Playground Theatre

From Bus Depot to Theatre
The Playground Theatre, formerly a bus depot, was set up as a creative space for innovative theatre artists of all disciplines to come and 'play' with their imaginative ideas.

As a registered charity with support from the Arts Council, The Welcome Trust, Esmee Fairbarn and others, numerous projects initiated here went on to venues such as The Young Vic, The Hampstead Theatre, The West Yorkshire Playhouse and many others. One such project, Terrific Electric won the Samuel Beckett Award for Innovative Theatre and was part of the Bite season at the Barbican Theatre.

We made the decision to open the theatre to audiences in 2017.

The decision was born from the desire to bring the work of these many exceptional artists, who had 'played' with us, to full production. Many international artists were invited to experiment with us including Poland's Henryk Baranowski, winner of Poland and Russia’s top award as best director, Salius Varnus from Lithuania, and Hideki Noda, currently head of Japan's National Theatre.

From the UK, we worked closely with Marcello Magni, co founder of Theatre De Complicité, along with his colleague Linda Kerr Scott. We have collaborated with names such as Oliver award winner's Director Bill Alexander, actor Steven Berkoff, award winning director Gary Lloyd and Golden Globe winner Brian Cox.