Pleasance Islington has announced plans to reopen on 17 May with a packed programme of comedy, theatre, drag and musicals.

The venue will also partner with VAULT Creative Arts to present Fringe Futures Festival, which will stage live work-in-progress shows from leading independent performance makers during May and June. The festival will take place in the newly configured, socially distanced Pleasance Downstairs at Pleasance, Islington  and Pretty Vacant, a new pop-up performance space on Lower Marsh in Waterloo. 

Pleasance will also continue with the socially distanced Cabaret layout trialled in December. The main house will have table service for drinks from the bar as well as pizzas from Pleasance’s neighbours, The Depot.

Highlights of the upcoming theatre programme include Silent Faces Theatre’s Godot is a Women; Charles Court Opera return with new, inventive production EXPRESS G&S: The Complete Works of Gilbert & Sullivan - in 75 minutes!; drag artist Ginger Johnson and Pals; all-singing, all-dancing cabaret The Producers! (No, not that one); The NextUp Relaunch Party featuring six different stand-up comics; topical news show for people who don’t like topical news shows The Laughable Live Freedom Party; along with a long list of comedians including Joel Dommett, Rob Beckett, Sindhu Vee, Bridget Christie and many more.

Director of the Pleasance Theatres Trust, Anthony Alderson, said: “We can’t wait to get back  into our Islington space and welcome audiences through our doors. We exist to entertain audiences,  to support the amazing artists we work with and most importantly to fuel the UK’s vibrant arts  scene. With our theatre and comedy programmes combined with our amazing new festival with  VAULT Creative Arts, we think we are doing all that with our reopening season!”

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