Manchester has a huge amount of fringe theatre venues, in most cases being either backrooms or basements in pubs and clubs. There are some that no longer function as theatre venues, most notably the Black Lion and 3MT; others such as The Seven Oaks or Gulliver’s have been occasional venues for years and new additions continue to pop up like the Anthony Burgess Centre but the only one which has truly remained a constant over the two last decades has been the Kings Arms on Bloom Street, an old Victorian pub which is a grade two listed building.
With a year-round full programme of events, the remarkably versatile upstairs room at the Kings Arms has proper lighting and sound facilities with a dedicated green room, having given countless emerging actors and writers an opportunity to get their work out there as well giving more established artists a place to try out new productions, notably Joe O’Byrne’s enormously successful ‘The Haunting of Blaine Manor’. The Kings Arms venue also serves as the key venue for the Manchester Festival Fringe. It perhaps surprising then that this illustrious little theatre has not had its own resident company. Well, it has one now.
This evening marked the formal launch of the Kings Arms Theatre Company, who have a rich and varied programme in store starting on the 3rd November with the drama ‘Wasted’ by Kae Tempest with future productions including the classic ‘Look back in Anger’ by John Osborne and after that an adult pantomime. This was not however an evening of excerpts of forthcoming productions or a showcase of performance and acting talent. It was essentially about outlining a vision and putting the new company into a broader Mancunian perspective.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the vision is the Kings Arms Theatre Company will be just that. It will exist to perform at the Kings Arms and nowhere else. The Palace and the Opera House will continue to take big touring productions from the West End and the Royal Exchange will offer heavily funded modern interpretations of theatre-in-the-round but the Kings Arms Theatre Company will be offering a different product, quality professional theatre by a resident company in an intimate venue.
In terms of material, the new company will offer both established works and new writing and as such will be very much aimed at being a vehicle for developing both new acting and writing talent from Manchester. The Kings Arms pub, alongside all other fringe venues has long since provided a venue for the staging of small budget productions but that has necessarily meant that a writer or theatre company has had to hire the venue and undertake all the producing. That opportunity remains, continuing to provide a valuable, affordable resource buts the Kings Arms Theatre Company provides an opportunity for new creatives to get work on the stage without producing. This means that rather being just another theatre company performing in smaller venues, the Kings Arms Theatre Company will have a particular place in the overall fabric of the Manchester Theatre scene.
This a bold initiative which has the potential to be a very important part of the ongoing development of theatre in Manchester, in one city’s most quirky and delightful venues.
Reviewer: John Waterhouse
On: 30.10.26
