Coventry chip shop becomes theatre space
Coventry based Theatre Absolute are opening a theatre in an empty shop.
The forty seat theatre opens on 10th December 2009 with a rehearsed reading of their award winning play ‘Car’.
In what is thought to be the UK’s first professional empty shops theatre, a former fish and chip shop in the heart of Coventry is set to take centre stage as internationally recognised Theatre Absolute base themselves at the shop for 18 months – producing a wide range of live theatre performances.
The company have secured support from the local authority Coventry City Council and the Arts Council England ‘Empty Spaces’ initiative.
Artistic Director and writer Chris O’Connell, whose most recent play “Zero” was produced last year in both the UK and the US, says,
“Inspired by companies such as Chicago’s Steppenwolf who were at the forefront of pioneering theatre in disused spaces in the late 1970’s, this is a cultural provocation to the city of Coventry and to the theatre world in general. It is about giving independent theatre a physical presence on the street, standing it next to our traditional repertory theatres and embedding the values of a different kind of theatre. This is independent theatre in bricks and mortar, at the heart of a community.”
O’Connell continues “It is not a site specific theatre as such, but more about the company stripping away the aesthetic of its previous work, pulling together a theatrical tapestry on the most basic of terms, and issuing a clear statement of intent to those who attend: this kind of work offers no place to hide, all we have are the actors, the words and an imaginative arena, but the experience between audience and performers must aspire to be of the highest quality, epic and personal.”
The empty shops, formerly Fishy Moore's Fish & Chip Shop, is at 38 City
Arcade, Coventry, CV1 3HW