Theatres Built to Order

In the late 19th century specialist theatre architects emerged, responsible for building many new theatres to meet the demand of an expanding middle class. Standardised plans and architectural elements meant theatres could be rapidly built on demand.

Hermann Helmer

Ferdinand Fellner

During this period, theatre technology was developing rapidly, with the introduction of first gas and then electric lighting. The invention of the Bessemer process made steel cheaply available for the first time, creating the possibility of larger and more complex stage machinery powered by hydraulics. Architectural steelwork enabled deeply shelved, cantilevered balconies in the auditorium without the need for supporting pillars, which required new engineering skills to design. This industrialisation of the theatre building coincided with a fashion for highly elaborate decoration of the auditorium and foyers, with intricate plasterwork and painting. Tightened fire safety following disastrous theatre fires (for example, the Ringtheater in 1881 and the Theatre Royal, Exeter in 1887) made technical improvements to existing theatres necessary. All these factors meant that refurbishing an existing, or building a new theatre to meet the growing demand required a large team of specialists – teams that were brought together by a new breed of theatre architect.

Firms included Oskar Kaufmann and Heinrich Seeling in Berlin (Q20875 and Q20479), Martin Dülfer in Dresden (Q20487), Jakob Heilman and Max Littmann in Munich (Q20481), Carl Moritz in Cologne (Q20412) and Frank Matcham in London (Q20585). Austrian architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer (Q620), based in Vienna, designed and built forty-eight theatres between 1870 and 1910, which helped bind the Austro-Hungarian Empire together and cement Vienna as its cultural centre. While most of their theatres stood in the former central European empire, others can be found from Switzerland to Ukraine, and many were national theatres.

Design of the Rijeka theatre’s west façade, by Helmer & Fellner, 1882

Fellner and Helmer placed a great emphasis on achieving the technical-operational needs of theatre buildings. The polytechnic training they received made them well suited to the task. Helmer, in particular, was intensively involved with fire safety precautions, tests and regulations and was active in a number of committees. The architects’ almost monopolistic position can be attributed to the fact that the office community could guarantee high quality at low cost and fast execution, reliability, predictability and professionalism. At times, up to 20 architects were employed in the studio to cope with the commissions. They applied the latest known construction methods, and their architectural style ushered in a new epoch in 20th-century architecture.

The changes introduced in these forty years of designing and building theatres shows process of adjustment of the architectural typology where technical progress made it possible to provide new answers to old problems, such as the shape of the auditorium or the fire protection curtain. In general, however, Fellner & Helmer’s theatres are in the form of a block which is determined by the development of the functional requirements. The basic layout of Fellner & Helmer theatres follows a linear arrangement of the parts according to a logical sequence. The buildings had to combine three distinct functions: the foyer as a meeting space; the auditorium as a gathering space and the stage as a space for performance. Previously, these spaces had been placed under one roof, but in the theatres of Fellner & Helmer the links between them were loosened, resulting in buildings with three functionally distinct parts.

Frank Matcham’s oldest surviving theatre, the Everyman, Cheltenham, UK

The standardised nature of these designs, driven by practical solutions to common functional requirements, were not always created specifically for a particular client or location. For example, the Fellner & Helmer design originally intended for the Free Royal City of Osijek in Croatia was transferred largely unchanged to a scheme in Klagenfurt.

Fellner & Helmer’s working relationship was of an unusual kind, as the company did not actually exist from a legal perspective – rather, it based upon the friendship between the two partners. This dependence on personal relationships rather than legal structures contributed to the precarious nature of the career of theatre architect in the late 19th century. Some met with great success following public acclaim of their designs, such as Gottfried Semper with his Dresden Opera (Q8069). In other cases, the poor public reception of a single project could end a career, or worse: Eduard van der Nüll hanged himself after the criticism he received, together with August Siccard von Siccardsburg, against their Vienna Opera (Q7826).

Despite many wars and fires, almost all the theatres are still in operation today and continue to serve the cultural life of many cities in Europe.