This stunning open-air theatre is situated in what must be one of the most dramatic locations in the world. Built into a natural cliff overlooking the beautiful bay at Porthcurno, it has far-reaching views out to the Atlantic and the Logan Rock.
To find the Minack, you take the A30 from Penzance towards Lands End, then after 2 miles, turn left onto the narrow B3283 towards St Buryan. After 1 mile, on the other side of St Buryan, this road becomes the B3315, which you follow for a mile before taking a sharp left onto an unclassified lane that is signposted for the theatre.
Minack means rocky place in Cornish, and the crags beneath the theatre were always a mecca for local fishermen pursuing a catch. This cove remained a fisherman's haven until 1931, when Rowena Cade had her remarkable vision to use the natural contours and setting as a site for an open-air theatre.
She was born the second of four children in 1893 in Derbyshire. In 1902 she took to the stage for the first time at age eight in a production of Alice through the Looking Glass. In 1906 the family moved to Gloucestershire, where her father took on a role within the local college.
Her father died during the First World War, so her mother decided to move to Cornwall, where she purchased a house at Lamorna. Rowena was now in her 20s, and she bought herself a small plot of land on which to build a house at Minack.
Being a remote area with very few opportunities for leisure, she soon became involved with the local amateur dramatic society with a talent for design, and in 1931, a production of The Tempest was scheduled for performance in her garden, with the sea as a fitting backdrop.
Although there was room for a stage, no room was left for an audience, so with this in mind, she had the remarkable foresight to begin construction of a stage and seating area in the gully above the house gardens, with The Tempest being performed in 1932 in the partially completed theatre.
Over the proceeding years, the theatre was developed using local stone and timber found along the Porthcurno shoreline. This was an ongoing project that Rowena pursued up until her death at 89 years old.
Today the Minack is a lasting memorial to her vision and creativity, and regular performances embrace musicals, opera, mime, ballet, farce, comedy, and tragedy, all performed beneath the moonlight with the distant sizzle of the breakers on the granite rocks far below. With the warm summer eddies of a Cornish evening fluttering around you, it is truly a wondrous experience-one never to be forgotten.