QUEEN Camilla visited Bath Theatre Royal during rehearsals for the theatre’s epic community play, David Copperfield: A Life, which runs from 20th to 22nd February. Her Majesty has been Patron of the theatre since 2008, and last visited in 2009.

As well as meeting some of the cast and crew of the play, she also announced the name of the new fringe-style community venue which is being created at the heart of the theatre’s historic site, bringing a fourth venue to the existing main house, Ustinov Studio and The Egg, the home of experimental work and theatre for children and young people.

Theatre Royal director Danny Moor received the Queen in the foyer and led her into the main house auditorium where she was introduced the David Copperfield directing and writing team, Sally Cookson and Mike Akers, and watched the company perform the prologue from the show.

She was then escorted to see the site of the building which will become the new community venue and was welcomed at a reception at The Egg, one of the country’s most established theatres dedicated to children and young people. Here she was introduced to Linda Hillman, whose late brother, David Franklin was a longtime supporter of the Theatre Royal, leaving a significant financial gift to the theatre in his will.

She also met trustees of the Miss Beryl Billings Charitable Trust who have donated a substantial sum towards the new venue. Using a specially designed theatrical prop in the shape of a replica toy theatre, the Queen revealed the name of the new space (formerly known as Venue 4) as The Billings, in honour of Margot Boyd, the Bath-born actress best known for playing Marjorie Antrobus in The Archers. Under the stewardship of the Miss Beryl Billings Charitable Trust, her legacy has made a huge impact on the work Theatre Royal Bath has been able to undertake to support community theatre and the arts.

Designed by Stirling Prize-winning architects Haworth Tompkins, the new space will be an intimate, fringe-style theatre with its own foyer, nestled on St John’s Place. Planning permission has been granted and further design work will now progress to a final blueprint for the space. The 40-seat Billings community studio will connect the main house, The Egg and the Ustinov in one theatre district. The theatre management hopes that work will start on building the new venue in May 2026 and that it will be completed in spring 2027.

Photographs by Matt Cardy