Edinburgh Attractions

Edinburgh Playhouse

The Edinburgh Playhouse is Scotland's and the UK's largest audience capacity theatre. The theatre can hold a total of 3059 paying customers. The Edinburgh Playhouse hosts many musical touring shows, as well as touring bands and artists.

Some of those, who have played in this great venue, are Alice Cooper, Michael Ball, Tracey Chapman, Girls Aloud, French and Sunders, Hall & Oates and McFly. Some of the musicals, that have played this venue, are Riverance and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The theatre now has a lift installed, allowing for heavy stage equipment, to be brought up to stage level, and a rise of some 45 feet.

The Playhouse has a couple of its own theatre oddities, which is the sound position, is located at the rear of the Dress Circle. Also those, the motor hanging points for its advance truss, are not parallel with the line of the front stage.

The Playhouse today caters very much for the youth of the day, with a large emphasis on stage and musical projects. The theatre offers advice and help, not only for the young of Edinburgh, but also those in the surrounding areas.

Children's ages range from as young as ten, up to twenty one years old, taking part in major productions. The theatre also operates as a super cinema, designed by the architect John Fairweather, who also designed the Greens Playhouse Cinema in Glasgow. At the time of the Cinemas opening, it was the second largest in Scotland, and the fourth in the UK.

The Edinburgh Playhouse was listed as Category B by Historic Scotland in 1974, and in 2008 was upgraded to Category A.