NDT: London theatre's best kept secret

The New Diorama is a tiny but highly influential studio theatre breeding West End hits, says Elizabeth Gregory

- Elizabeth Gregory

THIS month, two critically acclaimed British shows make their much-anticipated debuts in the West End. What do Operation Mincemeat and For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy have in common? They were both developed by an 80-seat playhouse near Regent's Park run by a team of just eight.

"I don't think there are many organisations in the country like us," says David Byrne, the artistic director and chief executive of New Diorama Theatre. "I don't think a studio theatre has ever really got to the place we're at."

In its 10-year run, NDT has built a reputation as one of the most influential studio theatres in the UK: it has won more than a dozen awards for its dynamic programming and artist support; it develops theatremakers over many years so they are ready to take the step onto the biggest stages in the country. It is now also building a reputation for backing West End hits of tomorrow.

Part of its success is down to its radical decision-making, such as shutting for six months, only officially reopening last week. It was a bold move, one year after the pandemic. But this shutdown, or, as New Diorama Theatre called it, Intervention 01, was a necessity.

"Everybody was exhausted. A lot of people were on the brink of burnout," says Byrne, right. "This was an active creative decision to say, we're going to stop and we're going to have a rethink." The team released a statement outlining its plans, and went dark on social media. Now New Diorama is back with a roster of new work. This includes, as Byrne calls it, the "meaty, ambitious show" After the Act, a musical by Breach Theatre about the repeal of the anti-gay Eighties law Section 28, which re-opens the theatre tonight, and little scratch, about a woman's trauma, adapted from Rebecca Watson's book by theatre director Katie Mitchell.