Donmar Warehouse Seating Plan
Two levels, Stalls and Circle, with a Standing rail behind the Circle. The Stalls has rows A to D and the Circle has rows A to C, and that is the whole building.
Check the plan for the show you are booking
The Donmar rebuilds its auditorium for every production. The three-sided thrust below is the usual shape and it is a fair guide, but the stage can move, the set can take a corner of the view, and one production put a piano stool in front of a single seat in the front row. The theatre's own plan for your performance is where the restricted-view flags for that staging appear, so look at that before you pick a seat rather than at a general plan of the building.
The seat numbers wrap round the stage
Numbering runs as one continuous sweep across each level, roughly 1 to 45, and it does not restart at each block. Low numbers are down one side, the middle numbers face the stage, and the high numbers are down the other side. So a seat numbered 3 and a seat numbered 43 are both at the far ends of the wrap, and a seat numbered in the twenties is in front of the stage on either level.
Stalls or Circle?
The Stalls, for most people. The stage at the Donmar is at floor level, below the eye-line of anyone sitting in the Stalls, and the productions are staged for that. Sit in the middle of the Stalls and you get the view the show was built around.
The Circle is one flight up, it has nothing above it, and the drop gives you a clear look down at the whole playing area. What it has instead is a bar running round the front of the level.
The levels at a glance
- Stalls, rows A to D. Padded benches, the closest seats in the building, and the coolest on a hot night. You come in at row C
- Circle, rows A to C. Padded fold-down seats, an aerial view, and a bar across the front that matters more at the corners than in the middle
- Standing, 16 places at the very back of the Circle, behind the centre rows. Covered on the Circle route
What the flags on the plan mean
The theatre uses one restriction label and only one: side view, potentially limited view. There is no graded scale and no stated cause, and it lands on the far ends of the wrap rather than on side seats generally, so a couple of seats in from a corner the flag stops. On a thrust stage a side seat means you see backs some of the time.
Seating Plan FAQs
Is it better to sit in the Stalls or the Circle at the Donmar Warehouse?
The Stalls. The stage is at floor level here, so from the Stalls you are looking slightly down at actors who are only a few feet away, which is what the staging is built for. The Circle sees the shape of the whole thing from above and costs less at the sides, and the middle of it is a good seat.
Which are the best seats at the Donmar Warehouse?
The middle of the Stalls, rows B and C. Every level is close, so the choice is less about distance than about which side of the stage you are on and whether anything is in the way. Then check the plan for your own performance, because the staging changes what each seat sees.