Description of the attraction
Theater-on-the-Pier is located in a former dock building at Cape Daves in Walsh Harbor. Here in 1829 the first pier was built, which was named "Pitman's Pier". A century and a half later, in 1979, the Sydney Theater Company was looking for a place for itself. It was then that Elizabeth Butcher, director of the National Institute of Dramatic Arts, discovered the abandoned shipyards in Walsh Bay and offered to renovate them and make them the seat of the Company. Her proposal was supported by the government.
When appointed architect of the project, Vivian Fraser began work in 1984, the main question was at which end of the pier to place the theater building. Government architects, after conducting a special study, proposed to build it in the part of the pier that faces the road. Fraser, however, insisted that, for aesthetic reasons, the theater building should be located at the end of the pier jutting out into the sea. Her arguments were supported, and the artistic director of the Sydney Theater Company later put it this way: “I loved the idea that every time you come here to see a play, you’re on a journey.”
Today the Theater-on-the-Pier consists of two halls with 544 seats. Along the 200-meter wooden deck leading from the street to the theater, there are posters of the Sydney Theater Company that tell visitors its story. The theater's huge windows overlook the famous Harbor Bridge and the waters of Sydney Harbor. The local restaurant's east and west balconies offer views of Sydney's Luna Park and the skyline of the North Shore residential area.
