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6 unusual facts about Mercury Theatre


Ashley Dukes

In 1933, he founded the Mercury Theatre, London and wrote plays that appeared in the West End and on Broadway.

Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate

In 1947 Saroyan's The Beautiful People and O'Neill's SS Glencairn both had their London premières there, as did Genet's The Maids.

Michael Deacon

His many stage appearances included roles for venues such as the Hampstead Theatre, The Mercury Theatre, Colchester, Pentameters Theatre and the Finborough Theatre.

Nederlander Theatre

A wide variety of shows have been presented at the venue, including the Mercury Theatre production of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, Noël Coward's Private Lives, Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the Tony award winning Rent.

Peggy Lloyd

Norman Lloyd joined Orson Welles's theater company, the Mercury Theatre, became a close associate of director Alfred Hitchcock and directed many of Hitchock's television specials and series episodes.

The Mercury Wonder Show

The Mercury Wonder Show was a 1943 magic-and-variety stage show by the Mercury Theatre, produced by Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten, directed by Welles, and starring Welles, Cotten, Agnes Moorehead and Rita Hayworth (with Hayworth's part later filled in by Marlene Dietrich).


Brian Mitchell and Joseph Nixon

The play, directed by Daniel Buckroyd, opened in October 2013 at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, with a cast including Mel Giedroyc, David Mounfield and Julie Atherton.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin

In 2011, the Mercury Theatre in Colchester, England, and the Kote Marjanishvili Theatre of Tbilisi, Georgia, produced an adaptation of the novel written by Mike Maran and directed by Levan Tsuladze.

Richard Barr

Richard Barr began his theatrical career as an actor in the company of Orson Welles at the Mercury Theatre.

The Mercury Summer Theatre on the Air

Although the Mercury Theatre troupe had disbanded when Welles was fired from RKO studios in 1942 and the Mercury players were dismissed with him, this radio series offered a reunion of many Mercury personnel, including Richard Wilson (who would direct the rehearsals) and composer Bernard Herrmann, as well as familiar actors such as Agnes Moorehead and William Alland.

Wyllis Cooper

He continued to make his living writing radio scripts for various network programs including The Campbell Playhouse, the sponsored successor of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre.


see also

Julian Harries

In February–March 2009, Harries played Guy Jones in Alan Ayckbourn's comedy A Chorus of Disapproval at the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, and the Colchester Mercury Theatre, alongside Harry Secombe's daughter, Katy.

Michael Attenborough

Previously, he was associate director of the Mercury Theatre Colchester 1972-74, the Leeds Playhouse (now West Yorkshire Playhouse) 1974 to 1979, the Young Vic 1979 to 1980, then artistic director of the Palace Theatre, Watford, 1980 to 1984, artistic director of Hampstead Theatre 1984 to 1989 and principal associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1990 to 2002.