Six actors, six plays, six weeks: a young company makes a bold case for weekly rep in Islington, where ensemble and intensity take precedence over polish.
A return to intensity
The Old Red Lion, long a home for fringe experiment, is hosting a theatrical format that once underpinned the British stage. Flywheel Theatre, a new company led by Benedict Esdale, launches its first season this autumn in the shape of a weekly repertory. Six plays in six weeks, performed by a resident company of six actors, with rehearsals for the next show running alongside the current one.
It is a mode of working that once trained generations of actors, but has almost vanished in the capital. For Esdale and his collaborators, including producer Jack Robertson, the aim isn’t nostalgia, it’s provocation: to challenge the sense that small-venue work is somehow lesser than the output of subsidised flagships or the commercial West End.
The season
The programme offers a brisk survey of the canon, compressed into 90-minute versions: Aphra Behn’s The Rover, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, Marie Belloc Lowndes’ The Lodger, Shaw’s Pygmalion and Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. Each evening also begins with a short contemporary response piece — a flash of new writing as prelude to the main bill.
The ensemble, Rachel Bardwell, Gabriel Lumsden, Sadie Pepperrell, Shanice Petilaire, Joseph Stanley and Charlie Woodward, will share the weight of the season, joined by guest players in individual productions. The intention, says Esdale, is to cultivate artists who are “well-rounded, efficient and driven” by the sheer pressure of weekly rep.
Dates and booking
The Rover: 2–6 September
Romeo and Juliet: 9–13 September
Lysistrata: 16–20 September
The Lodger: 23–27 September
Pygmalion: 30 September–4 October
Doctor Faustus: 7–11 October
Tickets are available via the Old Red Lion Theatre website.
Opening the doors
Flywheel want audiences to see how the sausage is made. Alongside performances there will be Q&As, open rehearsals and workshops, designed to pull back the curtain on rehearsal processes that usually remain hidden. For early-career artists, the company argue, it offers something harder to find than classes or residencies: live practice in front of paying audiences, at pace.
The creative team is drawn from a rising generation of designers and directors, with Rebecca Ward on set and costume, Brett Kasza on lighting and a rotating slate of assistant directors guiding each production.
A noble revivication!
Repertory theatre was once the lifeblood of British stages, before funding changes and new producing models pushed it to the margins. Flywheel’s slogan — “Bring back rep” — is both tongue-in-cheek and serious. To stage six plays in as many weeks in a 60-seat pub theatre is, on the face of it, bold to say the least! Let’s hope it works!
Theatre should be a rolling practice, where craft is forged through repetition and risk. Is it sustainable in the modern era? I don’t know, but I do know we will never know if nobody tries!
Plus, in a city where rehearsal periods stretch ever longer and ticket prices climb, the sight of a company embracing intensity, imperfection, and good old-fashioned varity may be the tonic the stage needs.
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