Swan Theatre, Elizabethan theatre built about 1595 by Francis Langley in Bankside, London. A description and a sketch of the Swan made by Johannes de Witt of Utrecht (no longer extant; the sketch copied by Aernoudt [Arendt] van Buchell is the only copy) have proved most useful in attempts to reconstruct the form of the Elizabethan theatre. The last known mention of the Swan Theatre was in 1632.