Camden Peoples Theatre

Once again (as with all theatre reviews) I try to review the space and not the production. But I LOVED both in this case! I’ve been here twice now and forgot to review it the first time (I know, how could any Unilocaler forget to review?! Disgraceful). But this time I remembered.
This is a very small theatre just off from Euston Square tube station, maximum 50 seats if that. But it’s intimate and it’s dark, set off in a back room you feel in the middle of the production. The first time I sat on slightly raised seating and the second time I was on the front row and there was no difference to be honest. Anywhere you sit you have a great view of what’s going on and you feel like you’re a part of the production. I love immersive theatre like that!
Also a nod to the plays I saw. The first was called Constance and Sinestra, which I saw after seeing it tour at Latitude festival (big shout-​out to Nicola Moss, my good friend and assistant director). Perfect for this space, it was a typical gothic comedy based around 2 girls whose mother had died and whose father was a broken-​hearted taxidermist so had her stuffed and mounted in the hallway. Choice lyrics such as ‘If you come on home with me you can taste my bakewell tart’ pepper this musical fiasco with innuendo that covers a more morbid undercurrent.
The second was also a wild and wacky play — seems to be the thing for this place! Dandelion Heart (an even bigger shout-​out to Nicola Moss who WROTE AND DIRECTED this one) is another wildly dark and yet light-​hearted play about a failing travelling circus and a boy with a very big secret… I can’t really explain it more because for most of the play I had NO idea what was oging on, but I LOVED IT!

Love this tiny venue: because
the space is so intimate, & the
plays so compelling, they are
packed with a punch by the
proximity of each theatregoer to
his neighbour. A complicit experience!

I’ve seen a bunch of the performances in CPT’s Sprint Festival this year. Some were better than others, but what love about the Camden People’s Theatre is that is takes risks on new performances. Everything is pretty new and a little out there. You’ll either love or hate it, but you definitely won’t be bored!
The people there are really friendly and always willing to discuss new ideas. They have a rehearsal space as well as the actual theatre for hire, which is really nice. I’d definitely recommend this place to artists and audiences alike!

I find the Camden Peoples Theatre to be just one small step from greatness, and that seemingly minor distance is as a vast chasm that keeps me from returning on a regular basis. They seem to have nearly everything well in place: a roster of returning artists whose oeuvres are at least well enough regarded; a loyal audience with a purported thirst for the new and the novel; a modus operandi of live art and indifference to fashions and finances. Alas. I have, more often than not, found Camden Peoples Theatre to be yet another bastion of bloated inclusiveness, a bureaucracy of the middle that offers little to most artists and littler still to audiences who truly crave the avant-​garde. Not to be disregarded, but certainly not to be lauded unduly.

Hampstead Road 27^th — 29^th March 2008
An immersive installation with sound
inspired by the history of the site
Where there were once extensive verdant tea gardens, there are now busy roads, high-​rise buildings, railways and underground tunnels. As the area around the theatre continues to be developed, and the buildings across the road are demolished, artists Elinor Brass and Emily Orley will create an evocative sculptural environment documenting all the pathways (both real and imaginary, public and private) that have ever crossed this corner of Hampstead Road, bringing an intricately layered network of memories to life.