Lyme is said to be “probably the smallest town in the country to have its own theatre.”
        The Marine Theatre is the successor of at least two other buildings on the site. The Sea Baths, built by Giles Davie in 1804, were the town's first public baths, succeeding the bathing machines on the beach; they later became Jeffard's Baths. Besides warm water and private cubicles, they offered attendants, refreshments, newspapers, card tables, and, in front, a statue of Mercury — which, being “undraped,” was removed to an “obscure” corner out of the ladies' sight, and got destroyed in a fire of 1867. The baths were used as the polling station in the important election of 1832, which broke the absentee Fane family's power over Lyme.
        The bath house burned in 1887, was filled in, and on the site in 1894 arose a drill hall, over which were a reading room and a turret.
        The Marine Theatre becomes a disco each second Friday evening in the summer (thus financing itself, bringing some lively music to the town, and giving young people something to stay in town for). This has been happening for twenty years, but a few of the nearby residents want to stop it, accusing the “revellers” who roll out in the small hours of noise and damage (urinating and vomiting in gardens, breaking windows, filthy language). Others say there isn't much of this, and what do you expect if you live in the middle of a town? — you should try living in the middle of a city.
        The Marine Theatre has been the scene of some good performances, as well as lectures, meetings of the Coastal Forum, displays about Lyme's future, and the like. But it is hardly itself pretty, and there are plans to refurbish or rebuild it.
        In 2009 the manager of the theatre, Nigel Day, abseiled down its side — dangling from a rope thrown over the roof from a Peugeot car on the other side — to attach an advertising banner. He was seen by Nomad of the local television station and recorded on video, and councillors huffed that the performance was irregular and dangerous; the manager said he was a competent climber and had done a “health and safety assessment” and had saved the £2,500 cost of scaffolding, and would do it again.
        And in 2010 four members of Paranormal Exploration spent a November night in and around the theatre with cameras and recording equipment, hoping to catch ghosts and spirits that haunt it.