Hampstead Theatre is a

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

South Hampstead South Hampstead is an affluent part of the London Borough of Camden in inner north London. It is commonly defined as the area between West End Lane in the west, the Chiltern Main Line (south), Broadhurst Gardens north and north-west followed ...

, in the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London boroughs, borough in Inner London, England. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the former Metropolitan boroughs of the Cou ...

. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers.

History

The original ''Hampstead Theatre Club'' was created in 1959, in Moreland Hall, a parish church school hall in Holly Bush Vale, Hampstead Village. James Roose-Evans was the founder and first Artistic Director, and the 1959–1960 season included ''

The Dumb Waiter ''The Dumb Waiter'' is a one-act play by Harold Pinter written in 1957. Plot Two Hitman, hit-men, Ben and Gus, are waiting in a basement room for their assignment. As the play begins, Ben, the senior member of the team, is reading a newspaper ...

'' and ''

The Room ''The Room'' is a 2003 American independent romantic drama film written, directed, and produced by Tommy Wiseau, who also stars in the film alongside Juliette Danielle and Greg Sestero. Set in San Francisco, the film is centered around a ...

'' by

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

Eugène Ionesco Eugène Ionesco (; ; born Eugen Ionescu, ; 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre#Avant-garde, French avant-garde th ...

's ''Jacques'' and ''The Sport of My Mad Mother'' by

Ann Jellicoe Patricia Ann Jellicoe (15 July 1927 – 31 August 2017) was an English playwright, theatre director and actress. Although her work covered many areas of theatre and film, she is best known for "pushing the envelope" of the stage play, devisin ...

. In 1962, the company moved to a portable cabin in

Swiss Cottage Swiss Cottage is an area in the London Borough of Camden, England. It is centred on the junction of Avenue Road and Finchley Road and includes Swiss Cottage tube station. Swiss Cottage lies north-northwest of Charing Cross. The area was ...

where it remained for nearly 40 years, before, in 2003, the new purpose-built Hampstead Theatre opened in Swiss Cottage. The main auditorium seats 373 people. The studio theatre, Hampstead Downstairs, seats up to 100 people and was turned into a laboratory for new writing in 2010. In 2022,

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council o ...

removed the theatre's public funding.

Artistic directors

* James Roose-Evans (1959–1971) *

Vivian Matalon Vivian Matalon (11 October 1929 – 15 August 2018) was a British theatre director. Born in Manchester, Matalon began his career as an actor in a series of forgettable British films, but his greatest success has been as a director of West End ...

(1971–1973) *

Michael Rudman Michael Rudman (February 14, 1939 – March 30, 2023) was an American theatre director. Early life and education Rudman was born in Tyler, Texas, on February 14, 1939. He graduated from St. Mark's School of Texas in 1956, and four years later ...

(1973–1978) *

David Aukin David Aukin (born 12 February 1942) is an English theatrical and executive producer as well as a qualified solicitor. He has been nominated for multiple British Academy Television Awards and has won twice for producing films about Tony Blair: '' ...

(1978–1984) *

Michael Attenborough Michael John Attenborough (born 13 February 1950) is an English theatre director. Background Attenborough was born on 13 February 1950 in London, the only son of actress Sheila Sim and actor-director Richard Attenborough. He is the nephew of ...

(1984–1988) * Jenny Topper (1988–2003) * Anthony Clark (2003–2010) *

Edward Hall Edward Hall ( – ) was an English lawyer and historian, best known for his #Chronicle, ''The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke''—commonly known as ''Hall's Chronicle''—first published in 1548. He was ...

(2010–2019) * Roxana Silbert (2019–2022)

Playwrights

Playwrights who have had their early work produced at the theatre include: * Mike Bartlett *

Alistair Beaton Alistair Beaton (born 1947) is a playwright and satirist, journalist, radio presenter, novelist and television writer. At one point in his career he was also a speechwriter for Gordon Brown. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Beaton was educated at the ...

Simon Block Simon Block is a British screenwriter and producer best known for his work on the Julie Summers inspired ITV series '' Home Fires''. Career Block wrote on several popular dramas, such as ''Lewis'', ''New Tricks'' and '' Hotel Babylon'', being a ...

