Arcola Theatre is an Off West End theatre in the

London Borough of Hackney London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. It presents plays, operas and musicals featuring established and emerging artists. The theatre building, in the former Colourworks paint factory on Ashwin Street,

Dalston Dalston () is an area of East London, in the London Borough of Hackney. It is northeast of Charing Cross. Dalston began as a hamlet on either side of Dalston Lane, and as the area urbanised the term also came to apply to surrounding areas includ ...

, houses two

studio theatre A black box theater is a simple performance space, typically a square room with black walls and a flat floor. The simplicity of the space allows it to be used to create a variety of configurations of stage and audience interaction. The black ...

spaces, two rehearsal studios and a café-bar. In 2021 the theatre opened Arcola Outside, also on Ashwin Street. The theatre runs one of East London's most extensive arts engagement programmes. Since 2007 the ''Green Arcola'' project has aimed to make Arcola the world's first

carbon-neutral Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the "p ...

theatre.

History

Arcola Theatre was founded by artistic director

Mehmet Ergen Mehmet Ergen is a Turkish theatre director, producer and entrepreneur, currently based in London Borough of Hackney. Biography After completing a nine-month acting course in Turkey, Mehmet decided to become a director. He put an ad in ''The Sta ...

, in September 2000. Its original location was a former textile factory on Arcola Street in Dalston. The theatre celebrated this with its fifth anniversary production, ''The Factory Girls'' by

Frank McGuinness Professor Frank McGuinness (born 1953) is an Irish writer. As well as his own plays, which include '' The Factory Girls'', ''Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme'', ''Someone Who'll Watch Over Me'' and ''Dolly West's Kitchen'', ...

. In January 2011 the Arcola moved to a former paint-manufacturing workshop on Ashwin Street in Dalston, after its previous landlord earmarked the Arcola Street site for redevelopment as apartments. It marked the move by premiering '' The Painter'', a play about J. M. W. Turner by

Rebecca Lenkiewicz Rebecca Lenkiewicz (born 1968) is a British playwright and screenwriter. She is best known as the author of ''Her Naked Skin'' (2008), which was the first original play written by a living female playwright to be performed on the Olivier stage of ...

. Since its inception the theatre has twice won the ''Peter Brook Empty Space Award'' and was awarded '' Time Out'' Live Awards in 2003 and 2006. In 2007, an Arcola co-production of ''Mojo Mickey'' by

Owen McCafferty Owen McCafferty (born 1961) is a playwright from Northern Ireland. Early life Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, McCafferty in 1961 he was brought up in London from the age of 1 until aged 10 when his parents returned to Belfast. He was educat ...

became its first West End transfer to the

Trafalgar Studios Trafalgar Theatre is a new West End theatre in Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square, in the City of Westminster, London. It is set to open in spring 2021 following a major multi-million Pound sterling, pound restoration project aiming to reinstate ...

. 2007 also marked the first year of the Arcola's

Grimeborn Grimeborn is an annual East London musical theatre and opera festival which coincides with the world famous East Sussex Glyndebourne Opera Festival. Founded by Arcola Theatre’s artistic director Mehmet Ergen in 2007, the festival is held ...

, an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

and

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ...

festival that runs for two weeks in August. The theatre is committed to achieving carbon neutral status and a research project, ''Arcola Energy'', "bringing together the creative mindset and the engineering methodology", is established on the building's top floor to develop and market

hydrogen fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...

s, with the profits subsidising the theatre's community arts projects.

References

Theatres completed in 2000 Theatres in the London Borough of Hackney Studio theatres in London Producing house theatres in London Dalston {{UK-theat-struct-stub