Today I learned...

The Old Vic theatre moved to Burnley during the Second World War

"The Old Vic and Sadler's Wells were forced to move out of their Waterloo Road Theatre at Finsbury Park, London because it was commandeered as a rest centre after being damaged by bombs. Jess Linscott, the manager of the Victoria Theatre on Hammerton Street, immediately offered the use of his premises to Jo Hodgkinson who had been sent north by Tyrone Guthrie (manager of the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells companies) to look for temporary headquarters. Guthrie travelled north and decided there and then that the theatre was suitable. The stalls, circle and gallery held 1800 seats and there was room for four to five hundred more standing. Prices ranged from 9d. in the gallery through to 3s.6d. in the orchestra stalls.

In January 1941 an eight week session of opera, ballet and drama was opened at Burnley Vic. The programme note signed by Guthrie and Linscott is worthy of note, "Burnley, with the combined session of opera, drama and ballet suddenly became the most creative centre in the English theatre". The first two weeks were given to the Sadler's Wells opera. the syllabus contained five works - 'The marriage of Figaro' , 'Hansel and Gretel', 'Die Fledermaus' and 'La Traviata'. The cast list featured Joan Gross, the prima donna of the Sadler's Wells and the leading English, if not European, operatic soprano of her day. Even this did not attarct Burnley's music lovers as, on the first night (13 January 1941), there were many empty seats in the Vic. Gerry Mulholland, the Express reviewer, wrote at some length as to the reasons why. He suggested that Burnley people did not tend to go out on Mondays and that the average working man preferred to save for a stall once a fortnight rather than go in the gallery two or three times a week. The first performance by the Old Vic on 27 January 1941 was 'Macbeth' and featured two boys from Burnley Grammar School. There was another poor attendance, which Mulholland blamed on the appalling weather conditions.

It took a while for the local people to become accustomed to the wealth of entertainment that became available in the town. However, after the 'Macbeth' review of 27 January, there was no mention of poor attendances. The review of 'Twelfth Night', (performed on 5 February 1941) commented that the full house appreciated a production which was "as near perfection as possible". By 19 February 1941 Mulholland was implying that the Burnley audience was exceptional, as after a performance by the Anglo-Polish ballet, he claimed, "i venture to suppose that none has given them more pleasure and pride than their first performance in Burnley".

The last session before their return to London began on 17 June 1942, and it detaured 'Othello' and 'The Merry Wives of Windsor'. In one and a half years Burnley had seen some of the greatest talent in Britain. Such stars as Norman Evans, Sandy Poweel, the Western brothers, Tudor Davies and Joan Collier all appeared in the town. The visit of the Old Vicand Sadler's Wells had a great effect on the town. Their impact was outlined by occasional Express columnsit Frank D Lofthouse in the 1 March 1942 edition, when he enthused, "The visit to Burnley of the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells artistes is of more significance than the wealth of amusement and interest presented to us. These are an emotionally and intellectually liberated people, and the sight, sound and psychology of our cosmopolitan visitors has done more than just aroused our appreciation of artistry, it has also assisted some of our more artistically inclined people a little further along the path of liberation by providing a kind of food too long withheld from us". Ironically, it took a war to bring this entertainment to the town.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-44025128