FRINGE THEATRES & SMALL THEATRES

See Also: ARTS VENUES; COMEDY CLUBS; THE KING OF LAMPEDUSA; MUSIC VENUES; NON-WEST END THEATRES; THEATRE RELATED; THEATRES, CLOSED OR DISAPPEARED; WEST END THEATRES

Website: www.unfinishedhistories.com (A website devoted to alternative theatre.)

The Arts Theatre Club

The Arts Theatre Club sometimes hosts cabaret.

Location: 50 Frith Street, W1D 4SQ (red, brown)

Website: www.theartstheatreclub.com

Bridewell Theatre

Bridewell Theatre

Location: Bridewell Centre, 14 Bride Lane, EC4Y 8EQ (purple, pink)

Website: https://sbf.org.uk

Brixton House

In 1961 the youth worker Peter Oliver (1926-2007) was appointed warden of Christ Church (Oxford) United Clubs at the Kennington Oval. With his wife Joan acting as administrator, he turned The Oval House into a cradle of British alternative theatre. Those who worked there included: Steven Berkoff, Pierce Brosnan, Mike Figgis, Athol Fugard, David Hare, Salman Rushdie, and Mike Westbrook. Theatre companies that performed at the venue included The People Show and Incubus. In 1974 the Olivers left, Mr Oliver becoming a theatre director.

In 2022 it acquired a new home, Brixton House.

Location: 385 Coldhabour Lane, SW9 8GL

Website: https://brixtonhouse.co.uk

The Bush Theatre

In the 1980s the actor Alan Rickman was closely associated with The Bush. He had grown up in Acton and been schooled in Hammersmith.

Location: 7 Uxbridge Road, W12 8LJ

Website: www.bushtheatre.co.uk

The Donmar Warehouse

The building that the 251-seat Donmar Warehouse theatre occupies was both a brewery's hop ripening facility and a film studio before becoming a banana warehouse. The theatre owner Donald Albery bought it in 1960. He converted it into a rehearsal space that was used by Margot Fonteyn's London Festival Ballet dance company; the name Donmar was derived from their forenames.

In 1977 (Stephen) Howard Davies (1945-2016) persuaded Trevor Nunn that the Royal Shakespeare Company should establish a theatre in a rehearsal space in Covent Garden. This became the Donmar Warehouse, a London outlet for the company's smaller, new plays. Davies directed many of them. He had a profound respect for the texts that he chose with. He did not seek to radically remould to a vision that was not the author's. Through rehearsals he would try to make every character, however minor they might be, have a back story. He cast Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan in Christopher's Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1985). It proved to be a major hit. With time, he came to feel that he was not being given enough opportunities to direct on the company's large stages. He therefore moved to The National Theatre. There, he became renowned for his productions of the 20^thC American canon. He was drawn to it because he believed that it enabled society to be studied through a small group of individuals. In 1997 Nunn moved the National to become its Artistic Director.

Nunn regarded Davies's production of All My Sons (2000) as being the best production of a 20^thC classic that he had ever seen.

In 1990 Roger Wingate of the Ambassador Theatre Group played the leading role in setting up the Donmar Trust, a not-for-profit charity. Two years later the director Sam Mendes started using The Donmar as his principal base.

The Donmar's productions tend to differ from those that are mounted in the West End's other theatres. In part, this is because the theatre has been able to draw a portion of its income from subscriptions that are paid to it by members of its audience who are philanthropically-inclined.

Location: The Donmar Warehouse, 41 Earlham Street, WC2H 9LX (blue, white)

See Also: DISTRICT CHANGE Covent Garden, Neal's Yard; FRUIT Bananas; MUSEUMS The Design Museum

Website: www.donmarwarehouse.com

The Hackney Empire

The Hackney Empire

Location: 291 Mare Street, E8 1EJ

Website: www.hackneyempire.co.uk

Hampstead Theatre

Hampstead Theatre was formerly Hampstead Theatre Club. It was founded by James Roose-Evans in 1959. In the 1960s and the 1970s it originated a number of plays.

The Hampstead Theatre started its existence in a scout hut in Hampstead. In 1962 it relocated to a temporary building in Swiss Cottage. The site was opposite the Central School of Speech & Drama. The theatre could seat 175 people. It developed a reputation both for fostering new writing and for staging productions that transferred to the West End.

The 2003 theatre was designed by Rab Bennetts of Bennetts Associates. It has a capacity to extend its auditorium s capacity from 150 seats to 325.

Location: Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage, NW3 3EU

Website: www.hampsteadtheatre.com

The I.C.A. Theatre

The I.C.A. Theatre was a fringe venue in the 1960s and 1970s.

Location: 12 Carlton House Terrace, SW1Y 5AH (red, white)

Website: www.ica.art/menu/3/venue-hire/spaces/theatre

Jermyn Street Theatre

Jermyn Street Theatre has hosted cabaret.

Location: 16B Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6ST (red, blue)

Website: www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk

The Kiln Theatre

The Tricycle Theatre was modelled on Richmond Theatre in North Yorkshire.

In the 1990s and 2000s The Triangle Theatre staged a series of plays that were based upon the transcripts of controversial legal proceedings. The pieces were directed by Nicholas Kent. They included: Half The Picture (1994) about the Scott Inquiry, Nuremberg (1996), The Colour of Justice (1999) about the Stephen Lawrence murder, and Bloody Sunday (2005).

The theatre's named was changed to The Kiln Theatre in 2018.

Location: 269 Kilburn High Street, NW6 7JR

Website: https://kilntheatre.com

The Menier Chocolate Factory

Menier was a French chocolate company that was acquired by Cadbury.

The Menier Chocolate Factory is a small South London theatre that in the mid-2000s developed a considerable reputation as a production house. It was set up in 2004 by the producers David Babani and Danielle Tarento in a former chocolate factory.

Location: 53 Southwark Street, SE1 1RU

Website: www.menierchocolatefactory.com

The Place

The Place was a fringe venue in the 1960s and 1970s.

Location: 17 Duke's Road, WC1H 9PY (orange, purple)

Website: www.theplace.org.uk

The Polka Theatre

The Polka Theatre is a children's theatre.

Location: 240 The Broadway, Wimbledon, SW19 1SB

Website: https://polkatheatre.com www.polkatheatre.com

Pub Theatres

The Gate Theatre

The Gate Theatre stages five to six productions each year. Each one runs for about five or six weeks. The space can seat about 70 people.

Lou Stein wished to stage foreign-written plays. In 1979 he took a lease on a studio space above The Prince Albert pub in Notting Hill Gate. In 1985 Stein stood down. In 1990 Stephen Daldry took charge.

In 2022 it was reported that the theatre was moving to Camden.

Location: 26 Crowndale Road, NW1 1TT (orange, purple)

11 Pembridge Road, W11 3HQ. Former home. (orange, red)

Website: www.gatetheatre.co.uk

The King's Head Theatre Pub

1970. Dan Crawford (d.2005) loved London because he had watched Ealing comedies as a child in Hackensack, New Jersey. Someone suggested to him that Islington was on the up . The pub was very rundown. Crawford declared that even the wines had deserted the pub. Served food because there was nowhere to eat.

The till operated on imperial coins. The pub charged in old money. In 2008 it embraced decimalisation.

Now a vestige of an older era.

Location: 115 Upper Street, N1 1QN (blue, red)

Website: https://kingsheadtheatre.com