Royal Manor Theatre

The Royal Manor Theatre stands in Fortuneswell on the Isle of Portland, a limestone tied island off Dorset’s coast. The building began life in 1869 as a Primitive Methodist chapel before being converted into a theatre. It opened in 1978 after eleven thousand hours of volunteer work and £3,500 raised by the community. The Royal Manor Theatre Company had started in 1947 as the Portland Dramatic Society, staging plays in halls across Portland and Weymouth. They moved into the Masonic Hall at Victoria Square in 1957 and later the Jubilee Hall at Easton until 1970. Without a permanent home by 1971, the society risked closing until Captain and Mrs Chibnall offered the old chapel. The theatre matters because it keeps live drama alive on Portland after the Second World War. The company’s charitable status recognises its work in both performance and drama education for local people. Captain Chibnall sold the building to the council in 1980 for £8,500, the price he had paid, plus improvements he had made. The council then leased it back to the company, which bought the building outright two years later. These efforts show how a small island community fought to keep its cultural life going. Inside, the converted chapel still shows its original stone walls and arched windows. The auditorium seats around one hundred and fifty people on wooden benches. A small stage with a painted backdrop faces the audience across a narrow orchestra pit. Dressing rooms sit beneath the stage, reached by a narrow staircase. Outside, Fortuneswell’s steep streets lead down to Portland Harbour where fishing boats tie up. The theatre stands at the heart of the village, close to shops and the parish church.