The SLP Story
The history of South London’s most creative and innovative theatre company
At home in Greenwich Theatre…
After successful sold out shows at The Spanish Galleon in Greenwich Market Square and The Old Joinery by Greenwich Creekside, in 2022 SLP set up home at Greenwich Theatre, one of London’s foremost Off-West End performance venues. Our most recent SOLD OUT shows (in 2022, 2023 and twice in 2024) have performed in the Studio Theatre space at Greenwich Theatre.
Our next show is, again, at Greenwich Theatre from Wednesday 12th to Saturday 15th February 2025. We have added an extra date as we have previously sold out before the performance week. Information on this and other performances can be found here on the website.
Here’s a brief history of SLP as we know it…
How it all began…
The South London Players began life in 2008 in Kidbrooke with a grand total of six members, only four of whom were keen to perform, with the other two, who happened to be partners roped into it to make themselves useful, agreed to make props, shove leaflets through doors and run the box office.
Our first production, in that inaugural year, was ‘The Dumb Waiter’, by Harold Pinter (right) which we performed at the Community Centre in the Kidbrooke Park Estate, where we also held our meetings and rehearsals.
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From humble beginnings…
Slowly but surely our membership grew to around 20, which gave us the flexibility to be able to perform two plays a year at community centres around the Eltham, Greenwich and Blackheath.
In common with many amateur theatre groups we tended to favour a staple mix of the well known works of Oscar Wilde and Alan Ayckbourn (pictured left) and, blessed with some great musical talent amongst our number, the occasional Gilbert and Sullivan.
But also in common with many amateur theatre groups, we relied on the dedication of time and generosity of our members with most of our yearly subscription income going towards the hire of the meeting room, public liability insurance and some garage space, used to store props, provided by the local housing association.
Bulldozed out of our home
We managed to make ends meet in those early years with the proceeds of the each production funding the next, but, as time went on, we became more ambitious and sought out more professional theatre spaces in which to perform.
At a formal meeting of all members we morphed into a Proprietary Club, which helped to release the financial burden and, therein, the risk to members.
But in London Olympic Year 2012 a major problem arose when our storage space and meeting facilities where bulldozed down to make way for Kidbrooke Village (right). We should add that none of our props (or members!) were in it at the time!
The London Theatre
We continued to operate but the hinderance of having to store props in any spare bedrooms we could muster between us, and we managed to get back on our feet by finding affordable rehearsal spaces around the area, mostly above local pubs.
Through 2013, the challenges continued as membership numbers ebbed and flowed, and when we attempted to perform ‘Blood Wedding’ (a tragedy by Spanish dramatist Federico García Lorca) in the function room at another local pub the landlord informed us, with just days to go, that they discovered that their live music licence didn’t cover them for theatre performance.
But we were determined that ‘the show must go on’ and we were lucky to be introduced to The London Theatre in New Cross (left) who normally only allowed fully professional companies to perform there but took pity on us and allowed us to perform for three nights during a break in their programming.
Sell out audiences
With five nights of ticket sales to squeeze into three nights at the new venue, we performed to packed audiences to the delight of the proprietors. They were sufficiently impressed by the fact that we behaved like a professional company and our mutual appreciation society blossomed.
We began to perform plays regularly at the theatre and our productions, and some members in particular received first class reviews, resulting, in 2015, in two of our members being cast in professional shows at the same venue.
This led, in 2016, to our management team being awarded with professional Equity membership and Spotlight entries, although this meant that some of our members could no longer perform in amateur productions.
Turning professional
So some members formed a professional theatre company, but in July 2017 the London Theatre spread the word throughout the local community that they were interested in forming a community amateur dramatic theatre group to run alongside.
Our founder members then approached the London Theatre management to ask if they would be willing to pass on the ownership and running of this new club as we already had a structure and membership list in place.
We held a meeting where 15 talented locals turned up, keen to get involved and our successful future was assured.
Our new homes at The Spanish Galleon…
In July 2017 the London Theatre purchased the ownership of this new Proprietary Club and introduced two popular new measures to appeal to our membership. We lowered our annual subscription rates, and eliminated the charges to members for performing in a show. In 2019 The Ale Bar (the new name for the theatre venue) assumed ownership of the group and guaranteed to keep them at their New Cross home.
Which brings us to January 2020 when we took up residence in the iconic Spanish Galleon pub Greenwich and in February we became a fully fledged members club with a talented committee an a bright future beckoning.
Our first show at The Galleon in early March was sold out every night in advance, and we planned to do it all over again in June. But then along came ‘Lockdown’ !!…
…and The Old Joinery…
Sam and his team at The SPANISH GALLEON become instant great mates when they welcomed us into their fabulous venue. But with the challenge of COVID-19 and all that jazz, we had had to reinvent the wheel and to find a venue big enough to squeeze in our regular audience but to allow plenty of space for social distancing.
Bring on more amazing new pals Tom and Francesca and their fabulous venue THE OLD JOINERY.
The Old Joinery has been an arts, studio and event space for the past 6 years. As a blank canvas space we planned to work on some amazing projects with some even more amazing people using the space for arts, filming, live music and everything in between… including those theatrical innovators from SOUTH LONDON PLAYERS.