The Finborough Theatre

Founded in 1980, the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre presents new writing from the UK and overseas, music theatre and unjustly neglected work from the last 150 years.

In its first decade, artists working at the theatre included Rory Bremner, Clive Barker, Kathy Burke, Nica Burns, Ken Campbell and Clare Dowie (the world premiere of Adult Child/Dead Child). In the early 1990’s, the theatre was at the forefront of the explosion of new writing with Naomi Wallace’s first play The War Boys; Rachel Weisz in David Farr’s Neville Southall’s Washbag which later became the award-winning West End play, Elton John’s Glasses; and three plays by Anthony Neilson - The Year of the Family, Normal and Penetrator which went on to play at the Royal Court. From 1994, the theatre was run by The Steam Industry. Highlights included new plays by Tony Marchant, David Eldridge, Mark Ravenhill and Phil Willmott, new writing development including Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and F***king (Royal Court, West End and Broadway) and Naomi Wallace’s Slaughter City (Royal Shakespeare Company), the UK premiere of David Mamet’s The Woods, and Anthony Neilson’s The Censor which transferred to the Royal Court.

Neil McPherson became Artistic Director in 1999. Notable productions since then have included the world premieres of Sarah Phelps’ Modern Dance for Beginners (subsequently produced at the Soho Theatre); Carolyn Scott-Jeffs’ Out in the Garden (which transferred to the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh); two plays specially commissioned for the Finborough - Laura Wade’s adaptation of W.H. Davies’ Young Emma, and Steve Hennessy’s Lullabies of Broadmoor on the Finborough Road murder of 1922; Simon Vinnicombe’s Year 10 (which went on to play at BAC’s Time Out Critics’ Choice Season); James Graham’s Albert’s Boy with Victor Spinetti and the specially commissioned Eden’s Empire; and Joy Wilkinson’s Fair which transferred to the West End – in addition to the London premieres of Sonja Linden’s I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady from Rwanda; Jack Thorne’s Fanny and Faggot; and Peter Oswald’s Lucifer Saved with Mark Rylance.

UK premieres of foreign plays have included Brad Fraser’s Wolfboy; Lanford Wilson’s Sympathetic Magic; Larry Kramer’s The Destiny of Me; Tennessee Williams’ Something Cloudy, Something Clear; Frank McGuinness’ Gates of Gold with William Gaunt and the late John Bennett in his last stage role (which also transferred to the West End); Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams with Linda Bassett; Blackwater Angel, the UK debut of Irish playwright Jim Nolan with Sean Campion; and IWitness by Joshua Sobol.

Revivals of neglected work have included the first London revivals of Rolf Hochhuth’s Soldiers, and The Representative; both parts of Keith Dewhurst’s Lark Rise to Candleford - performed in promenade and in repertoire; The Gigli Concert with Niall Buggy, Catherine Cusack and Paul McGann (which transferred to the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh);The Women’s War – an evening of original suffragette plays; the Victorian comedy Masks and Faces; Etta Jenks with Clarke Peters and Daniela Nardini; Loyalties by John Galsworthy; and Noël Coward’s first play, The Rat Trap; as well as thefinboroughgaieties – Celebrating British Music Theatre series with Florodora, Our Miss Gibbs ,The Maid of the Mountains and A “Gilbert and Sullivan” Double Bill.

The Finborough Theatre won the Guinness Award for Theatrical Ingenuity in 1996 and 1997; the Pearson Award bursary for writers Chris Lee in 2000, Laura Wade in 2005, James Graham in 2006 and Al Smith in 2007 – as well as the Pearson Award for Best Play for Laura Wade in 2005; won the Empty Space Peter Brook Mark Marvin Award in 2004 and was shortlisted in 2006; and was the inaugural winner of the Empty Space Peter Brook Award’s prestigious Dan Crawford Pub Theatre Award in 2005.

You can read a full history of the theatre – and of the local area – at www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk or click their logo below.