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 exceptional artistic work, from those who had ‘played’ with us, to a full production. Many international artists were invited to experiment with us including Poland’s Henryk Baranowski, winner of Poland and Russia’s top award for best director, Salius Varnus from Lithuania, and Hideki Noda, currently head of Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre.
From the UK, before opening as a public theatre we worked with Marcello Magni, co founder of Theatre De Complicite, along with his colleague Linda Kerr Scott.
From opening in 2017 we have collaborated with award winning names such as Brian Cox, Bill Alexander, Steven Berkoff, Guy Masterson and others.
The Playground Theatre is located in Latimer Road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea W10.