Capacity 650 Phone +353 21 450 1673 | Opened 1898 Architect H. Brunton | |
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Address 15 MacCurtain Street, Montenotte, Cork, Ireland Profiles | ||
The Everyman Theatre is a 650-seat Victorian theatre on MacCurtain Street in Cork, Ireland. Originally opened in 1897/98, it is the oldest purpose-built theatre building in Cork. The Everyman has undergone many changes, through its days as "Dan Lowrey’s Palace of Varieties" (hosting Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin), life as a cinema, periods of disrepair, and reinvigoration as a modern theatre in the 1980s.
The theatre is housed in a listed (protected) Victorian building with a large stage and auditorium, with proscenium arch, four elaborately decorated boxes, a studio space and bar (which hosts live music).
The Everyman's programme is an eclectic mix of plays, operas, musicals and concerts, but it specialises in drama and usually stages three in-house productions per year. In the summer months, it hosts productions by Irish playwrights. Other major recurring events include the Guinness Jazz Festival in October (for which the theatre is a primary venue), and the Christmas pantomime. A unique feature of the Everyman Palace is that its front of house ushering staff is composed entirely of volunteers.
Up until 2007, the Everyman hosted the Irish regional festival of the National Theatre's New Connections program every May. It gained a reputation for supporting and enabling providing a platform for youth theatres such as Activate, Kildare Youth Theatre and Independent Youth Theatre.