Minack Theatre in Porthcurno

So we turned up at Minack Theatre in Porthcurno on a bad weather day but enjoyed the experience just the same as we were in the middle of a Rehearsal of “The Last 5 Years”. We also enjoyed the beautiful subtropical garden that forms par of the landscape here.

Carved deep in to the sheer rock-face of an over-hanging cliff at Minack Point, the outdoor Minack theatre is an amazing example of one woman’s sheer tenacity and determination. Rowena Cade and her gardener Billy Rawlings built the Minack Theatre by hand moving large stones into place and blasting even larger boulders with dynamite to both create small moveable pieces or to simply chuck them over the cliff in to the sea.

The way the Minack looks today, it is hard to imagine what the the sheer incline of the cliff face might have looked like before Cade set about building this amazing place of art and for the performing arts.

Seats of granite stone are almost uniform in size, with performance names and the years they played are carved in to the back rests. The beautiful stage area is set at the lowest part of the open air theatre with a circular raised stage or platform on the right forms the focal point.

Even though, it is a decidedly declivitous journey fro the entrance to the stage, the stunning backdrop of Portcurno Bay and waters of the Celtic Sea and the English Channel is even further down the cliff.

While the theatre itself is a marvel to behold, it is beautifully complemented by stunning and imaginative planting of plants that flourish in the slightly warmer and mild frost-free weather from Aloes to Aeoniums. See our collection of photos of the Minack Garden.

Although we visited on a day that was unfortunately dull and foggy, it was still a breath-taking visit. Watch the video from Aerial Cornwall below then enjoy the photos we captured on our visit as well as the rehearsal of The Last 5 Years.

Photos of Minack Theatre

You can learn about our visit to Porthcurno Beach in our other post.

Photos from the Rehearsal of The Last 5 Years

Here some of the photos we took of the rehearsal of “The Last 5 Years” when we were there in 2020.

Photos taken by Samuel J Tan (September 2020). The featured image with clear sky is one taken of the poster outside the Minack Theatre, credit is given to the marketing team for this. We will definitely plan to visit again at a time when the sky is clearer and the weather is better.

Related: Plants at the Minack Theatre.