The White Bear Theatre is a

fringe Fringe may refer to: Arts * Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival, known as "the Fringe" * Adelaide Fringe, the world's second-largest annual arts festival * Fringe theatre, a name for alternative theatre * The Fringe, the ...

theatre founded in 1988 at the White Bear pub in Kennington,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, and run by Artistic Director and founder Michael Kingsbury. It is one of London's leading pub theatres, as well as one of the longest established, dedicated since inception to both new writing and to its ''Lost Classics Project'', which focuses on productions of obscure historical works. Notable theatre practitioners who have worked at The White Bear include

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, Mark Little,

Emily Watson Emily Margaret Watson (born 14 January 1967) is an English actress. She began her career on stage and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1992. In 2002, she starred in productions of ''Twelfth Night'' and ''Uncle Vanya'' at the Donmar Wa ...

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, and Brice Stratford.

The Lost Classics Project

Alongside the theatre's new writing output, the long-running ''Lost Classics Project'' focuses on the production of obscure, underperformed or unperformed plays from previous generations. In the modern history strand this has included the first uncensored productions of two of John Osborne's supposedly lost early plays ('' Personal Enemy'' and ''The Devil Inside Him''), J.P. Donleavy’s

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, together with a successful revival of Sylvia Rayman's long-unperformed all-female play ''

Women of Twilight ''Women of Twilight'' is a 1951 play by Sylvia Rayman that became a 1952 film directed by Gordon Parry. The latter stars Freda Jackson, Rene Ray and Lois Maxwell, with a screenplay by Anatole de Grunwald. It was the first British film to receiv ...

''. The project's historical strand has been praised by academics for featuring "an extensive range of non-Shakespearean plays" and for seeking to "extend the repertory beyond the select group of frequently revived plays". Alongside the ''Read Not Dead'' project at

Shakespeare's Globe Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse for which William Shakespeare wrote his plays, in the London Borough of Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames. The original theatre was built in ...

and the Royal Shakespeare Company's ''Jacobethan'' seasons, the ''Lost Classics Project'' is considered one of the three most influential attempts to "reshape the twenty-first-century 'early modern repertory'", with past productions including the first modern performances of '' Westward Ho'' by Thomas Dekker and

John Webster John Webster (c. 1580 – c. 1632) was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies '' The White Devil'' and '' The Duchess of Malfi'', which are often seen as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. His life and c ...

, and

Ben Jonson Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...

's final play, '' The Magnetic Lady''.

Awards

* Empty Space Peter Brook Award – Best Up and Coming Venue * Time Out Award – Best Fringe Venue * Carling London Fringe Award – Best Actor *Carling London Fringe Award – Best Production * Fringe Report Award – Outstanding Achievement *2012 Empty Space… Peter Brook Award – Mark Marvin Rent Subsidy Award: Instant Classics Company in association with White Bear Theatre *2012

Off West End Award Off West End refers to theatres in London which are not included as West End theatres. The term is a relatively recent one, coined after the similar American term "off-Broadway" (though without the same strict definition). It is usually used synony ...

– Best Female Performance: Evelyn Adams, Count Oederland (2011) *2013 Off West End Award – Best Male Performance: Brice Stratford, ''Ondine'' (2012)Off West End Awards
Winners of the Offies 2013
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External links

Official Website

References

{{coord , 51, 29, 12.5, N, 0, 6, 28, W, type:landmark_region:GB-LBH, display=title Theatres in the London Borough of Lambeth Pub theatres in London