About the New Fortune Theatre
The only permanent re-constructed Elizabethan Theatre in the southern hemisphere.
Located in the Arts Building at the University of Western Australia
The original Fortune Playhouse
In 1597, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the company of which William Shakespeare was a member, were ejected from their theatre. They engaged carpenter Peter Street to build the Globe theatre in Southwark opening in 1599.
The Admiral’s Men at The Rose theatre found themselves facing stiff competition from the Globe. Led by Manager Philip Henslowe and his son-in-law and leading actor Edward Allyn, The Admiral’s Men approached Peter Street to have him build what would be proclaimed the fairest playhouse in town. The Fortune Playhouse opened in 1600 a year after the Shakespeare’s Globe. The contract for the Fortune Playhouse still exists and in several places directly references the Globe as a model for “thinges effected finished and doen accordinge to the manner and fashion of the saide howse Called the Globe".
The New Fortune Theatre at UWA
The New Fortune Theatre at The University of Western Australia was the brainchild of Professor Allan Edwards, Professor and Chair in English during the 1950s and 1960s. Professor Edwards noted similarities in the architecture of the proposed Arts Building and with architect Marshall Clifton, reworked the design of the building to incorporate a reconstructed performance space that matched the physical dimensions of the original Fortune Playhouse.
“The main dimensions of the Elizabethan Fortune are specified in the original contract document of 1599, but other details were obtainable only from what is variously shown in sketches prepared from scholarly conjecture. The dimensions of the original contract, 55' square between balconies and 27'6" x 43' wide of the stage, have been faithfully adhered to in the New Fortune.”
Performance at the New Fortune
On the 29 January 1964 the New Fortune Theatre opened with Jeana Bradley’s production of Hamlet staged by Bankside Theatre Productions, the Graduate Dramatic Society and the University Dramatic Society as part of the Festival of Perth. The performance was preceded by a recording of Sir John Gielgud reading from Ben Jonson’s “To The Memory of … Master William Shakespeare”.
Writing in Westerly, December 1963, Philip Parson’s, quoting Neville Coghill, makes a compelling case for staging Shakespeare in reconstructed Elizabethan theatre spaces
“...much may be said in general terms for the theatre's place in dramatic studies and teaching. But there are particular reasons for using an Elizabethan stage to teach Shakespeare. "Those who have never seen Hamlet played on an apron stage," writes Professor Coghill, "can have no conception of the force and closeness of his soliloquies."
"This is a thing that cannot be imagined in the study. One may in theory know all about stages and galleries and apply one's knowledge to one's reading; but when it is actually experienced on a reconstructed Elizabethan stage all that one knows comes to life so vividly in terms of style, quality and interpretation that it seems an entirely new play."
In the decades since opening in 1964, the New Fortune Theatre has hosted international artists as part of the Festival of Perth, countless productions of Shakespeare and other Elizabethan and Early Modern playwrights, and new writing for the venue by the “grand dame of Australian literature” poet and playwright Dorothy Hewett and others.
The Graduate Dramatic Society (GRADS) has had the longest relationship and has produced more work in the New Fortune Theatre than any other company with 36 productions staged until the commencement of the New Fortune Theatre Project in 2021; of those productions 24 were in the period 1995-2021. The New Fortune Theatre Project aims to capture and capitalise on the knowledge and practical experience developed over decades of performance in the New Fortune Theatre.
Old Emotions
on the New Fortune Stage
The New Fortune Theatre at The University of Western Australia is a working reconstruction of London's Fortune Play House (1599-1600). This replica has allowed the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions rare insight and the ability to integrate the theatre as a dynamic workspace for research into theatre, emotions and history.
This documentary explores the work of the ARC Centre for the History of Emotions at UWA on the New Fortune stage.
Readings in the New Fortune
From time to time play readings have been held in the New Fortune and more recently the Renaissance Moved Reading Project led by Brid Phillips provided opportunities to students, staff and friends to read plays from the English Renaissance Period on the New Fortune Stage.
The New Fortune Project aims to eventually read all of Shakespeare’s works on the New Fortune Stage through a program of monthly readings that focus on providing opportunities for people that haven’t previously experienced working on the New Fortune stage.