Relaunched in Penge in 2021, the Bridge House Theatre punches high as a pub theatre showcasing work from historically underrepresented groups.
As they celebrate their 3rd anniversary, artistic director Luke Adamson and associate director Joseph [Joe] Lindoe tell us more about the venue they co-founded.
Congratulations on three years at Bridge House Theatre! What’s been the highlight of your time there?
Luke: There are so many! The unanimous standing ovations at the ends of performances, the loud expletive from an audience member at the climax of our Halloween ghost story The Girl In The Green Room, but winning our first Offie takes some beating.
Joe: For me one highlight was about a year into running the place the operation consisted of literally us two and one of us had to be there every single night.
About a year into opening we had our first freelance member of front of house staff working whilst Luke and I sat at our respective homes messaging each other wondering how the metaphorical babysitter was managing.
As a fringe theatre literally on the fringe of London, how do you tempt artists and audiences to come to your pub in Penge?
Luke: In terms of artists, we tempt them with our ethos, our financial model and what we offer them as part of the deal.
They come for the intimate yet not small theatre space, the beautiful pub and the friendly, all inclusive welcome everyone receives here.
As for audiences, we’re blessed with a growing and supportive local audience that are invested in the success of the theatre, many of whom we now know by name!
We’re also incredibly lucky to be situated right next to Penge West station which makes it easy for audience members from elsewhere in London to get to us.
Our programming policy tempts people to come and see work that they may not be able to see elsewhere.
Joe: As a small team we are lucky to be able to operate with a very competitive financial model and we’re constantly trying new things.
As Luke said, our ethos as well as our open, friendly and personal touch is something artists want to be a part of.
One thing I’m very proud of is how the teams consistently leave our space with a big grin on their faces and say how much they loved their time here.
In terms of audience, once people have been maybe once to support a friend they realise that it’s not actually that hard or far and come back for more.
If you say Penge, people look blankly at you but if you say it’s the next station from Crystal Palace they’re instantly more on board.
Your programming includes working-class, global majority, LGBTQ+ and neurodiverse communities. What have been your biggest challenges in making this work visible at Bridge House?
Luke: I think the biggest challenge is actually finding work from some of these groups, they have been historically underrepresented for so long that they don’t feel that their stories are valid.
Our work is to encourage them to put their stories on stage, the audience is there for them. We recently had a run of a show about two working class families in North London, one of North African descent, one from a travelling background.
The show sold out almost every night. People seem to want alternatives to the white middle class narratives that feature on many of our country’s stages, we have the space and the opportunity to share those alternative narratives and are passionate about doing so.
Joe: Our programming ethos is the work has to be socially conscious AND entertaining.
That’s a difficult thing to get right but it’s very doable, you can’t have comedy without truth, you can’t have dark without light and vice versa.
Sometimes people sneer at the prospect of a show just sounding like ‘woe is me’ but everything we put on is far more than that and it’s definitely beginning to be recognised.
London’s theatre scene is a hive of innovation and activity. Where does Bridge House fit in and which theatres do you have the closest relationship with?
Luke: I’ve never thought about where we fit, I’m not even sure I know what ‘fitting in’ is, we make and support work that we’re passionate about, we’re invested in our local community, the wider creative community and we’re ploughing the furrows as we go.
Having been creating work on the Off West End scene for ten years I have great relationships with a number of other theatres.
I was at The Hope Theatre for four years before taking over the reins here, I’ve staged shows at The Drayton Arms, The Etcetera, Baron’s Court and more.
Our strongest relationship though would be with London Pub Theatre of the Year, and our nearest neighbour The Jack Studio Theatre.
Kate and Karl there are such inspirations and we’re working with them on a number of projects this year.
Joe: I think a lot of people want to know your USP, not just in the arts but in all aspects of work or life in general.
I think when it comes to providing a space that can be very important, but equally important is being open and accepting of all ideas.
We have hosted and created a wealth of different stories and in many ways where we fit in is by being a friendly, fun and passionate team that are hands on in helping to bring all manner of stories to life.
You took over the theatre after the pandemic. Has that had any long-term effects on your plans for the future?
Luke: I saw it as a clean slate, we were coming into it fresh off the best part of two years with no theatre at all, nothing could be worse than that! We almost had nothing to lose, we had nothing pre-pandemic to compare it to.
We were coming into the space with a very different model to the previous theatre management. It could be a success, it could fail, but it was a case of ‘let’s throw everything at this and see what happens’. Three years on and it seems to have been a successful approach!
Joe: We technically took over mid-pandemic, our first in-house production of a double panto in rep at Christmas 2021 was brought down early due to the outbreak of the omicron strain and that whole period but we kept at it and worked hard throughout the remainder of the pandemic.
The hardest thing has been not even necessarily been persuading people to come see shows but to book in advance, budgeting and planning is so much harder when people buy the week of the show.
People just got used to making decisions days in advance and haven’t gotten out of it. That’s why we encourage people to book early by absorbing online ticketing fees and often giving early bird discounts.
What can we look forward to over the next 12 months?
Luke: Lots! We’ve got a hugely varied programme featuring bold new plays, brand new original musicals, local company British Touring Shakespeare return for their third run with us following hugely successful productions of Dracula and The Hound Of The Baskervilles, this year it’s Jekyll & Hyde.
There’s another in-house production in the works, and our award winning panto will be back in the form of Sleeping Beauty at Christmas.
Joe: Yeah, what he said!