York Theatre Royal
Ian Jones, Food and Drink Editor
York Theatre Royal has been producing great drama in the beautiful city of York for over 270 years and is one of the country’s leading theatres. Each year the theatre entertains over 200,000 people with its wide variety of performances, events and activities including the much loved annual pantomime starring Berwick Kaler, the UK’s longest-running Dame.
Re-opened in 2016 following a five-million-pound redevelopment, the theatre is a nationally important centre for the dramatic arts, well established since its inception in the 1700s. The building itself is an 18th-century structure built on top of the medieval St Leonard’s Hospital, incorporating gothic arches and awe-inspiring pillars. Victorian additions include statuettes of Elizabeth the First and Shakespearean characters.
Seasons often run thematically, for example a recent one was a run of plays from diverse periods and places, all on the theme of love and human connection. Comedy events represent another key arrow in the York Theatre Royal’s quiver, with the likes of Stewart Lee ready to induce belly laughs in the spring, alongside spoken-word nights and family events.
Relatively new to the theatre is a fully accessible patio area, which doubles up as an outdoor performance space, overlooked by both York Minster and Patrick Gwynne’s iconic 1967 theatre foyer — a welcoming and verdant urban area for all the community to use.
