Show of Strength Theatre Company is a

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

-based

theatre company Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

which has produced new and forgotten works since 1986 in a range of venues in Bristol and the South West. The company is funded by

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

and

Bristol City Council Bristol City Council is the local authority of Bristol, England. The council is a unitary authority, and is unusual in the United Kingdom in that its executive function is controlled by a directly elected mayor of Bristol. Bristol has 34 wards ...

but also relies on individual and corporate sponsorship. They have produced over 60 plays and established several new performance venues including the Showboat pub (

Horfield Horfield is a suburb of the city of Bristol, in southwest England. It lies on Bristol's northern edge, its border with Filton marking part of the boundary between Bristol and South Gloucestershire. Bishopston lies directly to the south. Mo ...

), the Hen and Chicken pub ( Bedminster),

Quakers Friars Quakers Friars () is a historic building in Broadmead, Bristol, England. The site is the remains of a Dominican friary, Blackfriars that was established by Maurice de Gaunt, c. 1227. Llywelyn ap Dafydd the eldest son and heir of Dafydd ap Gr ...

( Broadmead), the

Tobacco Factory The Tobacco Factory is the last remaining part of the old W. D. & H. O. Wills tobacco factory site on Raleigh Road, Southville, Bristol. It was saved from demolition by the architect and former mayor of the city George Ferguson and through his ...

( Southville) and Paintworks ( Arnos Vale). The company has received many awards for its work, including the London Weekend Television Plays on Stage award and the Guinness/Royal National Theatre Pub Theatre Award. As well as plays Show of Strength have produced numerous play readings and writing workshops. Although based in Bristol the work of the company has received regular attention from the UK national press.

History

Sheila Hannon and Nick Thomas co-founded the company in Bristol in 1986, and it began as a two-handed company performing in small touring venues. In 1989 the company moved into an upstairs reception room above the Hen and Chicken pub in Bedminster. In the succeeding years they produced five seasons of work building regular and loyal audiences. Their work received growing attention, which was rewarded in 1993 with the LWT Plays on Stage award for the premiere production of ''A Busy Day'', a lost play by the Georgian writer

Fanny Burney Frances Burney (13 June 1752 – 6 January 1840), also known as Fanny Burney and later Madame d'Arblay, was an English satirical novelist, diarist and playwright. In 1786–1790 she held the post as "Keeper of the Robes" to Charlotte of Mecklen ...

, which later transferred to the West End. In 1994 they lost the use of that venue, but found a new home in part of the grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in Broadmead where in the succeeding three years they produced new and lost work by writers ranging from Peter Nichols ('' Blue Murder'') to

Dion Boucicault Dionysius Lardner "Dion" Boucicault (né Boursiquot; 26 December 1820 – 18 September 1890) was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the ...

(''How She Loves Him''). In 1996 they co-produced ''The Substance of Fire'' (Jon Robin Baitz) with the

Theatre Royal, Plymouth Theatre Royal, Plymouth, is a theatre venue in Plymouth, Devon. It consists of a 1,300-seat main auditorium, The Lyric, which regularly hosts large-scale musicals, opera and ballet; a 200-seat studio, The Drum; and a 50-seat studio, The Lab. O ...

. In 1997 they lost the use of Quakers Friars and co-produced four plays with

Bristol Old Vic Bristol Old Vic is a British theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, Bristol. The present company was established in 1946 as an offshoot of the Old Vic in London. It is associated with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which became a fin ...

, which were also performed at The Talbot Inn, Mells in Somerset. The European premiere of Australian playwright

Nick Enright Nicholas Paul Enright AM (22 December 1950 – 30 March 2003) was an Australian dramatist, playwright and theatre director. Early life Enright was born on 22 December 1950 to a prosperous professional Catholic family in East Maitland, New Sou ...

's ''Good Works'' won the Guinness/Royal National Theatre Pub Theatre Award. Bristol architect George Ferguson made the first floor of an abandoned tobacco factory in Southville available to Show of Strength in 1998 and the company succeeded in making this into a new theatre venue, the Tobacco Factory Theatre, for South Bristol, which it remains to this day. In three years they produced eleven play including two news works by Peter Nichols and the acclaimed ''The Wills' Girls'' by

Amanda Whittington Amanda Whittington (born 1968 in Nottingham) is an English dramatist who has written over 30 plays for theatre and radio. Her work is widely performed by companies across the UK, with recent productions at Hull Truck, Oldham Coliseum, New Vic Th ...

which was revived in 2003 and was also staged at the Dublin Fringe Festival. Following a major Arts Council review in 2004, Show of Strength has grown to working with other arts agencies and venues in the South West, including The Everyman Theatre

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral ...

, The Brewhouse Theatre

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

, The Northcott Theatre

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal c ...

, Bristol Old Vic, Asian Arts Agency and Travelling Light Young Peoples Theatre Company. In 2006 as part of the Brunel 200 celebrations performances of ''An Audience with Sarah Guppy'' were produced on Brunel's

SS Great Britain SS ''Great Britain'' is a museum ship and former passenger steamship that was advanced for her time. She was the largest passenger ship in the world from 1845 to 1854. She was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859), for the Great We ...

and three new plays under the banner title ''Brunel and Partners'' were performed at

Bristol Temple Meads Bristol Temple Meads is the oldest and largest railway station in Bristol, England. It is located away from London Paddington. It is an important transport hub for public transport in the city; there are bus services to many parts of the city ...

, Bath Spa,

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east of the ...

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymout ...

and Newton Abbot railway stations. ''Trade It?'' commissioned as part of the 2007 commemoration of the

Abolition of the Slave Trade Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

in 1807 was a street performance of ten short plays in June 2008 by writers including

Mustapha Matura Mustapha Matura (17 December 1939 – 29 October 2019) was a Trinidadian playwright living in London. Characterised by critic Michael Billington as "a pioneering black playwright who opened the doors for his successors", Matura was the first B ...

, Catherine Johnson and

Sandi Toksvig Sandra Birgitte Toksvig (; ; born 3 May 1958) is a Danish-British writer, comedian and broadcaster on British radio, stage and television. She is also a political activist, having co-founded the Women's Equality Party in 2015. She has written ...

. In 2008 Show of Strength suffered a major funding cut from Bristol City Council, but then received a temporary extension until March 2009. In February 2009 ''Trading Local'', a partnership with the Southville Centre, produced short plays in 19 local shops in Southville and Bedminster.

References

External links

Show of Strength production archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Show Of Strength Theatre Company Culture in Bristol Organisations based in Bristol Theatrical organisations in the United Kingdom Theatre companies in England

History

See also

References

External links