Interview: Wardrobe Theatre directors

Pictured: Wardrobe co-directors (l-r): Matthew Whittle, Jesse Meadows and Chris Collier. Pic: Andy Tommey

After four successful years above The White Bear pub in Kingsdown, Bristol’s thriving fringe theatre The Wardrobe is upping sticks. The Wardrobe is collaborating with the team behind café/bars The Canteen and No. 1 Harbourside to create The Old Market Assembly – a new café, bar, restaurant, theatre, bakery and roof terrace opening on December 1.

The new venue – a former bank on West Street that once housed the nightclub Flamingos – opens with, among other things, the latest in the Wardrobe’s string of hugely successful alternative Christmas shows. Here are Wardrobe co-directors Jesse Meadows, Matthew Whittle and Chris Collier to tell the OMA story.

Exciting times for the Wardrobe. But why the move?
Over a year ago, we sat down together and talked about the possibility of finding a new home for The Wardrobe Theatre. The White Bear pub has been so, so generous, patient and supportive with us since we opened in May 2011 but after a couple of years we began to realise that, if we wanted to secure any kind of sustainable future for what we were trying to achieve, we would need to move to a larger and more fit-for-purpose venue.

And how did the partnership come about?
It was sheer luck that the team behind The Canteen and No.1 Harbourside were looking to experiment with a new bar/restaurant at the same time – and from our first meeting together we realised we were a perfect fit. The way we like to operate, what we were both looking for and who we wanted to support, all paved the way for a wonderful collaboration. Then, when we found the building in Old Market we all knew straight away it was the one. The layout, size, history and location were all exactly what we were looking for.

What are your hopes for the new venue?
This is a big leap forward for us and it’s amazing to be able to offer, for the first time, things like comfortable seating for over 100 people, a dressing room, a dedicated box office, rehearsal space and an adaptable space for workshops, talks and conferences. We hope the new venue will allow us to continue the work we’ve been striving towards so passionately for over four years now – and will help us secure a long-term future. 

How will Old Market compare to Kingsdown, as a base for you?
Both locations come with their various advantages and disadvantages but we are really, truly excited to be opening in Old Market. For over a decade Bristolians have been talking about how Old Market is ‘on the up’ and ‘about to explode’ – and you can totally see why. It’s very central, right next to Temple Meads and the M32, very close to Cabot Circus – and excitingly it’s on the edge of Easton, a hugely popular and creative area in desperate need of more cultural outlets.
We’re really excited to be working alongside some of the area’s many great organisations, such as Trinity and the LGBT community. Getting audiences to discover our new venue is one of our greatest challenges, but that’s why we’ve worked so hard to put together a spectacular opening season programme – including one of our signature alternative Christmas shows.

Ah yes, the Christmas show. Tell us more.
We’re excited to open our new venue with one of our trademark alternative, darkly comic, adult-only Christmas productions – our usual antidote to the sickly sweet, family-friendly fare on offer everywhere else. Our fifth alternative Christmas show is Goldilock, Stock & Three Smoking Bears, a madcap merging of the classic porridge-thieving fairy tale with Guy Ritchie’s cult 1998 cockney caper.
The show stars some familiar faces from our previous Christmas shows (including Harry Humberstone and Andrew Kingston from last year’s Muppits Die Hard, and Emma Keaveney-Roys from 2013’s Se7en Dwarfs), with the excellent Adam Fuller directing. It’s going to be big, silly, rude, outrageous and very, very funny!

Goldilock, Stock & Three Smoking Bears runs from Dec 1-Jan 17 at the new Wardrobe Theatre. For more info and to book tickets, visit www.thewardrobetheatre.com