Park Theatre

Park Theatre

This Finsbury Park theatre offers an ever-changing line-up of new shows
  • Theatre | Fringe
  • Finsbury Park
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Time Out says

Park Theatre counts some of theatre's biggest names amongst its fans, not least Ian McKellen, who recently donated the proceeds of a week-long run of his solo show to the theatre's kitty. And these friends in high places, plus plenty of local donors, mean that it's a much more professional outfit than your average unfunded neighbourhood theatre.

It puts on around 20 new shows a year, in two spaces: main stage Park200 and smaller studio Park90. They're generally new writing, but of a slightly more staid variety than you'd get at the likes of Bush Theatre or Theatre503. Expect a mix of issue-led dramas, new comedies, and star vehicles for veteran British actors. Its biggest hit so far has been David Haig's 'Pressure', which landed a West End transfer in 2018.

Park Theatre is housed in a shiny modern building tucked away on a quiet street behind Finsbury Park station. It opened in 2013, under the auspices of artistic director Jez Bond, who oversaw the building's £2.6 million creation from an old office block which stood on the site. Park Theatre has two cafe/bar areas - a spacious one upstairs, and a more hectic one downstairs - and both are popular with both laptop-toting locals and theatre fans waiting to see a show.  

Details

Address
Clifton Terrace
London
N4 3JP
Transport:
Tube: Finsbury Park; Rail: Finsbury Park
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What’s on

(the) Woman

In Jane Upton’s metatheatrical drama a successful female playwright succumbs to exhaustion and self doubt after becomig a mother. The play – directed by Angharad Jones – flits between playwrigt protagonist M and the plot of the play that she’s writing for her male producers. Lizzy Watts stars.
  • Drama

Kindling

Sarah Rickson’s drama follows five perimenipausal women – united only by their late friend Mel – who head out into a redwood forest in Wales to scatter her ashes but get lost there, bonding as they do so. Emma Caplan directs a drama that seeks to address how middle-aged women are depicted on the stage.
  • Drama

The Meat Kings! (Inc.) of Brooklyn Heights

This award-winning play from British-Irish playwright Hannah Doran follows a prestigious but ailing New York butchers, as the staff are pitted against each other over the summer season with the expectation that one of them wilkl get the chop (figuratively) at the end of the summer. George Turvey directs a cast of Jackie Clune, Marcello Cruz, Ash Hunter, Mithra Malek and Eugene McCoy.
  • Drama

Jobsworth

4 out of 5 stars
The review is from the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It transfers to the Park Theatre in November 2025. This drama from playwright Isley Lynn and actor Libby Rodliffe is a dark comedy about Bea (Rodliffe), a young millennial who it rapidly transpires is working three jobs, plus dog sitting for the (off travelling) pal whose flat she is staying in for free. Much of the early humour simply comes from the eye watering logistical details of how Bea pulls off the balancing act of holding down a full time PA job while also working as the concierge for a dodgy block of luxury flats while also needing to pick up her friend’s dog by 7pm every night (she also does some out of hours data entry).  The cleverest thing about Lynn and Rodliffe’s script is how it only slowly sneaks up on you to why Bea is actually doing all this. One’s immediate assumption is, cossie lives: Bea is a young(ish) person trying to get by in London, London is very expensive, look at the exaggerated lengths she’s gone to in order to get by, hahaha, not especially imaginative.  But of course somebody paying no rent doesn’t need three jobs, and over the course of ‘Jobsworth’ we discover how detached Bea has become from her friends, who are living normal lives without her. It transpires that she has done something very foolish in order to bail out somebody who has done something wildly irresponsible, and Bea has taken the absurd gamble that she can make it all better by working three jobs and not paying rent. To...
  • Drama

Dracapella

In a year that’s been weirdly high on eccenntric stage adaptations of Bram Stoker’s immortal vampire yarn, here’s Dracapella, a farcical retelling of the story of the undead count and his Victorian victims. Directed by Park Theatre boss Jez Bond and co-written by him and Dan Patterson, it’s a goofy spin on Stoker’s plot that for whatever reason includes a cappella renditions of classic rock hits – we’re promised ‘Somebody to Love’ and ‘Eye of the Tiger’.
  • Comedy

Gawain and the Green Knight

As alternative Christmas show go… this is pretty damn alternative. Felix Grainger and Gabriel Fogarty-Graveson’s comedy is a rewriting of the medieval myth of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, only this version is set at an office Christmas party, at which jobsworth middle manager Gawain attempts to ejact a gatecrashing knight in an effort to wow his boss Arthur. Kelly Ann Stewart and Adam Nichols co-direct this eccentric endeavor, which is suitab le for ages 13-plus.
  • Comedy
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