Lethes Theatre
Italian-style horseshoe theatre of 1845 in a former Jesuit college, the Algarve's oldest playhouse.
The Lethes Theatre occupies part of the Jesuit College of St James the Greater, founded in Faro in 1599. After the order was expelled the building served as a hospital, and in 1845 the Italian doctor Lazzaro Doglioni converted a wing into a playhouse. He named it after the Lethes, the classical name given to the river beside Roman Ossonoba, on whose site Faro stands. It is among the oldest surviving theatres in Portugal and the oldest in the Algarve.
Behind a plain rendered front, the auditorium follows the Italian model: a horseshoe of three tiers of boxes in painted and gilded woodwork, facing a stage framed by a decorated proscenium, with a painted ceiling above the stalls. The hall seats fewer than three hundred, which keeps performances close to the audience. Since 2009 the theatre has been programmed by ACTA, the Algarve theatre company, with drama, dance, opera screenings, concerts, film and comedy, alongside its own productions and work for schools.
Highlights
- Three tiers of gilded boxes in an Italian horseshoe auditorium
- Housed in the Jesuit College of St James the Greater of 1599
- The Algarve's oldest theatre, opened in 1845
- Programmed by ACTA, the Algarve's resident theatre company
