The theatres I knew in the 50s and early sixties were in the
Croydon area. The faded splendour of the Grand Theatre with its slightly moth-eaten
red velvet and chipped gilding left me in no doubt that I was having an evening
at the theatre – I loved it and saw a good number of plays by local and touring
rep companies. The Hippodrome was where I saw the worst Macbeth ever which was
so bad that it caused much laughter; is my memory fading or did I see Vladimir
Horowitz, a truly great pianist, playing mainly Chopin there? The Ashcroft
theatre in the Fairfield Halls – cannot remember what I saw there but, as mentioned
in another post, I did see many great concerts in the Halls. Of course, there
was the Davis Theatre too which was locally believed to be the biggest theatre
in Europe with in excess of two thousand seats – tended to be used as a cinema
and a popular concert venue rather than as a theatre.
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