Croydon's Warehouse Theatre was promised a new theatre when its old building was scheduled for redevelopment, designs drawn up and a future planned but the economic crisis saw this halted, the company forced into liquidation and in 2013 the old theatre demolished.
Warehouse Phoenix and its director, the indomitable Ted Craig, took up the challenge to keep it going, primarily by maintaining its annual International Playwriting Festival.
This year, a bumper crop of entries came from all over the world, an even wider spread then previously. Three of them will be showcased in the festival with shorter extracts from three more short-listed plays.
The main plays will be:
- Shadowed by Tony Zeane (Sydney, Australia)
- Cold Calling by Doc Watson (Bath, UK)
- Once Around the Sun by Judy Upton (Shoreham-by-Sea, UK)
with extracts from
- Sometimes We Remember by Arzé Khodr (Lebanon)
- The Japanese Doll by Natsu Hirukawa (Japan)
- Greater Israel by David Blackman (Melbourne, Australia)
There will also be a presentation by regular collaborator Theatro Ena from Cyprus who will preview For a Little Light by Michalis Pieris which premières in Nicosia a few days later.
The BRIT Schol, with whom the company has had a close relationshipo in recent years, will also present two plays from its Strawberry Picking season.
The idea of using the Council Chamber as a performance space came from the Croydon Council itself—they are very aware that currently the borough has no performance spaces and, though the Festival is the only event scheduled there at the moment, the Council is happy for more shows to be staged there in the future. Because the chamber is still in regular use for its meetings, performances will have to be scheduled to accommodate them.
Director Craig welcomes the opportunity this offers but sees it as a stepping stone towards the new theatre which he hopes will still be forthcoming.
Meanwhile, full details of the festival programme and booking access can be found on the Warehouse Phoenix web site.