Swan Theatre

The Swan Theatre is an intimate theatre on Waterside in Stratford-upon-Avon, part of the Royal Shakespeare Company, with seating for up to 469 people arranged on three sides of a deep thrust stage. It shares its front of house space with the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, so audiences use the same foyer, Box Office, bars and restaurant. The theatre regularly stages the work of Shakespeare's contemporaries alongside plays by later writers such as Restoration playwrights and new work by contemporary writers. The auditorium occupies the Victorian Gothic facade that originally housed the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, which opened in 1879 and burned down in 1926. The Swan Theatre itself, designed by architect Michael Reardon, opened in 1986 with a performance of Two Noble Kinsmen and reopened in February 2011 following the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Transformation project. A year-long refurbishment completed in 2023 introduced wider seats with armrests replacing bench seating, additional wheelchair spaces and a new induction loop for hearing-impaired audience members. Facilities include the Riverside Cafe on the ground floor, the Rooftop Restaurant and Cocktail Bar on the third floor, a staffed cloakroom, accessible toilets on each floor, all-gender toilets and baby changing facilities. Drinking water is available at all bars and there are taps for refilling water bottles.