Venue: Abbey Theatre
Town: Nuneaton, GB
Capacity: 248

The Abbey Theatre is situated on Pool Bank Street in the Abbey Ward of Nuneaton, England, and is managed and run by volunteers by the Nuneaton Arts Council (NAC). The venue hosts performances including visiting theatre companies, touring shows, musicals, pantomime and drama, dance, comedy and film screenings. The Abbey Theatre is run by a charity, Nuneaton Arts CIO, Charity No 1193774 With a regular annual attendance of over 30,000, the Abbey is the only public theatre in Nuneaton and one of the busiest venues in Warwickshire. The Nuneaton Arts Council was founded in 1969 by a group of local arts devotees who noted the continuing demise of other venues in Nuneaton. When the local Territorial Army drill hall became available, the new Arts Council began converting the building. The task was completed in 1974, and the first performance was from the Nuneaton Pantomime and Revue Society, with their production of Finian's Rainbow. For several years in the 1980s the theatre was the town's only cinema following the closure of the last full time picture house, The Ritz. It continued semi-regular screenings until the new Odeon multi-screen complex opened in the nearby Bermuda Estate. In 2003, the building closed with no notice after asbestos was identified in many parts of the venue, some of which had been disturbed during recent modification works to upgrade the facilities. The doors were closed for 6 months, but after agreement with the local authority (the building's landlord) a rescue package was agreed and the theatre re-opened in the early autumn. On 22 January 2007, a performance of the Pied Piper of Hamelin went up half an hour late after contractors had inadvertently concreted emergency doors shut. In 2008, The Masqueraders Theatrical society moved from the Bedworth Civic Hall to the Abbey Theatre, due to the costs of hiring the much larger Bedworth venue. November 2008 saw an entire winter season at the Abbey nearly come to a halt because of the demolition of the ol