The Playhouse

Cheltenham Playhouse stands in a Grade II listed building that began as the Montpellier Baths in 1806–07. The theatre occupies the former swimming pool hall of this early 19th-century spa complex. It opened in April 1945 as the Civic Playhouse, one of very few new theatres to start during the Second World War. The Corporation of Cheltenham converted the pool area despite wartime shortages, and the first production was George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man. Volunteers took over in 1958 and still run the theatre today as a registered charity. The building’s history includes a serious fire in 1950 that closed the theatre for only five months. In 2007 the auditorium was refurbished after flood damage, and in 2019 plans were approved for a £3.5 million redevelopment. During the COVID-19 pandemic the theatre raised over £30,000 through a local crowdfunder and donations, including a 24-hour piano marathon by Peter Gill. The auditorium remains the heart of amateur theatre in Cheltenham. Visitors find a working theatre with an intimate auditorium and a green room restored in 2008. The auditorium sits above the original swimming pool, now used as a furniture store and opened to the public each September. The building still shows traces of its past as a spa, with marble-lined baths and steam rooms preserved in other parts of the complex. Playhouse Arts, the resident amateur company, regularly stages plays and musical events. The theatre’s foyer and corridors display programmes and photographs of past productions, linking today’s performances to decades of local creative life.