 A 1935 programme for "Crime on the Hill" | |
 | |
| Location | Brentford, London |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 51°29′20″N 0°17′11″W / 51.4890°N 0.2865°W |
| Capacity | 490 |
| Opened | 1924 |
| Closed | March 1958 |
The Q Theatre was a British theatre located near Kew Bridge in Brentford,[1] west London, which operated between 1924 and 1958. It was built on the site of the former Kew Bridge Studios.
The theatre, seating 490 in 25 rows with a central aisle,[2] was opened in 1924 by Jack and Beatie de Leon with the financial support of Jack's sister Delia.[3] It was one of a number of small, committed, independent theatre companies which included the Hampstead Everyman, the Arts Theatre Club and the Gate Theatre Studio. These theatres took risks by producing new and experimental plays which, although often at first thought to be commercially unviable on the West-End stage, later went on to transfer successfully.
Actors including Dirk Bogarde,[4] Joan Collins, Vivien Leigh, Margaret Lockwood, Barry Morse, and Anthony Quayle started their theatrical careers here. Peter Brook, Tony Richardson, Charles Hawtrey and William Gaskell directed plays here and the theatre staged the first plays of Terence Rattigan and William Douglas-Home.
- ^ McNamara, Janet (8 October 2009). "A Brief History of the Q Theatre: the great and the good of British theatre in Brentford". Brentford TW8. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
- ^ Who's Who in the Theatre, 12th edition, Plans of Principal London Theatres
- ^ "Leon, Jack de (1902–1956), theatre manager and impresario". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/74652. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 1 November 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Bogarde, Dirk, A Postillion Struck by Lightning (autobiography) (1977) Chatto & Windus ISBN 0-7011-2207-2