The Cambridge Arts Theatre opened on 3 February 1936 with a gala performance by the Vic-Wells Ballet, featuring among others Robert Helpmann, Margot Fonteyn and Frederick Ashton.

The front and fore-stage lighting is provided by means of a specially designed spot-box concealed in the ceiling, and in numerous openings at either side of the theatre adjacent to the boxes.

A London company are presenting a season of Ibsen at this theatre, which opened on Monday night, and will continue until Saturday, February 29.

Betty Hardy and Wilfrid Grantham as Mrs. Linden and Nils Krogstad were outstanding for consistent good work, and the smaller parts were capably sustained.

Yesterday (Wednesday) Rosmersholwas presented, with Jean Forbes- Robertson as Rebecca West, and John Laurie in the part of Johannes Rosmer.

In September 2008 it hosted the world premiere of a new stage adaptation of Tracy Chevalier's play Girl with a Pearl Earring, prior to a transfer to the West End.

Artists to have appeared here include Ian McKellen (in a Marlowe Society production of Cymbeline), Derek Jacobi, and, more recently Susan Hampshire, Nigel Havers, Simon Callow, and Warren Mitchell.

Lynn, a 1963 Cambridge graduate along with John Cleese and others in the Footlights, used his many contacts to build up a successful repertoire of quality drama.

He commissioned plays from Frederic Raphael (After the Greek) and Royce Ryton (The Unvarnished Truth with Tim Brooke Taylor and Graeme Garden), and his production of Songbook, a spoof musical by Julian More and Monty Norman, transferred to London in 1978.

For example, the 1974 six-play season featured Zoë Wanamaker, Oliver Ford Davies, Roger Rees and Ian Charleson.

[9] The directors of the company were Richard Cottrell (1969–1975), Robert Lang (1975–1976), Jonathan Lynn (1976–1981), Bill Pryde (1981–1988), Robin Midgley (1988–1991), and Mike Alfreds (1991–1999).