Western theatrical performances in Shanghai can first be identified in May 1853. The English Amateur Dramatic Club of Shanghai (ADC) was founded in 1866 and started performing in the New Lyceum Theatre a year later. After the building burned down in 1871, a new building called the Lyceum was opened in 1874, its construction made possible by some “wealthy Englishmen”. By the end of the 1920s, the building had developed structural problems and the trustees decided to build a new theatre in the French Concession, opposite the high-rise Cathay Mansion, which was under construction. The new Lyceum Theatre was designed in an eclectic style by British architects Davies & Brooke and opened on 5 February 1931.

The Deutsche Theater-Verein (DTV – in English, German Amateur Dramatic Club, or German ADC), was full of praise for the performance of their English colleagues and looked forward to using the theatre in a guest capacity in the future. In fact, the German ADC performed almost all of its performances at the Lyceum Theatre until the mid-1940s. It has been called the only western theatre stage in Shanghai. While productions were also staged in cinemas, the lack of dressing rooms and other facilities complicated the actors’ work.

From 1929 to 1933 the German craftsman Horst zum Eschenhoff designed the stage sets for the German ADC. From 1931 he was also employed as a designer at the interior design company The Modern Home (TMH), founded by Rudolf Hamburger. With the restructuring of TMH in October 1933, Eschenhoff left the company and then stopped working as a stage designer. Richard Paulick, who had also worked for TMH from 1933, started his own business, Modern Homes, with his brother Rudolf in 1936. From this date until Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939, Paulick designed the sets for the German ADC at the Lyceum Theatre.

When a large number of Jewish refugees reached Shanghai in 1939, they too organised theatre performances, performing for the most part in school halls and cinemas, because the stage at the Lyceum was too expensive. Very active in this context was Alfred Dreifuß, who was involved in founding the European Jewish Artists Society (EJAS), which brought a number of actors together. Others like Boris Sapiro went into business for themselves, providing their own stages. The difficulty for everyone was to find scripts in German. It is therefore not surprising that many of the plays staged by the theatre in exile had previously been performed at the German ACD. Paulick, who had good German contacts, was probably able to help. Dreifuß was the first to assist a British director at the Lyceum Theatre, with the direction of Lilac Times (Das Dreimäderlhaus). The first exile director to stage Delila, a play by Franz Molnar, at the Lyceum was Fritz Melchior, in 1941. The play sold out and attracted exiles, Chinese and other foreigners. As for many other performances at the exile theatre, Paulick designed the stage sets. A week later, the War in the Pacific began and theatrical performances were severely restricted.

After the war Paulick became a member of the British Amateur Dramatic Club and, until his departure from Shanghai at the end of 1949, designed some highly acclaimed stage sets, such as for The Play’s the Thing by Franz Molnar, Volpone by Ben Johnson, The Grand National Night by Campbell and Dorothy Christie and others. All of these plays were performed at the Lyceum Theatre. Richard Paulick also set standards for stage set design during his 17 years in exile in Shanghai. The Lyceum Theatre was renovated in 2020 and is once again used for live performances.