The Almost Free Theatre was an alternative and fringe theatre set up by American actor and social activist

E. D. Berman Edward David Berman (born 8 March 1941 in Lewiston, Maine) is an American-born British community educator, social activist, children's poet, playwright, director and producer. In 1979, Queen Elizabeth II awarded Berman an MBE for Services to Com ...

in 1971 in

Rupert Street Rupert Street is a street in London's Soho area, running parallel to Wardour Street and crossing Shaftesbury Avenue. Rupert Street is first mentioned in records in 1677, and named for Prince Rupert of the Rhine. The northern part of Rupert Str ...

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...

, London. Audiences paid what they could afford, but at least one penny. It also pioneered the lunchtime performance, which bought in a whole new audience. The theatre staged seasons, including the first season of gay plays in Britain, the first women's season, a Jewish season, an anti-nuclear season and a season to mark the 1976 American Bicentennial. There were readings of

John Arden John Arden (26 October 1930 – 28 March 2012) was an English playwright who at his death was lauded as "one of the most significant British playwrights of the late 1950s and early 60s". Career Born in Barnsley, son of the manager of a glass f ...

and

Margaretta D'Arcy Margaretta Ruth D'Arcy (born 14 June 1934, London) is an Irish actress, writer, playwright, and activist. D'Arcy has been a member of Aosdána since its inauguration and is known for addressing Irish nationalism, civil liberties, and women's r ...

's controversial ''The Non-Stop Connolly Show'' (1976) on Irish politics. Numerous individual new plays by writers Mike Stott,

Henry Livings Henry Livings (20 September 1929 – 20 February 1998) was an English playwright and screenwriter, who worked extensively in British television and theatre from the 1960s to the 1990s. Early life and career Livings was born in Prestwich ...

, Michael Stevens,

Wolf Mankowitz Cyril Wolf Mankowitz (7 November 1924 – 20 May 1998) was an English writer, playwright and screenwriter. He is particularly known for three novels— '' Make Me an Offer'' (1952), '' A Kid for Two Farthings'' (1953) and ''My Old Man's a Dustm ...

and Edward Bond were performed.

Tom Stoppard Sir Tom Stoppard (born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...

developed several of his key one-act plays here, including '' After Magritte'' and ''

Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth ''Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth'' are two plays by Tom Stoppard, written to be performed together. This was not the first time that Stoppard had made use of Shakespearean texts in his own plays or even the first time he had used ''Hamlet'' altho ...

''. His highly successful ''

Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land ''Dirty Linen'' and ''New-Found-Land'' is a pair of two 1976 Tom Stoppard plays that are always performed together. ''New-Found-Land'' interrupts the two parts of ''Dirty Linen''. It was first performed as an Ambiance Lunch-Hour Theatre Club pr ...

'' went on to transfer from the Almost Free to run for four-and-a-half years at the

Arts Theatre The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London. History It opened on 20 April 1927 as a members-only club for the performance of unlicensed plays, thus avoiding theatre censorship by the Lord Chamberl ...

."History of Interaction"
. Written by Dr. Susan Croft of Unfinished Histories.

References

Theatres in London 1971 establishments in England {{UK-theat-stub