DAME Berwick Kaler will meet the class of 2002 babbies and bairns for the first time on Wednesday. And when he takes to the stage for his 24th pantomime, he will know his legendary performances are part of the history of one of Britain's greatest theatres.

York Theatre Royal's long, often illustrious, sometimes precarious, life was celebrated earlier this month by none other than the actor Timothy West.

Mr West is president of the Society for Theatre Research. One of its founders, Sybil Rosenfeld, wrote a definitive account of local drama, The York Theatre, in 1948. But she never found a publisher. Her manuscript resided in York Library, where other historians regularly consulted it.

Now it is available to all. More than half a century after its completion, and after Sybil's death in 1996, the Society for Theatre Research finally published The York Theatre. And this achievement was celebrated by Timothy West in a special ceremony at the Theatre Royal.

It was another member of the society, Anselm Heinrich, who arranged the celebration. Originally from near Dortmund in Germany, he is now at Hull University researching into the Theatre Royal in the 1930s and 40s, and comparing it with the theatre in York's German twin town of Munster.

He was full of praise for Sybil's work.

"She was one of the principle theatre historians. In the 18th century the theatre was the most prominent outside London. So it was fitting that one of our best theatre historians wrote about one of our best theatres."

The York Theatre is a comprehensive work. It traces the city's performing ambitions from the miracle plays of the 14th century to the 1940s.

In those early days, life on the stage was not easy. Theatre had been banned by Parliament in 1642. Anyone caught acting for gain outside Covent Garden or Drury Lane was held to be "a rogue and a vagabond". Performers tried to evade this rule by advertising the performance as a musical concert, with the plays put on for free during the interval.

In this, they were aided by the York authorities who turned a blind eye, realising that plays pulled in the punters.

Actor Thomas Keregan built York's first permanent theatre. His ten-year lease on the Merchant Taylors' Hall ran out in 1733 and he applied to the Mayor's Court for permission to construct his own playhouse.

The judgement was favourable: "this house being of the opinion that the having a commodious playhouse in this city may very much conduce to the entertainment of the nobility and gentry resorting to this city and incourageing them to spend their winter seasons here".

His new theatre was ready in 1734. It was a converted tennis court and it stood in the grounds of the ruined Archbishop's Palace in Lord Irwin's Yard, Minster Yard.

On the opening night, the players performed Henry IV. Theatregoers were charged three shillings for boxes and stage, pit 2s, middle gallery 1s.

Keregan died in 1736 and he left the company to his widow. She moved it to a new theatre - called the New Theatre - which she built in Mint Yard, on the site of the present Theatre Royal, in 1744.

She was succeeded as company manager first by Joseph Baker and then by Tate Wilkinson. York's 18th-century reputation as the most important theatrical base outside London was down to Tate. His flair and showmanship won new audiences and gained the theatre great prestige. He developed the circuit company, which was based in York but travelled to Leeds, Pontefract, Wakefield, Doncaster and Hull.

Wilkinson also sought to bring respectability to the company by obtaining a royal patent at a cost of £500. "An Act of Parliament was necessitated which repealed the application of the Licensing Act to York and made it lawful for the King to grant the patent," wrote Sybil Rosenfeld.

"After this it was no longer necessary to resort to the subterfuge of advertising concerts; nor was there fear any more that the theatre might be shut down and the players be prosecuted as a result of action by an informer."

So, in 1769, with one stroke of a pen York's thespians became legit: and they had a new name for their home... the Theatre Royal.

After Tate Wilkinson died in 1803, the theatre was taken over by his son, John. But by then, the golden age had gone. Improved transport links had placed London within reach of the local gentry, and York's status as the social centre of the north had declined.

Since then the Theatre Royal has had many ups and downs but it has opened in every year of its history.

In 1818 there was a near riot over whether Rule Britannia or God Save The King should be played as the National Anthem. As for the productions, the theatre was staging popular melodramas, such as Sir Walter Scott's Rob Roy. A contemporary described the theatre as "spacious, very handsomely fitted up and brilliantly lighted with wax candles in splendid glass chandeliers".

Another difficult time for the Theatre Royal's history was the inter-war era in the last century. By then, it was struggling to compete with two hugely popular forms of entertainment: the old music hall variety, and the new picture houses.

"In 1933 it was on the brink of being closed down and sold and turned into Allied Carpets or I don't know what," Anselm said.

It was the people of York who saved their historic playhouse. Sybil Rosenfeld wrote: "A group of prominent and public spirited citizens formed a company, which was registered on July 17, 1934, to take over the lease of the theatre."

Among the directors of the venture was Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree. They raised £2,300 in £1 shares on which returns above five per cent were not to be distributed to the shareholders but to go to theatre improvements.

"By October 1947, the York Citizens' Theatre had put on a total of 448 plays and 61 revivals," wrote Sybil.

Among the countless performances at this hallowed theatre down the years, the pantomimes have proved particularly popular. In the dark days of December 1933, for instance, the ailing company put on a brave face and performed Cinderella, "in which the local topics of football and trams were made comic butts".

"Even in the Twenties and Thirties the pantomime was one of the major events of the theatre year," said Anselm. "The income the theatre earned from the pantomime paid for the rest of the season."

Sybil Rosenfeld ended her book with these words: "May we hope therefore that the theatre will continue to thrive, so that the shade of Tate Wilkinson himself may look down upon it and nod approval."

If Tate happens to look down this week, he might also find himself shaking with laughter.

The York Theatre by Sybil Rosenfeld, published by the Society for Theatre Research, is on sale at the Minstergate and Barbican bookshops, York, price £15

Updated: 11:50 Monday, December 09, 2002