RSC Courtyard Theatre
Subscribe now to instantly view this image
Subscribe to the Architects’ Journal (AJ) for instant access to the AJ Buildings Library, an online database of nearly 2,000 exemplar buildings in photographs, plans, elevations and details.
Already a subscriber? Sign in
A reproach to po-faced attitudes to building in historic centres
Anthony Coleman (website) Download Original
A temporary theatre for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), designed to be dismantled after four years
The theatre was designed so that the Royal Shakespeare Company could continue to put on performances while their main home, The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, was being refurbished.
The Courtyard Theatre is 14m high with an envelope of a specially produced Cor-ten A sheet, made to look like sheet piling. Columns are braced and hidden inside the profiled metal and connected to roof trusses which support the roof and carry the lighting grid and access bridges. The external aesthetic of rusting steel is echoed indoors in balustrades of industrial metal, and by internal walls and seat-backs of raw plywood and a general feel of transience in the decor.
The building accommodates an audience of 1,050. The design developed largely as a response to the complaints about the existing Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the primary home of the RSC (adjacent to the Courtyard Theatre). The Courtyard seating surrounds the stage so that the audience can see the actors’ faces, read every nuance and hear every aside remark. The theatre has a thrust stage configuration.
Data
- Begun: Jun 2005
- Completed: May 2006
- Floor area: 3,570m2
- Sector: Arts and culture
- Total cost: £5.7M
- Tender date: Jun 2005
- Procurement: 3 separate JCT with Contractors Design
- Address: Royal Shakespeare Company, The Courtyard Theatre, Southern Lane, Stratford-upon-Avon, CV37 6BB, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: Ian Ritchie Architects
- Project architects: Anthony Summers, Ian Ritchie, Rui Dias
- Client: RSC Board Members
- Structural engineer: WSP
- Acoustics: Paul Gillieron Acoustic Design
- M&E engineer: King Shaw Associates
- Theatre Services: Charcoalblue
- Quantity surveyor: Gardiner & Theobald
- Project manager: Drivers Jonas
- Main contractor: ZNS Van Dam Geveltechniek
- Planning consultant: Thurley Associates
- Access consultant: Shape
- Main contractor: ZNS Van Dam Geveltechniek
Suppliers
- Stage Electrics: Auditorium electrical contractor
- Carpentry: Desert Oak
