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Sara West takes us on a whirlwind tour of lunchtime theatre and its origins
Following her recent feature on “what exactly is fringe theatre?” Sara West continues to look back at the world of fringe, this time looking at that strange and almost forgotten world of lunchtime theatre.
What do you fancy for lunch? How about a play with that sandwich?! Lunchtime theatre was a key part of the development of fringe theatre in the 1960s and continued to exist for many years after that. If I’m honest I can remember seeing some really interesting plays at the Bridewell Theatre just off Fleet Street at the (ahem) turn of the century when I worked nearby, and looking at their website it would appear that Lunchbox Theatre does still perform plays there, if infrequently. And by lunchtime theatre, I do mean lunchtime, not a matinee, and a proper play rather than a concert. A specific genre, albeit one that shares many characteristics with a fringe play, the one consistent definition is that it has to be short: a maximum of one hour but ideally 45 to 55 minutes. In terms of props and set, it needs to be easy to construct (or remove) and so naturalist details are often reduced to the minimum.
Once again The Theatres Act of 1968 is a key milestone, allowing as it did a new creative freedom and it was the company Quipi, founded by the late David Halliwell in the same year, that pioneered a series of lunchtime plays at the Arts Theatre Club in Soho. In reality, the growth of this movement was also due to the economic difficulty of putting on a play in commercial theatre. Staging a play in a large West End venue with props, famous actors and marketing is expensive. Producers have to protect their financial investment and it’s commercially less risky to choose a play which is a known entity, or by an established playwright, or has famous actors performing. By contrast, lunchtime theatre, like fringe, has a short run for each play, and is far less expensive: creatively you can experiment.
So who were the dominant players then? It can’t be a surprise to anyone that The King’s Head in Islington (founded in 1970) was an important venue, run by two enterprising Canadians, Dan and Joan Crawford. They were able to subsidise their theatrical activities with the growing turnover from the catering and drink sales. Their focus was simply new work and they aimed to present as many brand new plays as possible.
The Soho Poly (1972) was also a key venue, located in what is now the basement of the University of Westminster’s building on Riding House Street, close to what was then Broadcasting House. Launching the careers of actors, writers and directors including Hanif Kureishi, Simon Callow, Bob Hoskins, Caryl Churchill and Timberlake Wertenbaker, it was dedicated to widening democratic access to the arts. It also gave voice to underrepresented writers, particularly women. Sadly it was abandoned in 1990 although plans are afoot to renovate it and open it again as a performance space. Fingers crossed.
Also worthy of note was the Ambiance Lunch Hour Theatre Club (try saying that after a glass or two at lunch…) which was founded in 1968 by American playwright and producer Ed Berman. Located in the basement of the Ambiance restaurant, Queensway, lunchtime theatre played an important role in creating infrastructures to support writing by black, women, and gay writers.
However, like most new endeavours, it wasn’t plain sailing. By 1972 Equity, the Trade Union for the Performing Arts sector, was concerned that actors were being exploited. Given the performers were often unpaid, or had to fund their own travel and expenses, this had a ring of truth. Vincent Burke (the assistant secretary at the time) was concerned to ensure that “the existence and possible growth of fringe and lunchtime theatre does not constitute a threat to the established theatre and aggravate the unemployment situation for actors as a whole…” Frankly that was a bit rich when it was a whole new industry, which by definition created work, particularly for new playwrights and directors who wouldn’t have got a sniff at the bigger venues. Nonetheless, the Association of Lunchtime Theatres was created in the autumn of 1972 which was formed out of a meeting of over forty fringe workers held at the offices of Time Out. Their aims included: “[promoting] lunchtime theatre, presenting new and neglected plays and playwrights, to provide alternative venues for actors, directors and designers, and to encourage audiences by making theatre more accessible.” That organisation no longer exists but it was the first of many groups that persuaded the Arts Council to increase its subsidies for the sector.
Here I flick forward to the present day (conveniently bypassing fifty years, I do realise) but what strikes me is that lunchtime theatre is still a genuinely different offering, even to fringe, because of its timing. It offers a whole new audience the opportunity to see something interesting, different and new. Post Covid, urban workers are commuting in and out of cities so it is more inconvenient for them to stay to see evening theatre, particularly when juggling family or childcare commitments and of course a matinee is incompatible with a working day. Having done a swift search I have struggled to find anything that consistently delivers that anymore. And that’s a shame. And yet … an opportunity.
