Foyer

Our gorgeous light-filled foyer wraps round the auditorium in a U-shape. From the main entrance, it goes right to the café and the south foyer overlooking the Green; left to the Box Office, the Foyer Stage (see below), and the QBar (see below); and from both sides, stairs and a lift take you down to the ladies’ and gents’ toilets, an accessible toilet and the baby changing area.

Café

The corner café offers a wide selection of drinks, hot meals, and snacks. Check out the Food and Drink page for more information.

Q Bar

The bar is located between the Foyer Stage and the auditorium. It’s a delightfully intimate place to hang out and chat.

Foyer Stage

The Foyer Stage is our melting pot, where new work and new acts can try out. Come here for new plays, poetry, stand-up comedy, music and more.

Main house

The main auditorium seats up to 507 people. The auditorium is constructed in a design called a “continental rake” which makes it more like a bowl than a ramp shape. It feels surprisingly intimate, and there’s not a bad seat in the house.

You enter the auditorium at row E – rows A to D are lower than this, and rows F to R are up stairs. If you have mobility requirements, then please let us know when you book, and we’ll help to manage your booking to make it as easy as possible to find your seats.

Backstage

The main stage is where most of our performances take place. At rest, it’s a blank sheet – a flat wooden surface, with spaces to the sides (the “wings”), the high fly tower overhead, and soft masking (curtains, basically, but very very big ones and made of black wool serge which helps to soak up any stray light) to hide the offstage areas.

Stage left and right – how do you work them out? Well, if you’re standing on the stage and looking at the audience, your left is stage left, and your right is stage right. (If you’re not sure about your left and your right, then think about having it written on your wellies.)

Overhead are the theatre lighting and sound equipment – the configuration changes on a show-by-show basis, depending on the set and the lighting and sound designers.

And there’s space for the scenery – we have a counterweight flying system which means that a single technician with good upper body strength can “fly” large pieces in and out, on their own.

Behind the stage is the large Rehearsal Space – this was part of our QNew transformation.

Workshop

Behind the big shutter in the stage left wing is our workshop – most people don’t know it’s there, but most of the scenery for Queen’s Theatre productions is built from scratch by our specialist Production Workshop of carpenters and scenic artists.

Backstage Tours

From our scenic workshops to wardrobe department, get a glimpse of what goes on behind the curtain at one at one of the region’s prominent producing theatres. Open to groups and schools. Contact learning@queens-theatre.co.uk for more information.

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