The Adelaide Repertory Theatre Company is a community-based not for profit theatre production company which owns and runs the Arts Theatre on Angas Street, Adelaide.
The “Rep” is the oldest surviving amateur theatre company in the Southern Hemisphere, and the first repertory company established in Australia. The birthplace of the Rep was Elder Conservatorium at Adelaide University, where people first met to read and discuss plays at Bryceson Treharne’s Classes in 1908.
Since its inception, the Rep has performed in some of Adelaide’s oldest and most iconic theatres including Queen’s Hall, The King’s, Victoria Hall, The Tivoli (now Her Majesty’s), and Australia Hall (now The Royalty). It has nurtured some incredible talent including stars of stage, screen and radio such as Keith Michell, Vivienne Cundell, Dame Ruby Litchfield, Brian Wenzel, Phyllis Burford, Mimi Mattin, Carmel Millhouse, Brenton Whittle, Nancy Thorpe and Elspeth Ballantyne (to name a few!).
In 1963 the Rep moved into its current home, the Arts Theatre in Angas Street.
The Rep is the custodian of a significant collection of items that form part of a very important and rare history of amateur theatre in South Australia, comprising play scripts, photographs, programs, posters and other ephemera collected over its 117-year history.
