His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth
His Majesty’s Theatre — Perth’s Edwardian opera house
His Majesty’s Theatre on Hay Street in the Perth CBD is one of only two operating Edwardian-era opera houses in Australia (the other is the Theatre Royal in Hobart). The theatre opened on Christmas Eve 1904 and has operated continuously as a working theatre since — a status no other Australian opera house can claim. It underwent a major restoration in 1980 and a further heritage-conservation refurbishment between 2015 and 2018 that addressed structural issues, replaced the seating, restored the original 1904 decorative scheme and modernised the back-of-house and orchestra pit. It is the principal Perth home of West Australian Opera, West Australian Ballet, and Perth-based touring drama and musical theatre productions.
The room
1,194 seats across stalls, dress circle and gallery. The room is the smallest mainstage opera house in Australia by capacity — the intimacy of the building is its principal selling point. The proscenium opening is narrower than the modern mainstage opera houses in Sydney and Melbourne, which constrains the kinds of productions that work in the room (large-scale spectacle opera doesn’t sit well; chamber-format and mainstream Italian repertoire does).
The orchestra pit was substantially expanded in the 2015–2018 refurbishment and now seats up to fifty musicians — large enough for most mainstream opera and ballet repertoire, although Wagner and the larger Strauss operas remain a tight fit. The acoustics are warmer and more enveloping than the Sydney Joan Sutherland Theatre, with the dry-clear sound balance that suits Italian opera, Mozart, and the early-Romantic operatic repertoire.
Acoustics and seat selection
Front-half stalls and dress circle middle are the high-value seats. Unlike many heritage opera houses, the gallery (the upper level) holds up very well — the room is small enough that gallery-level audiences sit close to the action and the sightlines are surprisingly clear. The cheapest reliable strategy is the gallery front row — significantly cheaper than the stalls, with surprisingly good sightlines for the price point.
Avoid the side dress circle at the very edge of the proscenium — the heritage architecture means a few seats on each side have view obstruction. The 2015–2018 refurbishment marked these seats clearly in the booking system.
Getting there and what to do nearby
Walk from any Perth CBD hotel — His Majesty’s sits at the western end of Hay Street, three blocks west of King Street. Train to Perth Underground (5 min walk) or Elizabeth Quay (10 min). Free CAT bus service (Yellow CAT line) stops at His Majesty’s. Parking on Hay Street and Murray Street nearby in the evening is straightforward.
Pre- and post-show dining: the on-site Maj Café is the casual option. Walking radius covers the King Street precinct (5 min walk — Print Hall, Print Hall Bar, Wildflower) and the Brookfield Place dining (5 min — Wildflower, Hadiqa, Halford). The State Buildings on St Georges Terrace is the best concentration of fine dining within walking distance.
Good to know
The theatre runs occasional heritage tours during weekday mornings — book through the website. The 2015–2018 refurbishment added comprehensive accessibility provisions including lift access throughout, hearing-loop technology and a selected-performance Auslan, audio-description and captioning programme. The building is the cornerstone of Perth’s classical performing arts calendar; pair an evening here with a daytime visit to the Art Gallery of Western Australia or the Perth Cultural Centre (10 min walk). The decorative interior alone — the 1904 scheme restored in the 2015–2018 refurbishment — is worth arriving thirty minutes ahead of curtain to take in.