Theatre History

For details on specific productions, please visit our Production Archive.

For a history of the Finborough Arms pub, please click here.

Founded in 1980, the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre presents plays and music theatre, concentrated exclusively on vibrant new writing and unique rediscoveries – both in our 1868 Victorian home and online with our digital initiative – #FinboroughFrontier.

Our programme is unique – we never present work that has had a full run in London during the last 25 years. Behind the scenes, we continue to discover and develop a new generation of theatre makers. Despite remaining completely unsubsidised, the Finborough Theatre has an unparalleled track record for attracting the finest talent who go on to become leading voices in British theatre. Under Artistic Director Neil McPherson, it has discovered some of the UK’s most exciting new playwrights including Laura Wade, James Graham, Mike Bartlett, Jack Thorne, Athena Stevens and Anders Lustgarten, and directors including Tamara Harvey, Robert Hastie, Tom Littler, Blanche McIntyre, Kate Wasserberg and Sam Yates.

In the 1990s, the Finborough Theatre first became known for new writing including Naomi Wallace’s first play The War Boys, Rachel Weisz in David Farr’s Neville Southall’s Washbag, four plays by Anthony Neilson including Penetrator and The Censor, both of which transferred to the Royal Court Theatre.

New writing development included the premieres of modern classics such as Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and F***king, Conor McPherson’s This Lime Tree Bower, Naomi Wallace’s Slaughter City and Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman.

Since 2000, new British plays have included Laura Wade’s London debut Young Emma (commissioned by the Finborough Theatre), James Graham’s London debut Albert’s Boy with Victor Spinetti and four of his first plays, Sarah Grochala’s S27, Athena Stevens’ Schism which was nominated for an Olivier Award, and West End transfers for Joy Wilkinson’s Fair, Nicholas de Jongh’s Plague Over England, Jack Thorne’s Fanny and Faggot, Neil McPherson’s Olivier Award nominated It Is Easy To Be Dead, and Dawn King's Foxfinder.

UK premieres of foreign plays have included plays by Lanford Wilson, Larry Kramer, Tennessee Williams, Suzan-Lori Parks, the English premieres of two Scots language classics by Robert McLellan, and more Canadian plays than any other theatre in Europe, with West End transfers for Frank McGuinness’ Gates of Gold with William Gaunt, Craig Higginson’s Dream of the Dog with Dame Janet Suzman, and Jordan Tannahill’s Late Company. In December 2022, Pussycat in Memory of Darkness was the first play performed by a foreign theatre in Ukraine since the Russian invasion.

Rediscoveries of neglected work – most commissioned by the Finborough Theatre – have included the first London revivals of Rolf Hochhuth’s Soldiers and The Representative, both parts of Keith Dewhurst’s Lark Rise to Candleford, Etta Jenks with Clarke Peters, three rediscoveries from Noël Coward, Terence Rattigan’s Variation On A Theme with Rachael Stirling, and Lennox Robinson's Drama at Inish with Celia Imrie and Paul O'Grady. Transfers have included Emlyn Williams’ Accolade, John Van Druten's London Wall, and J. B. Priestley's Cornelius which had a sell-out Off-Broadway run in New York City.

Music Theatre has included West End transfers for Adam Gwon’s Ordinary Days and the UK premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s State Fair. Playlists of Finborough Theatre music theatre are available to listen to for free on Spotify.

The Finborough Theatre won the 2020 and 2022 London Pub Theatres Pub Theatre of the Year Award, The Stage Fringe Theatre of the Year Award in 2011 (and nominated in 2025), the Empty Space Peter Brook Award in 2010 and 2012 (and nominated in both 2023 and 2024), and was nominated for an Olivier Award in 2017 and 2019. Artistic Director Neil McPherson was awarded the Critics’ Circle Special Award for Services to Theatre in 2019. It is the only non-public funded theatre ever to be awarded the Channel 4 Playwrights Scheme bursary twelve times.