame Centaur (right) in a dress

A picture from The Silent Woman 1989 showing Epicœne (left), Sir Amorous La Foole (middle), and Madame Centaur (right). The show was directed by Danny Boyle in his days before Trainspotting.

Photo by Joe Cocks © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust – Image Licensing

A black and white image of Edward II with the king dressed majestically centre stage, surrounded by kneeling subjects.

Simon Russell Beale was Edward II in Gerard Murphy's 1990 staging of Edward II.

Photo by Joe Cocks © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust – Image Licensing

An image from the Tamer Tamed at the Swan Theatre showing Alexandra Gilbreath leading a dance in a patterned red dress in front of seven other actresses

Maria was played by Alexandra Gilbreath in Gregory Doran's 2003 version of The Tamer Tamed.

A black and white image of Hugh Quarshie carrying armour with a similar aesthetic to a fencing mask

The Two Noble Kinsmen opened in the Swan Theatre in 1986. Hugh Quarshie played Arcite and Gerard Murphy was Palamon.

Photo by Donald Cooper © Donald Cooper / photstage.co.uk – Image Licensing

Hayley Atwell as Bianca in Women Beware Women wearing a grey dress

Laurence Boswell directed the 2006 staging of Women Beware Women. Penelope Wilton and Tim Pigott-Smith also featured in the play.

Photo by Manuel Harden © RSC – Image Licensing

A black and white image of Sean Bean, Imelda Staunton and Pete Postlethwaite kneeling in the centre of the stage looking out into the distance.

Trevor Nunn was the director of our 1986 performance of The Fair Maid of the West, which featured Pete Postlethwaite (left), Sean Bean (middle) and Imelda Staunton (right).

Photo by Joe Cocks © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust – Image Licensing

In the picture Sejanus has been knocked to the floor by Macro and is about to be attacked from above - his crown has fallen off his head and he is yelling

Directed by Gregory Doran, Sejanus was a 2005 Roman thriller with William Houston as Sejanus and Peter De Jersey as Macro.

Photo by Stewart Hemley © RSC – Image Licensing

This image shows Alex Jennings in a suit portraying Fairfield, he is sitting on a seat conversing with a woman in a dress.

This black and white photo shows Alex Jennings as Fairfield. This version of Hyde Park (1984) transports the action to a post First World War Bloomsbury setting.

Photo by Joe Cocks © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust – Image Licensing

On the right Tim McInnery plays Soranzo, who is dressed in an impressive red gown being questioned by Celia Gregory who plays Hippolita on the left

Joe Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore was directed by David Leveaux in 1991, and cast Celia Gregory (left) as Hippolita and Tim McInnerny (right) as Soranzo.

Photo by Joe Cocks © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust – Image Licensing