Queen's Theatre, Heritage theatre in Adelaide, Australia

Queen's Theatre is a heritage-listed theatre in central Adelaide, South Australia, originally built in the 1840s. The building is made of stone with wooden beams and retains much of its original interior structure, giving it a raw, unfinished appearance that sets it apart from more modern venues.

Built in 1840 for Emanuel and Vaiben Solomon and first known as Solomon's Theatre, it opened with Othello on 11 January 1841, managed by John Lazar. A recession closed it within two years, and from 1843 it served as courts and government offices. Reopened as the Royal Victoria Theatre in 1850, it remained Adelaide's only theatre until 1868. It is the oldest intact theatre on mainland Australia.

The theatre's name shifts with its fortunes: opened as Solomon's Theatre in 1841, it became the Royal Victoria in 1850, and only later took the Queen's name. Its 1850s facade encloses the shell of the 1840 auditorium, where dressing rooms and an orchestra pit were rediscovered in the 1980s.

The theatre sits in a pedestrian arcade in central Adelaide, so it is easy to reach on foot from most parts of the city center. A bar operates inside during events, so arriving a little early before a performance gives you time to settle in and look around the space.

Excavations at the site turned up personal objects from the 1840s including jewelry, clay pipes, and old shoes, left behind by ordinary visitors of the time. These finds are unusual because they reveal the everyday lives of regular people rather than the grand figures typically associated with colonial history.