The Jack's reopening play, the Papatango New Writing Prize-winning Trestle, is a revival-come-co-production with The Maltings that picked up an OnComm award nomination for outstanding online theatre when it was live-streamed from there earlier in the year.
Bannister tells me that the transfer came about via its director, Matthew Parker, who is known to Jack audiences for, among other things, the comic bosomy landlady in The Invisible Man as well as directing a number of shows there over the years.
It has been very good, she tells me, to work with another organisation and thinks that in the future they will consider doing so again.
Both Trestle and the second play, an inhouse production of Wolves Are Coming For You by Joel Horwood directed by Bannister, are two-handers.
"They are both performed socially distanced, which is really important. We talk a lot about keeping our audience safe, which is vital, but we also want to keep our performers safe, so we are looking at shows with smaller casts but that deliver big, punchy stories."
They also both have strong themes of community and connection—Bannister describes Trestle as "a lovely piece and quite bitter-sweet, about two people on completely different paths connecting as they meet every week in their community hall".
Of Wolves, she said, "it is very much in the vein of what we do at the Jack. It's a real theatrical storytelling piece where the audience get to use their imagination.
"It's also about community and two women play lots of different roles so it's about relationships in a community, how people can come together in a crisis and the way it changes people.”
It occurs to me that there is a certain symmetry to the Jack, which has served its neighbourhood since 1992, reopening with two shows whose stories are centred on community. Like many fringe venues, the theatre is very connected to its locality and its locals.
The response from residents has been an encouraging one, Bannister explained, "our experience has been that we have had a lot of positivity and a lot of support from our community. Particularly at the beginning when we were suddenly shut and had to do an appeal, people responded and that gave us hope at the beginning when the prospects were looking very difficult.
"A lot of people were wanting us to come back and have been willing us on. We have felt a terrific amount of support and seeing the first show sell out is indicative of that.
"We can feel that our community is behind us, which is also why we did not want to wait until later, even though we knew there would be restrictions.
"And people do want to come back; they have told us that, at the heart of their theatre experience, it's all about coming back to see shows live."
Similarly, artists are approaching Bannister with projects. It has not been possible to reschedule all the productions that had been postponed, but new companies are getting in touch and regulars are returning including the excellent Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope from Mark Farrelly.
By way of conclusion, I asked Bannister how it feels with the Jack about to reopen. "We are incredibly grateful to be in this position now," she said. "It did not feel like this was ever going to come at some points last year.
"We want to say a massive thank you to everyone who stood by us, everyone who has supported and encouraged us. Without that it would not have been possible to relaunch."
Trestle opens this week and runs until 26 June.
Wolves Are Coming For You opens on 6 July. The programme continues with every seven years, Buzzing and Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope with further details to be announced.
Tickets can be booked via the Brockley Jack web site where CONNECT, the five digital pieces can also be found. CONNECT and a series of online workshops which supported local artists and theatre freelancers were created with Arts Council England emergency funding. The Jack's returning season has been made possible by funding from the Theatres Trust and the Cultural Recovery Fund.
All productions will be given in adherence to government guidelines in place at the time. Sandra Giorgetti spoke with Kate Bannister before Monday evening's government announcement regarding the extension of the rules limiting social contact.