Venue Hire

At the RSC we have venues for conferences, meetings, wedding ceremonies and receptions, parties, dinners and much more.

Thank you for your continued interest in hiring a space at the Royal Shakespeare Company. We are working on plans to get our exciting spaces opened for hires and events soon and will update this page when bookings and site visits are available.

Meanwhile the RSC is available as a location for filming and photography shoots.

Our rooms

The Buzz Goodbody Room

Upstairs at The Other Place sits a room devoted to the woman responsible for establishing the venue.

Like Joan Littlewood, the firebrand director whose life was celebrated at the Swan Theatre in Miss Littlewood this year, Buzz Goodbody wanted to promote a very different style of theatre to that seen elsewhere at the RSC. With The Other Place, named after a reference to Hell in Hamlet, she created a home for experimental theatre that still hosts our annual Mischief Festivals, as well as music and poetry nights throughout the year.

Her real name was Mary, but she got the nickname Buzz because of how she was always buzzing around when she was a child. She grew up to be a feminist and member of the Communist Party with a desire to produce theatre accessible to a wide audience. Goodbody was the first ever female director to work for the RSC but died aged just 28, shortly after the opening of her production of Hamlet starring Ben Kingsley. Because the original The Other Place was a corrugated iron building, she is sometimes referred to as ‘the tin hut revolutionary’, and rumour has it that when the tin hut closed in 1989 it was sent over to Ireland to be used as a pig store!

The Buzz Goodbody Room is used as a rehearsal space for many RSC shows, and can also be hired out for meetings and events for up to 16 people.

This image shows the back wall of the room, which is covered in pictures and clippings about Goodbody.

Read more about Buzz Goodbody

Photo by Elin Englund-Barnes © RSC Browse and license our images

Rooftop Restaurant

The Rooftop Restaurant sits where the balcony for the old theatre once was. The seats attached to the wall are some of the original seats that would have been the furthest away from the stage in the whole auditiorium – a massive 27 metres from the stage, when no one is more than 15 metres away in the new theatre. 1930s’ actor Baliol Holloway once described it as being like “standing on the White Cliffs of Dover and acting over to France!”

The Relic Wall in the restaurant is covered in posters and programmes from past productions, giving visitors a sense of the history of this building.

Tables can be reserved for special dinners or the entire restaurant can be privately hired.

 

Photo by Emma Trimble © RSC Browse and license our images

The Round Room

Part of the Rooftop Restaurant in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the Round Room is in the space that used to house the old Balcony Bar.

There are rumours that the room is haunted, as a builder tragically fell to his death there in 1932 during the building’s construction. One night, after the bar had closed, a member of staff had a strange experience when counting the evening’s takings. The money that had been neatly piled up on the counter was suddenly lifted up and scattered to the floor, as if by an unseen hand.

This private room is hireable for business meetings, private dining and wedding ceremonies, holding up to 24 people.

 

Photo by Sara Beaumont © RSC Browse and license our images

Ashcroft Room

This rehearsal space was named after Dame Peggy Ashcroft, one of the first actors invited by Sir Peter Hall to join his long-term ensemble for the 1960 season. She appeared in many major productions, including Othello with John Gielgud and as the title role in The Duchess of Malfi. The room was named after her when then-Artistic Director Adrian Noble suggested that the space be named in her honour.

This picture shows the cast for the 2017 production of Coriolanus in rehearsals in the Ashcroft Room.

Please note, the Ashcroft Room is not available for public hire.

 

Photo by Helen Maybanks © RSC Browse and license our images

Scott Bar

Named in 2010 in memory of Elisabeth Scott who designed the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, the Scott Bar is in the area that originally held the theatre foyer and box office. Scott was the first woman in the world to design a major theatre and was just 29 when she was appointed.

Visitors to the Scott Bar can also see figures carved in situ by Eric Kennington, who travelled with and illustrated the works of Lawrence of Arabia. The carvings each represent a different emotion from Shakespeare’s plays, including love and treachery.

The Scott Bar can be hired for events. 

 

Photo by David Tett © RSC Browse and license our images

Circle Bar

On the site of the former Box Tree Restaurant, this bar is also sometimes used by the Voice Department and Movement Directors to go through individual sessions with actors from the Company.

There are rumours of a ghost around the Circle and Upper Circle: a lady in a 1920s-style grey dress with brown hair in a bob. The Grey Lady is still sometimes seen in the bar area, often being mistaken for a real person until the moment she vanishes.

Now, this art deco bar overlooking the River Avon is used for drinks receptions, wedding ceremonies and meetings for up to 60 people.

 

Photo by Gina Print © RSC Browse and license our images

Swan Theatre

The most historic space in the whole theatre complex, the Swan Theatre sits on the grounds formerly inhabited by the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. Local brewer Charles Edward Flower was the driving force behind the original theatre, but it was later destroyed by fire in 1926. The Swan Theatre was then built in 1986 with the RSC’s first thrust stage. After performing as Henry VIII in Wolf Hall, actor Nathaniel Parker described the Swan Theatre as the finest acting space in the country.

 

Photo by David Woodings © RSC Browse and license our images

Royal Shakespeare Theatre

Like the smaller Swan Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre stage can be hired for wedding ceremonies, conferences and meetings.

 

Photo by David Tett © RSC Browse and license our images
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