Qualla: The Old Vic https://qualla.com/the-old-vic en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:14 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/the-old-vic-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: The Old Vic https://qualla.com/the-old-vic The Old Vic: Introduction https://qualla.com/the-old-vic/ Photo credit Yair Haklai, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Old Vic stands on the corner of Waterloo Road and The Cut, in the same building it has occupied since 11 May 1818, when it opened as the Royal Coburg Theatre under the patronage of Princess Charlotte and her German husband Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. It was, by the standards of its early years, a minor theatre on the wrong side of the river - across the Thames from the licensed houses of Covent Garden and Drury Lane, in the kind of London that respectable people did not visit. In 1825 a young Black American actor named Ira Aldridge played here in only his second job in the country. By the time he died in 1867 he was one of the biggest stars in Europe. The journey of the Old Vic is, in many ways, his journey - a place that started at the edge and ended up at the centre.

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Image: Yair Haklai | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/the-old-vic-wp/gcpu-the-old-vic-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full The Old Vic: Edmund Kean's Insult https://qualla.com/the-old-vic/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1824 the lease passed to George Bolwell Davidge, who tried to elevate the repertoire by bringing the legendary Edmund Kean across the river to play six Shakespeare plays in six nights. The audiences, perhaps unused to high tragedy, were not at their best behaviour. At his curt...

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Image: CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/the-old-vic-wp/gcpu-the-old-vic-edmund-keans-insult.mp3 0:06 2 full The Old Vic: Royal Victoria https://qualla.com/the-old-vic/ Photo credit Reading Tom from Reading, UK, CC BY 2.0. On 1 July 1833 the theatre was renamed the Royal Victoria, under the protection of the Duchess of Kent, mother to the fourteen-year-old Princess Victoria who would become queen four years later. The princess visited only once. She enjoyed the performance - light opera and dance, ...

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Image: Reading Tom from Reading, UK | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/the-old-vic-wp/gcpu-the-old-vic-royal-victoria.mp3 0:06 3 full The Old Vic: Emma Cons and Coffee https://qualla.com/the-old-vic/ Photo credit Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK, CC BY 2.0. In 1880 the theatre was bought by a remarkable Victorian reformer named Emma Cons, who renamed it the Royal Victoria Hall and Coffee Tavern and ran it on strict temperance lines - no alcohol, evenings of penny lectures and improving entertainment for the working poor of Lambeth. ...

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Image: Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/the-old-vic-wp/gcpu-the-old-vic-emma-cons-and-coffee.mp3 0:06 4 full The Old Vic: Lilian Baylis https://qualla.com/the-old-vic/ Photo credit YellowFratello, CC BY-SA 3.0. Cons died in 1912 and the theatre passed to her niece Lilian Baylis - a tough, cockney-accented manager with an emotional commitment to two things: Shakespeare and opera at prices working people could afford. Between 1914 and her death in 1937, Baylis produced the entire Shakespe...

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Image: YellowFratello | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/the-old-vic-wp/gcpu-the-old-vic-lilian-baylis.mp3 0:06 5 full The Old Vic: Blitz and the National https://qualla.com/the-old-vic/ Photo credit Peter Broster, CC BY 2.0. The Old Vic was badly damaged during the Blitz in 1940 and the company spent the war touring, based in Burnley in Lancashire. In 1944 it re-established itself in London with Olivier and Richardson as its stars, performing at the New Theatre (now the Noël Coward) until the Old Vic...

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Image: Peter Broster | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/the-old-vic-wp/gcpu-the-old-vic-blitz-and-the-national.mp3 0:06 6 full The Old Vic: Spacey, and After https://qualla.com/the-old-vic/ Photo credit Otto Colwill, CC BY 3.0. After complete refurbishment in 1985 and several decades of varied fortunes, Kevin Spacey was appointed artistic director in 2003 in a blaze of publicity. His tenure produced some excellent work and some failures, including a Richard III directed by Sam Mendes in 2011. He stepped...

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Image: Otto Colwill | CC BY 3.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/the-old-vic-wp/gcpu-the-old-vic-spacey-and-after.mp3 0:06 7 full