On March 8th 1886, the Benson company started a week's performances at the Theatre Royal in Dumfries, the first visit Benson made to the town. The photographs here have come from 'Burns' Scotland' website and show the theatre as it was in 1900. I love old photos of theatres.This theatre, often cited as being the oldest working theatre in Scotland opened on Shakespeare Street in 1792 and Robert Burns and J M Barrie are amongst the famous names connected with its history.
Renovated in the 1890s (by our friend Mr Phipps!) the theatre was purchased in 1959 by the Dumfries Guild of Players. It was threatened with demolition in 2006 and again with closure in 2011. However, finance was secured for renovations in 2013 and the theatre has just launched a fund raising campaign to enable them to afford the 'finishing touches'. They hope to reopen in time for this year's pantomime. (Hopefully the resident ghosts who were featured in 'Mostly Ghostly's Theatre Event' haven't been too inconvenienced by works!)
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It's worrying to see how close it came to closure: interestingly, the theatre was considered to have little architectural value i n 2006 but by 2011 was cited as being a rare example of a surviving Georgian theatre - a salutatory example of how opinions can differ. My last trip to Dumfries was in 2005 and we walked past the theatre on our way back to the station: it looked in need of a lot of TLC. I look forward to revisiting it when it reopens!
(You can support the fund here: https://fundly.com/help-us-finish-our-new-building#gallery/2)
http://www.burnsscotland.com/items/i/image-taken-from-glass-plate-negative-of-the-theatre-royal,-dumfries-c-1900.aspx
