Malvern Theatres (Winter Gardens)

The Festival Theatre, now known as Malvern Theatres, is a theatre complex on Grange Road in Malvern, Worcestershire, England. Malvern Theatres, housed in the Winter Gardens complex in the town centre of Great Malvern, has been a provincial centre for the arts since 1885. The theatre became known for its George Bernard Shaw productions in the 1930s and from 1977 onwards, along with the works of Edward Elgar. Up until 1965, 19 different plays of Shaw were produced at the Malvern Festival Theatre, and six premiered here, including The Apple Cart at the opening Malvern Festival in 1929, Geneva, a Fancied Page of History in Three Acts in August 1938 and In Good King Charles's Golden Days in August 1939. Over its history the theatre and festival has closed several times, including during World War II, in the early 1960s, in the early 1970s, and in the late 1990s when a new complex was built with an 850-seat Festival Theatre, a Forum Theatre, a 400-seat cinema, and a bar and restaurant.