At one of the most Southerly parts of the English coast, not far from Land’s End, the most spectacular theatre nestles on a cliff suspended above the cold Atlantic sea. Scarcely less improbable than the location of ‘The Minack Theatre’ is the incredible story of its creation – the labour of one woman, Rowena Cade, who, with her bare hands and the occasional stick of dynamite, built the stage, the dressing rooms and the seats out of the sheer rock face.
The creation of the theatre, which became her life’s work, began when she bought the cliff-top plot to build a house in the 1920’s. Here, by chance, a local theatre group persuaded her to put on a performance of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in her garden…and it is as if the play itself, brimming with magical transformations, somehow led Rowena to embark upon a metamorphosis of her own…seeding the idea for a more dramatic transformation of the cliff into the unique theatre we see today.
With hand tools, a wheelbarrow and an indomitable spirit she set to work – still working well into her 80’s.
Some have suggested that its incongruous presence resembles an ancient Greek ruin dropped onto the Cornish coastline (‘Minack’ means ‘rocky place’ in Cornish). Yet, to me, the theatre and the story behind it is quintessentially English. For its many visitors, it affords a unique opportunity to watch a performance or concert levitated, bird-like, above the water, where the land meets the ocean, where England ends…and begins.
The cold wind, whipped up from the Atlantic, is often dispelled by dancing…like here, in this clip, filmed at The Minack at night. The English folk singer Seth Lakeman performs ‘Blood Upon Copper’ while the audience dance up a storm to compete with any out at sea.
