The Minack Theatre was recently voted one of the top 10 most spectacular theatres in the world, and the only venue from the UK to feature.
This isn’t bad for a place that just over 80 years ago was basically a granite cliff face, until a woman almost single handily transformed it.
The theatre was the brainchild of Rowena Cade whom bought a plot of land in Porthcurno near Land’s End in Cornwall for the sum of £100.
Originally the plan was to build a house she could live in and her mother could retire in, and that is initially just what she did. However when local villagers whished to perform a play she offered her back garden as a venue. With a makeshift terrace and random seating, and some of the most picturesque views overlooking the Atlantic Ocean you could ever wish to see the performance was a success. Such a success in fact that she wanted the performances to be a regular fixture, so over the coming years it was transformed bit by bit, and largely by herself into what we now see today – a 750 capacity Amphitheatre with adjoining gardens.
It is now used non stop from May to September to put on a whole host of plays and performances, and attendances for the season have now passed 80’000 people, although this is still short of the now more than 100’000 paying visitors the venue attracts every year.
Find out more about the theatre here.