finborough-theatre

The Finborough Theatre is a fifty-seat theatre in the West Brompton area of London (part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea) under artistic director Neil McPherson. The theatre presents new British writing, as well as UK and world premieres of new plays both in translation and from the English speaking world including North America, Canada, Ireland, and Scotland including work in the Scots language, alongside rarely seen rediscovered 19th and 20th century plays.

The Finborough Arms was built in 1868 to a design by George Godwin and his younger brother Henry. It was one of five public houses built by Corbett and McClymont in the Earls Court area during the West London development boom of the 1860s. The pub opened in 1871. The ground floor and basement of the building was converted into The Finborough Road Brasserie from 2008 to 2010 and The Finborough Wine Cafe from 2010 to 2012. The pub reopened under its original name of The Finborough Arms in February 2014 and closed again during the COVID-19 pandemic. It reopened after an extensive refurbishment in January 2025 as a bar and restaurant.

June Abbott opened the theatre above the Finborough Arms Public House in June 1980. In its first decade, artists working at the new theatre included Clive Barker, Kathy Burke, Ken Campbell, Mark Rylance, and Clare Dowie who appeared in the world première of her own play Adult Child/Dead Child.

From 1991 to 1994, the theatre was best known for new writing with Naomi Wallace’s first play The War Boys; Rachel Weisz in David Farr’s Neville Southall's Washbag, Elton John’s Glasses; Holding Back the Ocean by Godfrey Hamilton; and three plays by Anthony Neilson: The Year of the Family; Normal: The Düsseldorf Ripper; and Penetrator, which transferred from the Traverse and went on to play at the Royal Court Upstairs. From 1994, the theatre was run by The Steam Industry under Artistic Director Phil Willmott. Productions included new plays by Tony Marchant, David Eldridge, Mark Ravenhill, and Phil Willmott. New writing development included Mark Ravenhill's Shopping and F*cking (Royal Court, West End and Broadway) and Naomi Wallace's Slaughter City (Royal Shakespeare Company), the UK première of David Mamet’s The Woods, and Anthony Neilson's The Censor, which transferred to the Royal Court.

Productions since 2000 have included the UK premières of Brad Fraser’s Wolfboy; Lanford Wilson’s Sympathetic Magic; Tennessee Williams’ Something Cloudy, Something Clear; and Frank McGuinness’ Gates of Gold with William Gaunt and the late John Bennett in his last stage role which transferred to the West End; the London première of Sonja Linden’s I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady from Rwanda; the specially commissioned adaptation of W.H. Davies’ Young Emma by Laura Wade and directed by Tamara Harvey; the first London revival for more than 40 years of Rolf Hochhuth’s Soldiers; Keith Dewhurst's Lark Rise to Candleford, performed in promenade and in repertoire; the Great War drama Red Night, and five first plays by new writers: Jason Hall's Eyes Catch Fire; Chris Dunkley’s Mirita; Dameon Garnett's Break Away , Simon Vinnicombe's Year 10, Joy Wilkinson's Fair which transferred to the West End; Waterloo Day with Robert Lang; Sarah Phelps’ Modern Dance for Beginners, subsequently produced at the Soho Theatre; Carolyn Scott-Jeffs' comedy Out in the Garden, which transferred to the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh; the London premiere of Larry Kramer's The Destiny of Me; The Women's War – an evening of original suffragette plays; Steve Hennessy’s Lullabies of Broadmoor (about the Finborough Road murder of 1922); the Victorian era comedy Masks and Faces; Etta Jenks with Clarke Peters and Daniela Nardini; The Gigli Concert with Niall Buggy, Catherine Cusack and Paul McGann which transferred to the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh); Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams with Linda Bassett, Albert's Boy by James Graham starring Victor Spinetti, Peter Oswald’s Lucifer Saved with Mark Rylance, Blackwater Angel, the UK debut of Irish playwright Jim Nolan with Sean Campion, the first London revival for over seventy years of Loyalties by John Galsworthy, the world premiere of Plague Over England by Nicholas de Jongh which subsequently transferred to the West End at the Duchess Theatre, the first revival of Hangover Square, adapted by Fidelis Morgan from the novel by Patrick Hamilton, the UK premiere of the musical Ordinary Days by Adam Gwon and a season of plays by William Saroyan.

Available at this venue:

• Wheelchair-accessible toilet

Not available at this venue:

• Wheelchair-accessible entrance
• Wheelchair-accessible parking

Accessibility information supplied by Google Maps. Please contact the venue directly to confirm details for your visit.