Screens & Stages in the Silver City: His Majesty's Theatre

Screens & Stages in the Silver City: His Majesty's Theatre

This online exhibition looks at the history of His Majesty's Theatre on Rosemount Viaduct and was created as part of Aberdeen City Libraries' Screens & Stages in the Silver City virtual conference of 13th February 2021.

The exhibition is a collaboration with the Aberdeen Performing Arts Archive. APA are an arts charity that sits at the heart of cultural, community and civic life in North-East Scotland. They manage three iconic city centre cultural venues: His Majesty's Theatre, the Music Hall and The Lemon Tree. Their archive collections are a golden mine of Aberdeen's cultural history.

This exhibition provides a peek both behind the scenes and back in time. His Majesty's Theatre was opened on Monday 3rd December 1906. It was the creation of Arthur Roberts, a theatre impresario from Glasgow. Aiming to improve the theatre provision in Aberdeen he selected the Rosemount Viaduct site and engaged Frank Matcham, the renowned English theatre architect, to design an outstanding new venue.

Over the years HMT has seen performances from luminaries such as Charlton Heston, Sir Ian McKellen, Sean Connery, Erroll Flynn, Noel Coward, Alec Guinness, and Vivien Leigh. It remains today a truly outstanding venue and an architectural treasure.

We hope the assorted items in this exhibition provide enjoyable glimpses into the history of this wonderful and much-loved venue.

Many thanks to Aberdeen Performing Arts Archives for sharing a selection of their images for this exhibition.

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