Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Pub theatres are a British institution

issue 13 November 2021

Which is the oldest pub theatre in London? The King’s Head in Islington claims that its American founder, Dan Crawford, established the trend back in 1970. But a rival venue, Pentameters, above the Horseshoe in Hampstead, maintains that its proprietor, Leonie Scott-Matthews, set it up as a fringe theatre in August 1968. The dispute rumbles on.

Pubs are peculiar to British culture, and their conversion into theatres owes something to the quirks of architecture. Most have a small room on the first floor which is slightly inaccessible from the downstairs drinking area, and it’s hard to tempt boozers to climb a narrow flight of stairs and sup their pints in a cramped space that feels a bit like an attic. But these dank little rooms are ideal for theatre.

Many pub theatres are effectively polytechnics that offer drama school graduates a chance to learn the trade from the ground up. A pub is an ideal starting point because the shows tend to have a small cast, a simple set and few technical complexities. And everyone does a bit of everything. The usher who tears off the tickets may also be the artistic director. If the lighting technician gets hit by a bus en route to the dress-rehearsal, there’ll be enough collective wisdom in the building to get a substitute trained before the opening night.

‘Don’t worry, I’m just here for Democracy.’

What pub theatres encourage, in other words, is a spirit of experimentation. And this can pay handsome dividends when a show transfers to the West End. The Play That Goes Wrong began life at the 60-seat Old Red Lion in Islington in 2012. Michael Kingsbury’s production of Maggie & Ted (a historical comedy about the Conservative party leadership) migrated from the White Bear in Kennington to the Garrick last June.

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