#SaveOurTheatres - Save Pentameters Theatre

The Situation

Pentameters Theatre has no funding and relies solely on box office revenue to keep going.

Without any revenue for over four months due to coronavirus, the theatre is struggling to pay rent and needs help. 

Pentameters is also required to carry out vital repair work to ensure that it's safe to re-open. The lighting rig needs maintenance and minor building work needs to be done in accordance with the latest fire regulations.

£8,000 will be enough to cover the maintenance and the rent and keep the theatre alive and going for the foreseeable future.

About Us

Up a creaky staircase above a pub in the heart of Hampstead is a room where some of the greatest poets, writers, actors, and comedians have performed.

Ted Hughes, Dannie Abse, Ivor Cutler, Roger McGough, Kingsley Amis, Rosemary Tonks, Edna O’Brien, and Harold Pinter are just some of those that have graced Pentameters' stage. 

The theatre also saw performers at the start of their careers including Rik Mayall, Ben Elton, French and Saunders, and Russell Brand. 

The celebrated producer Sonia Friedman credits her time working at Pentameters as inspiring her to make a career in theatre.

Founded and run by its artistic director Léonie Scott-Matthews BEM, Pentameters is the oldest and one of the most respected fringe theatres in London. Léonie has put on hundreds of professional shows from Shakespeare, classic revivals and new plays to alternative comedy, music and poetry events.

The theatre has been deemed an Asset of Community Value by the Camden Council, and Léonie was awarded a Medal of the Order of the British Empire for services to British Theatre and to the community in Hampstead.

She was also honored as an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and was voted Hampstonian of the year this past year.

About Save Our Theatres

In villages, towns and cities across the country, theatres are at the heart of their community. Places to come together, to be inspired and be entertained. Theatres are where our best-loved actors learn their craft and thousands of others learn valuable skills. 

But we risk losing this forever.

Theatres saw their main source of income disappear in an instant when they closed in March in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Six months later, we still don’t know when they will be able to reopen fully. A decision won’t be made until November at the earliest – too late for most to put on their annual pantomime, which often provides the income to support the theatre for the rest of the year.

This ongoing uncertainty puts theatres in a perilous situation. The government’s bailout is spread across all cultural organisations and certainly won’t be enough to save all of the UK’s theatres.

Every day theatres are facing the tough decision to make staff redundant and to close their doors until next year. And there is a real risk that those closures could be permanent. 

Without urgent support, we could lose our nation’s amazing theatres. Please help us to make sure our theatres survive this crisis and will be there to be enjoyed by future generations.

#SaveOurTheatres