* Al Blyth *

Jeremy Brock Jeremy Brock MBE (born 14 July 1959) is a British writer and director whose works include the screenplays '' Mrs Brown'', '' Driving Lessons'', '' The Last King of Scotland'', '' Charlotte Gray'', and '' The Eagle''. Brock has also written two ...

Michael Frayn Michael Frayn, FRSL (; born 8 September 1933) is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce ''Noises Off'' and the dramas ''Copenhagen (play), Copenhagen'' and ''Democracy (play), Democracy''. Frayn's novel ...

Brian Friel Brian Patrick Friel (c. 9 January 1929 – 2 October 2015) was an Irish dramatist, short story writer and founder of the Field Day Theatre Company. He had been considered one of the greatest living English-language dramatists. (subscription requ ...

Rebecca Gilman Rebecca Claire Gilman (born 1964 or 1965) is an American playwright. Education Gilman attended Middlebury College, graduated from Birmingham-Southern College, and earned a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop at the Universit ...

* Daniel Hill * Terry Johnson *

Dennis Kelly Dennis Kelly is a British writer and producer. He has worked for theatre, television, and film. His play ''DNA'', published in 2007 and first performed in 2008, became a core set-text for GCSE in 2010 and has been studied by approximately 4 ...

Hanif Kureishi Hanif Kureishi (born 5 December 1954) is a British Pakistani playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, and novelist. He is known for his film '' My Beautiful Laundrette'' and novel '' The Buddha of Suburbia''. Early life and education Hanif Kureish ...

Mike Leigh Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English screenwriter, producer, director and former actor with a film, theatre, and television career spanning more than 60 years. His accolades include prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, the Berlin In ...

Abi Morgan Abigail Louise Morgan (born December 1968) is a Welsh playwright and screenwriter known for her works for television, such as '' Sex Traffic'' and '' The Hour'', and the films ''Brick Lane'', '' The Iron Lady'', ''Shame'' and ''Suffragette''. ...

Tom Morton-Smith Tom Morton-Smith (born 1980) is an Laurence Olivier Awards, Olivier award-winning English playwright. Biography Morton-Smith studied drama at the University of East Anglia before training as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic A ...

Rona Munro Rona Munro (born 7 September 1959) is a Scottish writer. She has written plays for theatre, radio, and television. Her film work includes Ken Loach's '' Ladybird, Ladybird'' (1994), '' Oranges and Sunshine'' (2010) for Jim Loach and '' Aimée ...

Bernard Pomerance Bernard Pomerance (September 23, 1940 – August 26, 2017) was an American playwright and poet whose best known work is the play ''The Elephant Man''. Biography Pomerance was born in Brooklyn, New York City in 1940. He studied at the University ...

Nina Raine Nina Raine is an English theatre director and playwright, the only daughter of Craig Raine and Ann Pasternak Slater, and a grand niece of the Russian novelist Boris Pasternak. She graduated from Christ Church, Oxford in 1998 with a First in E ...

Philip Ridley Philip Ridley is an English storyteller working in a wide range of genres and artistic media. As a visual artist he has been cited as a contemporary of the Young British Artists, and had his artwork exhibited internationally. He has written ...

* Saman Shad *

Martin Sherman Martin Sherman may refer to: * Martin Sherman (dramatist) (born 1938), American dramatist and screenwriter * Martin Sherman (actor) (born 1971), American actor, director, writer and inventor {{hndis, Sherman, Martin ...

Shelagh Stephenson Shelagh Stephenson is an English playwright and actress. Background and education Stephenson was born in Tynemouth, Northumberland in 1955. She read drama at Manchester University. Career Acting Stephenson worked as an actress with the Royal ...

Hugh Whitemore Hugh John Whitemore (16 June 1936 – 17 July 2018) was an English playwright and screenwriter. Early life and education Born at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, son of Samuel George Whitemore (1907-1987), a clerk at an oil company, and Kathleen Alma, né ...

Crispin Whittell Crispin Whittell (born 19 December 1969 in Nairobi, Kenya) is a British director and playwright. He spent much of his early life in Africa. He was a member of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, and studied English at Cambridge Universi ...

* Roy Williams

References

External links

* * Theatres in the London Borough of Camden Producing house theatres in London Buildings and structures in Hampstead Swiss Cottage {{London-stub