Hampstead Theatre

Hampstead Theatre in April 2016
Address	Eton Avenue London, England
Coordinates	51°32′36″N 0°10′27″W / 51.543333°N 0.174167°W / 51.543333; -0.174167
Public transit	Swiss Cottage South Hampstead; Finchley Road & Frognal
Owner	Hampstead Theatre Company
Designation	RIBA Award 2003
Type	Flexible stage and seating
Capacity	Main House Configuration: End On 374 Thrust 370 Traverse 383 Hampstead Downstairs: 90
Construction
Opened	2003
Years active	Since 1959; 65 years ago (1959) (various locations)
Architect	Bennetts Associates
Website
www.hampsteadtheatre.com

Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in South Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers.

History

The original theatre (The Hampstead Theatre Club) was created in 1959 in Moreland Hall, a parish church school hall in Holly Bush Vale, Hampstead Village.^[1] James Roose-Evans was the founder and first Artistic Director, and the 1959–1960 season included The Dumb Waiter and The Room by Harold Pinter, Eugène Ionesco's Jacques and The Sport of My Mad Mother by Ann Jellicoe.

In 1962 the company moved to a portable cabin in Swiss Cottage 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.^[2]

In 2022 Arts Council England removed the theatre's public funding.^[3]

Artistic directors

• James Roose-Evans (1959–1971)
• Vivian Matalon (1971–1973)
• Michael Rudman (1973–1978)
• David Aukin (1978–1984)
• Michael Attenborough (1984–1988)
• Jenny Topper (1988–2003)
• Anthony Clark (2003–2010)
• Edward Hall (2010–2019)
• Roxana Silbert (2019–2022)

Playwrights

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