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Feature
FeatureLondon's Fringe Theatres
London has a large number of fringe theatres, often intimate studio spaces which put on experimental or new writing or are a first venue for fledgling directors and performers. They are usually very inexpensive with seats always under £16, averaging £10 and sometimes as low as £5.
Some theater companies which always put on reliable productions and whose whose productions may be found on the fringe are:
Shared Experience - innovative adaptations of 19th century great classical novels and 20th century plays (Lorca, Brecht). Critically acclaimed.
The Steam Industry - talented director Phil Wilmott has staged musicals such as The King and I, The Sound of Music and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers as well as classic plays like Inherit the Wind. Also stages new plays and helps writers find their voice for theatre. Absolute Theatre - very physical and visual theatre. I have seen a wonderful Queen Christina and plays by Lorca.
Out of Joint - My last production seen there was Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good which proved to be very exciting theatre.
Red Shift - Accessible story based theatre using actor's physicality. They staged an adaptation of Les Miserables, not the musical, but the Hugo book, with an ever changing cast of six using a small caravan type box with flaps to give forty changes of scene.
Fringe Theaters
The Barons Court Theatre
28A Comeragh Road
W14 9RH
020 8932 4747
baronstheatre@hotmail.com
Battersea Arts Centre (BAC)
(Ex Town Hall architecturally interesting, beautiful marble staircase, now home to one main house and two studios and has been called "The National Theatre of the Fringe" - with restaurant and bar)
Lavender Hill
London SW11
020 7 223 2223
www.bac.org.uk
The Bridewell
(In the city, in a former printers' institute, a small theatre which often puts on musical productions as well as plays, with an historic but refurbished bar)
Bride Lane
London EC4
Blackfriars Tube
020 7936 3456
The Bush Theatre
(Up and coming theatre with an exciting programme)
Shepherd's Bush Green
London W12
Shepherd's Bush Tube
020 8743 3388
Finborough Arms
(Pub theatre, home of The Steam Industry)
Finborough Road
Fulham
London SW10
020 7373 3842
Gate Theatre
(Small intimate studio with some very highly thought of productions)
Pembridge Road
London W11
Notting Hill Gate Tube
020 7229 0706
Hampstead Theatre
(Trying out ground for many subsequent West End transfers)
Avenue Road
London NW3
020 7722 9301
Jermyn Street Theatre
(Like a small private theatre in the heart of the West End)
Jermyn Street
London SW1
Piccadilly Tube
020 7287 2875
King's Head Islington
(above a pub, near The Almeida Theatre)
Upper Street
London N1
020 7226 1916
Lyric Studio
(Studio attached to the main Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith)
King Street
Hammersmith London W6
Hammersmith Tube
020 8741 2311
New End Theatre
Heath Street
Hampstead
London NW3
020 7794 0022
The Roundhouse
(Old railway turning house where De La Garda, the Argentinian acrobatic show is playing)
Chalk Farm Road
London NW3
020 7424 9800
Soho Theatre and Writers' Centre
(brand new theatre in Soho dedicated to new writing)
21 Dean Street
London W1
Box Office 020 7478 0100
www.sohotheatre.com
Southwark Playhouse
(small independent theatre converted from industrial premises)
Southwark Bridge Road
London SE1
London Bridge tube
020 7620 3494
Tricycle Theatre
Kilburn High Road
London NW6
Kilburn Tube
020 7328 1000
Young Vic and Young Vic Studio
(Established top quality Fringe theatre with small studio for more experimental work) The Cut
London SE1
Waterloo tube
020 7928 6363
Another source of information is this website maintained by a cooperative group of fringe theaters
