Theatres in Cornwall

Most of Cornwall’s theatres were something else first: a clifftop, two Methodist chapels and a pig farm. That history is still visible in most of them. Capacity runs from around 1,350 seats at Hall for Cornwall down to a small society theatre in Callington.

The Minack Theatre sits on a clifftop above Porthcurno Beach near Land’s End, its auditorium carved into the granite with the stage set against open Atlantic. Rowena Cade began building it by hand in the 1930s and kept adding for decades. The season runs from Easter to early October. The audience sits on stone, so bring a cushion or blanket, and performances go ahead unless conditions are severe. The visitor centre is open outside the performance season, with shorter winter hours.

Hall for Cornwall in Truro is the county’s largest indoor venue, at around 1,350 seats after a major refurbishment completed in 2021. Touring West End musicals, comedy, opera and classical concerts arrive here rather than anywhere else in Cornwall.

Sterts Arts & Environmental Centre at Upton Cross started as an open-air amphitheatre modelled on Greek originals, built in the 1980s by Ewart and Anne Sturrock on a former pig farm at the edge of Bodmin Moor. The old tented amphitheatre held about 400 people, which mattered on high ground, and its canopy was condemned; a steel-framed all-weather building has been funded to replace it, so check the Sterts programme for what is currently open. A smaller indoor studio is used for classes and events.

The Acorn in Penzance occupies a Wesleyan Methodist chapel on Parade Street. A Lottery-funded refit completed in 1998 gave it a 170-seat main house and an 80-seat basement bar, so a seated touring show and a standing gig can run the same night.

Princess Pavilion in Falmouth was built by the town council and opened by Princess Alexandra of Teck. The programme runs from local musicals to The Libertines. The Victorian Gyllyngdune Gardens next door, with an Edwardian bandstand and a shell grotto, are free to walk round before a show.

St Ives Theatre is the second converted chapel, a Methodist building on Lower Stennack and home to the youth company Kidz R Us. It reopened in April 2025 after a refurbishment of about £1.6 million that added a cafe-bar and new seating in a 312-seat auditorium.

Prim-Raf Theatre on Biscombes Lane in Callington is run by the Callington Amateur Drama Society, which has performed there since 1949. The name comes from the joining of staff from the local primary school and an RAF outstation in the town. The society stages three or four shows a year, plus children’s workshops.

Which to pick depends on the evening you want. The Minack is worth the trip on a non-performance day for the setting alone. Hall for Cornwall gets the touring names. The rest are the ones Cornwall actually uses week to week, and at the Prim-Raf you are in a small volunteer-run room.