New Theatre and Cambridge daily News offices c.1929

St Andrew’s Hall, New Theatre Royal, Theatre Royal, St Andrews Street

History of The New Theatre, St Andrew's Street

By 1879 [1882?], largely through the efforts of Mr William Beales Redfern, a disused skating rink in St Andrew’s Street was acquired and fitted up as a theatre. Redfern was an artist who had started a theatre company called the Bijou Amateur Dramatic Club at the Victoria Assembly rooms.

The first of a series of Greek plays (the ‘Ajax’) was staged here in 1882 and theatrical performances were given regularly until the New Theatre was built in 1896, on the site of the old, theatre or St Andrew’s Hall, as it was first called. (A B Gray 1921)

It was difficult at the time for undergraduates to attend performances since productions were not allowed in term time; this was changed eventually by Act of Parliament. Amongst the most successful production were Rob Roy, Still Waters Run Deep, and The Bells. Charles Hawtrey’s Private Secretary was first performed here in 1883.

On the subject of the The Footlights, F A Keynes writes that in 1883 a cricket match was played between a team of Cambridge undergraduates and the staff of Fulbourn Mental Hospital. A return match was arranged but took the form of a concert. This represented the birth of the Footlights.

The first production was Aladdin in 1883 at the old St Andrew’s Hall.  the Footlights performed a show there every year until 1895 when the old theatre was demolished. The group then used the New Theatre built by Redfern until 1936 when they moved to the new Arts Theatre built by Lord Keynes.

Information about The New Theatre can be found:

http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/CambridgeTheatres.htm

In 1907 it was the venue for the Esperanto Congress which opened on the 12th August.

It was reported in the Cambridge Independent Press (16/8/1907) that the Congress had previously met in Boulogne and Geneva. They were addressed by Dr Zamenhof for 40 minutes in Esperanto.

17/8/1907 Esperanto Congress held in Cambridge, Market Hill bedecked with flags. All other events in Cambridge have been dwarfed in comparison with the third International Esperanto Congress which has brought money into the town when trade was at its lowest ebb. It was hoped the University might have bestowed an honorary degree upon Dr Zamenhof, the Warsaw genius, but apart from a formal reception at the Fitzwilliam Museum it has generally stood aloof from the movement. (Cam.News)

12/8/1907 Esperanto has seized Cambridge like a raging fever. Genuine and spurious Esperanto fills the air as the autolycus of the gutter shouts unintelligent jargon to a street comrade and calls it Esperanto. But when a picturesque figure from the Swiss Canton appeared in the street the impudence of the street Arab was silenced. He was impressed by the tight green breeches and head capped by genuine Alpine hat. A Turk and Indians in national costume add considerably to the effect of this new kind of circus. (Cam.News)

---

1913 Jack Hulbert in Cheer-oh Cambridge

---

1915

The Bijou Amateurs presented ‘My Friend the Prince’ and ‘Miss Civilisation’ in February 1915. For the programme:

New Theatre St Andrew’s Street Cambridge

Synopses (AI):

My Friend the Prince — Justin Huntly McCarthy

A comedy in three acts involving royal impersonation, romance and social ambition. Prince Maurice of Pannonia, although married, follows the opera singer Gilberte Picard to London. Calling himself Mr Smith, he becomes secretary to the wealthy, socially ambitious Matthew Jannaway so that he can remain near her.

Meanwhile, Jannaway’s son Pink introduces his acquaintance Peto Godolphin as the missing prince. Godolphin enjoys the deception, particularly because he has fallen for Pink’s sister Poppy. Pink then attempts to undo the trouble by persuading a timid barrister to impersonate the prince as well. When the real princess arrives looking for her husband, confusion multiplies. Eventually the identities are unravelled, the prince returns to his wife, and the romantic couples are united.

Miss Civilisation — Richard Harding Davis
Originally published as Miss Civilization.

A one-act comedy with suspense, set in a wealthy family’s country house on Long Island, near midnight on the day after Christmas. Alice Gardner discovers that three burglars are breaking in. Her mother is seriously ill upstairs, and Alice fears that the shock of discovering them could endanger her.

Having secretly telephoned for help, Alice keeps the intruders occupied through extraordinary composure, quick thinking and conversation, even offering them supper. Her apparent confidence disguises her desperate effort to gain time and prevent any disturbance upstairs. Police and railway workers finally arrive and capture the gang. Only when the danger has passed does Alice’s courage give way: she asks them to be quiet for her mother’s sake, then faints.

Of the cast AI suggests that more is known about two of the names:

Mr C. V. Canning, playing Baron Hetzelitz: possibly the man who later commanded the 1st Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment, and helped establish its Old Comrades Association in 1931. The initials match, but I haven’t confirmed that they are the same person.

Mr Percy Piggott, starring in both plays and producing them: probably Percy Ralph Samuel Piggott, the Cambridge journalist and printer recorded at 154 Chesterton Road in 1911. Again, this is a plausible identification rather than a confirmed one.

The best-known person named here is probably Richard Harding Davis, the American author and war correspondent who wrote Miss Civilisation.

---

1920 Claude Humbert in His Little Trip

---

1921

---

1922

---

31 March 1923

The forthcoming production by the Bijou amateurs brings into prominence once again a club that has held a big position in the life of Cambridge for the last 50 years. I 1870 Mr W B Redfern founded the Bijous, who took over premises on Peas Hill, where for many years was provided the only dramatic performance in Cambridge that were given with any regularity. As time went on the club found that the old Peas Hill theatre was not big enough for them and finally removed to the old skating rink in St Andrews’s street, on the site of which the present New Theatre was built. It was not until 1881 that ladies were introduced into the cast, the female parts having before that date being taken by men

Source: Mike Petty Archive, Peas Hill scrapbook.

---

1928

---

1930

---

1933

---