Minack Theatre

... overlooks the sea near the village of Porthcurno, in the far south–west of Cornwall (about four miles south–east of Land's End). It's built on a granite headland, which slopes steeply so that the audience can see the sea beyond the stage.

The theatre was the brainchild of Rowena Cade, who moved to Cornwall with her mother after the First World War and built a house on land at Minack Point for £100. In 1929, a local village group of players had staged A Midsummer Night's Dream in a nearby meadow at Crean, repeating the production the following year. They decided that their next production would be The Tempest, and Miss Cade offered the garden of her house as a suitable location, as it was beside the sea. Miss Cade and her gardener, Billy Rawlings, made a terrace and rough seating, hauling materials down from the house or up from the beach. The Tempest was performed in 1932 and was a great success.

Miss Cade resolved to improve the theatre, working over the course of the winter months each year throughout her life.

Since 1976 the theatre has been registered as a Charitable Trust and is now run by a local management team. Rowena Cade died on 26 March 1983, at the age of 89.

Minack theatre is currently used from Easter to September each year for a full summer season of 20 plays, produced by companies from all over the UK and visiting companies from the USA. It is open for visitors throughout the year; each year some 80,000 people watch a play, and more than 100,000 others pay an entrance fee to look around the site.

This page is an edited version of Wikipedia's article on Minack Theatre.