Visitor remembers 90 years of theatre in Stratford
The RSC welcomed a very special guest recently when 100 year old Henry Rollin visited Stratford-upon-Avon.
Henry remembers the original theatre built in 1879, known at the time as the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre.
As a schoolboy Henry came to see a production in the theatre in 1922, when he was 11, just four years before a fire ravaged the theatre, leaving only a shell.
A competition was held to build a new playhouse and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre opened in 1932. The original 1879 building eventually re-opened in 1986 as The Swan Theatre.
To celebrate his 100th birthday Henry came to see the RSC's current production of The Merchant of Venice, but we were also able to show him inside the Swan Theatre, the space in which he experienced his first taste of Shakespeare almost 90 years ago.