The Tabard Theatre is a small 96-seat theatre in Chiswick in the London Borough of Hounslow. Close to Turnham Green Underground station, it is situated above the Tabard public house on Bath Road. The Tabard Theatre was licensed and opened for theatre use in 1985. It was renamed as the Chiswick Playhouse in 2019 which closed in March 2022. [1] It is reopening as the Tabard in September 2022. [2]
The Tabard public house was built in 1880 by the architect Norman Shaw as one of the public buildings of the Bedford Park garden suburb; the others, nearby, are the Bedford Park Stores, St Michael and All Angels church, and a clubhouse, now the London Buddhist Vihara. [3] The upper walls of the public house are covered in arts and craft tiles by William De Morgan, and the fireplaces have surrounds of tiles created by Walter Crane – an early example of Art Nouveau. [4]
The Tabard Theatre was licensed and opened for theatre use in 1985. [5] It was founded by the actress Andrea Black. With the help of the playwright Sam Dowling, the actor Ron Forfar and the playwright Dale Reynolds, 'The Tabard Theatre of New Writing' was established with a vision for the future of theatre through recognising new playwrights. The first play chosen was Our Blue Heaven by the late Bill Jesse, followed by Riverman by Sam Dowling. Originally, Actors from West London Equity supported an event to raise money to change the room above the Tabard pub in to a Theatre. When Andrea Black took over the space, it was just a carpeted room. Hidden behind the wallpaper were original William Morris tiles.
Very quickly, the space was painted, a ticket office was established, and bookings were taken for the first production. News of the new theatre in West London attracted a wealth of creative like-minded people who gave much of their time to the success. Directors such as Stephen Butcher and Jay Vaughan worked on some of the early plays, chosen collectively by a creative team appointed by Andrea Black and Sam Dowling. The theatre created a strong reputation for new writing, and developed into a home for experimental theatre and alternative comedy.
In 2005 the theatre was refurbished. At the end of 2007, the Tabard Theatre started to produce in house, making it one of the few theatres to do so in a studio theatre with no central funding. In 2009, New Boy, a 2008 co-production, transferred to the West End; In 2010, Wolfboy followed its steps. In 2011, the Tabard presented You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown directed by Anthony Drewe and starring Olivier Award winning Leanne Jones. The Tabard produced the world premiere of Richard Harris's new play Liza Liza Liza about the life of Liza Minnelli. Christmas shows have included Stiles and Drewe's musicals Honk! and Just So , Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella and currently the UK Premiere of Alan Menken's adaptation of A Christmas Carol . The theatre gained a reputation as a venue for comedians to try out new work prior to major tours, and well known names such as Russell Brand, Harry Hill, Russell Howard, Dara Ó Briain and Al Murray have all played there. [6]
In 2019, the theatre was renamed the Chiswick Playhouse. [7] [8] The actor Fred Perry became executive director of the theatre. [9] The Chiswick Playhouse closed in March 2022.
It was announced that theatre would be returning to the Tabard in July 2022. [10]
Chiswick is a district of west London, England. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and Fuller's Brewery, London's largest and oldest brewery. In a meander of the River Thames used for competitive and recreational rowing, with several rowing clubs on the river bank, the finishing post for the Boat Race is just downstream of Chiswick Bridge.
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and with the Royal Opera House, itself known as "Covent Garden". The district is divided by the main thoroughfare of Long Acre, north of which is given over to independent shops centred on Neal's Yard and Seven Dials, while the south contains the central square with its street performers and most of the historical buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the London Transport Museum and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre is a full-time professional conservatory for actors in New York City. First operational from 1915 to 1927, the school re-opened in 1928 and has been active ever since. It is the birthplace of the Meisner technique of acting, named for American actor and acting teacher Sanford Meisner.
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West End theatre is mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres in and near the West End of London. Along with New York City's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London.
Christien Alexis Anholt is an English stage, television and film actor best known for portraying Nigel Bailey in the television series Relic Hunter. His earlier notable film roles include Marcellus alongside Mel Gibson in Franco Zeffirelli’s Hamlet (1990) or Peter Emery in Stuart Urban's Preaching to the Perverted (1997). In 2021, Anholt plays T. S. Eliot in William Nunez's The Laureate depicting the life of British poet and writer Robert Graves. He is the son of actor Tony Anholt and resides in London.
Arts Educational Schools, or ArtsEd, is an independent performing arts school based in Chiswick in the London Borough of Hounslow.
Bedford Park is a suburban development in Chiswick, London, begun in 1875 under the direction of Jonathan Carr, with many large houses in British Queen Anne Revival style by Norman Shaw and other leading Victorian era architects including Edward William Godwin, Edward John May, Henry Wilson, and Maurice Bingham Adams. Its architecture is characterised by red brick with an eclectic mixture of features, such as tile-hung walls, gables in varying shapes, balconies, bay windows, terracotta and rubbed brick decorations, pediments, elaborate chimneys, and balustrades painted white.
Laura Wade is an English playwright.
Thomas Stephen Towry Piper MBE is a British theatre designer who regularly collaborates with director Michael Boyd. He became an associate designer with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2004.
Leon Parris is a British writer, composer, musician, and actor.
Liza Kate Pulman is a British singer and actress. She is an acclaimed solo singer and comedienne and one third of the satirical comedy trio Fascinating Aïda. As a member of the group, she received Drama Desk Award nominations in 2005 and 2010. Pulman has an extensive career that encompasses music, theatre, comedy, writing and presenting.
A tabard is a short coat which was a common item of men's clothing in the Middle Ages, and which has survived to the present day as the distinctive garment of officers of arms.
Acton Green is a residential neighbourhood in Chiswick and the London Borough of Ealing, in West London, England. It is named for the nearby Acton Green common. It was once home to many small laundries and was accordingly known as "Soapsuds Island".
The Old Pack Horse is a Grade II listed public house in a prominent position on the corner of Chiswick High Road and Acton Lane in Chiswick, London.
The block of three buildings containing The Tabard public house is a Grade II* listed structure in Chiswick, London. The block, with a row of seven gables in its roof, was designed by Norman Shaw in 1880 as part of the community focus of the Bedford Park garden suburb. The block contains the Bedford Park Stores, once a co-operative, and a house for the manager.
Chiswick Mall is a waterfront street on the north bank of the river Thames in the oldest part of Chiswick in West London, with a row of large houses from the Georgian and Victorian eras overlooking the street on the north side, and their gardens on the other side of the street beside the river and Chiswick Eyot.
The Duke of Sussex, Acton Green is a public house, opened in 1898, in the northern Chiswick district of Acton Green. It is prominently situated on a corner facing the common. The Grade II listed building is "elaborately decorated" to a design by the pub architects Shoebridge & Rising.
The Old Fire Station, Chiswick is an 1891 brick building with stone facings on Chiswick High Road. It served as a fire station until 1963, and has since been used as a restaurant.
The architecture of Bedford Park in Chiswick, West London, is characterised largely by Queen Anne Revival style, meaning an eclectic mixture of English and Flemish house styles from the 17th and 18th centuries, with elements of many other styles featuring in some of the buildings.
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