Tucked away in the lower Himalayan range in India is the hill station of Shimla. Once the summer capital of the British East India Company, Shimla, located in the state of Himachal Pradesh, has many attractions: for theatre lovers and tourists it is the 123-year-old Gaiety Theatre, which retains some of its original splendour.

Theatre stalwarts such as Rudyard Kipling, Baden Powell, KL Sehgal, Prithviraj Kapoor, Balraj Sahni, Shashi Kapoor, Jennifer Kendall, Manohar Singh and in more recent times Anupam Kher, Naseeruddin Shah frequently performed on the stage of Gaiety Theatre An interesting story surrounds the establishment of Gaiety, says a newly prepared brochure by the Himachal Department of Art, Language and Culture. Apparently the first recorded performance (which coincided with Queen Victoria's coronation) had its share of muddles. A cast member who was to enact the role of a woman, firmly refused to cut off his moustache, while another decided that it was an opportune time to go bear hunting.

No wonder the original cast was replaced and the play took place in what Emily Eden, sister of the Governor General Lord Auckland described in 1838 as “a little sort of theatresmall, hot and somewhat dirty." This sorry structure gave way to the grand Gaiety Theatre which opened in the newly constructed Town

Hall in 1887, the year of Queen Victoria's jubilee year. According to some records, the Victorian architecture of the theatre was a replica of the eponymous theatre in London, which was destroyed in England , thus making the Shimla-based Gaiety, one of its kinds globally, says literature on the theatre.

After its completion, the first play performed on this theatre was “Time will Tell” and over the years came to be known as the “Mecca of Theatre”. The Amateur Dramatic Club (ADC) which is the driving force behind the theatre, has staged many theatrical works such as “Antignone” and “The Moustrap.” More recently, Anil Sharma's box office hit 'Gadar', starring Sunny Deol was shot at the theatre. Today

TV crews too flock to the theatre to shoot serials.

The theatre was in urgent need of renovation to restore it to its pristine glory. After six years of restoration, the theatre reopened its doors in June 2009. Today it is an important landmark in Shimla and has a seating capacity of 318. Apart from Hindi plays being staged every second Saturday, it has opened it doors to tourists who are taken around the ancient wonder with its Gothic style of architecture by guides.

New attractions include an art gallery managed by the New Delhi-based Lalit KalaAkademi, while a city museum and a conference hall are to be housed in the old, grand building.