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Cornwall's Minack Theatre celebrates 90th anniversary

BBC Minack TheatreBBC
The Minack has a capacity of about 700 and hosts 20 weeks of different productions a year

The clifftop Minack Theatre in west Cornwall is celebrating the 90th anniversary of performances there.

A local group production of William Shakespeare's The Tempest was the first play staged on what was a cliffside slope near Porthcurno.

Site owner Rowena Cade built sections of it herself, helping it reach its current capacity of about 700 seats.

Theatre bosses said it was an "extraordinary achievement" that had created "a unique performance space".

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Bosses are also celebrating Ms Cade's birthday on Tuesday. She was born on 2 August 1893.

The theatre said on social media: "Happy Birthday and thank you for your vision and determination."

Ms Cade and her gardener, Billy Rawlings, moved tons of earth and rock over the winter of 1931 and 1932, forming much of the present day shape of the Minack, which comes from the Cornish word "meynek", meaning a rocky place.

Ms Cade later described that work as "a good enough, rough and ready job for what we thought would be one week of playing".

It now provides a stage for 20 weeks a year of varied productions by professional and amateur companies.

Minack Theatre The Tempest at the Minack in 1932Minack Theatre
A production of William Shakespeare's The Tempest was the first play staged at the Minack in 1932
Minack Theatre Minack TheatreMinack Theatre
The Minack, seen here in 1932, comes from the Cornish word "meynek", meaning a rocky place
Minack Theatre
Much of the work of the theatre's first iteration can still be seen in today's auditorium
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Timeline: Minack Theatre

  • 1893 - Rowena Cade, the Minack's "master builder", is born
  • Early 1920s - Ms Cade moves to Cornwall with her mother after World War One and the death of her father. She buys the Minack headland for £100, building her home there
  • 1932 - The first performance on the headland, Shakespeare's The Tempest, after Ms Cade offered her garden to be used as a performance site. She and her gardener, Billy Rawlings, built a rough terrace and seating to create a venue
  • Ms Cade continues developing the site for yearly productions
  • 1955 - Dressing rooms are completed
  • 1976 - The theatre becomes a charitable trust with a statement to "educate the public in the dramatic and operatic arts and to further the development of public appreciation and taste in those arts"
  • 1983 - Ms Cade dies at the age of 89
  • 2020s - The Minack hosts 20 weeks of varied productions a year
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Zoe Curnow, executive director of the Minack, said Ms Cade's work was an "extraordinary achievement" and she would have had "no idea that it would be anything more than a temporary venue for local players".

She said: "That it should not only survive but grow into the iconic venue it is today, visited by people from all over the world, is Rowena Cade's legacy.

"It is an inspirational place that embodies art working in harmony with the landscape to shape a unique performance space."

Recent high profile shows have included children putting a special performance for the partners of the G7 leaders when the summit was held in west Cornwall in 2021.

Those who attended included US First Lady Jill Biden, the wife of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Carrie Johnson, and the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, Brigitte Macron.

Simon Dawson/Number 10 Downing Street Carrie Johnson, Jill Biden and Brigitte Macron.Simon Dawson/Number 10 Downing Street
Carrie Johnson, Jill Biden and Brigitte Macron attended a show in the Minack during the G7 in Cornwall in 2021
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