Theatre and performance

Jacksons Lane is a multi-arts venue in Highgate, North London. Housed in a striking red-brick gothic church conversion, the building is home to a 160 capacity theatre, a large scale dance and rehearsal studio, a cafe-bar and four other multi-purpose spaces.


Jacksons Lane is a theatre, a centre for participation, and a space for new circus theatre companies and artists to create and perform.


The venue has a rich history of innovative work including a wealth of experimental visual theatre companies, as well as a strong history in contemporary dance

Contemporary dance

Contemporary dance is a genre of concert dance that employs compositional philosophy, rather than choreography, to guide unchoreographed movement...

 and circus. Established names and companies such as Complicite

Complicite

The British theatre company Complicite was founded in 1983 by Simon McBurney, Annabel Arden, and Marcello Magni. Its original name was Théâtre de Complicité. "The Company's inimitable style of visual and devised theatre [has] an emphasis on strong, corporeal, poetic and surrealist image supporting...

, The Mighty Boosh

The Mighty Boosh

The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from three stage shows and a six episode radio series, it has since spawned a total of twenty television episodes for BBC Three and two live tours of the UK, as well as two live shows in the...

, Shared Experience

Shared Experience

Shared Experience is a British theatre company. Its current joint artistic directors are Nancy Meckler and Polly Teale. Kate Saxon is an Associate Director.-Productions:*A Passage to India *Madame Bovary...

, Stephen Merchant

Stephen Merchant

Stephen James Merchant is an English writer, director, radio presenter, comedian, and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais, as the co-writer and co-director of the popular British sitcom The Office, as the co-writer, co-director and a co-star of Extras, and as the...

, Out of Joint and Frantic Assembly have all performed or developed work at Jacksons Lane, and Matt Lucas

Matt Lucas

Matthew Richard "Matt" Lucas is an English comedian, screenwriter and actor best known for his acclaimed work with David Walliams in the television show Little Britain; as well as for his portrayals of the scorekeeping baby George Dawes in the comedy panel game Shooting Stars, Tweedledee and...

 and David Walliams

David Walliams

David Edward Walliams is an English comedian, writer and actor, known for his partnership with Matt Lucas on the TV sketch show Little Britain and its predecessor Rock Profile...

(Little Britain) performed their first ever show as a duo at Jacksons Lane. Lately it has forged a strong identity for producing and promoting contemporary circus work and supports some 20 companies a year. Five Jacksons Lane-supported companies were shortlisted for the pioneering Jeune Talents Cirques Europe in 2010, and was hailed as 'The Innovator' By Time Out London magazine.


Companies supported by Jacksons Lane include Mimbre, Sugar Beast Circus, Genius Sweatshop, German Wheel specialists Acrojou, Shunt founder Layla Rosa, Burlesque performer Roxy Velvet, Green Eyed Zero, aerialist Ilona Jantti and pioneering tight-wire performer Alana Jones.


Partners include The Roundhouse, Circus Space, Crying Out Loud, The Place and Sadlers Wells.


Jacksons Lane has six spaces including its main theatre, as well as one of the largest and most striking dance and rehearsal spaces in the UK which combines contemporary cutting edge design with historical architecture. The theatre itself won a RIBA Community Enterprise award for its design by Tim Ronalds Architects: '‘Socially, aesthetically and technically the design offers inspirational lessons" (The Architects’ Journal)

Participation and education

Jacksons Lane hosts around 50 arts-based courses and training opportunities, ranging from circus to theatre training, dance and artist development.

History

Highgate or Jackson's Lane Wesleyan Methodist church was opened in 1905, on the current site at the corner of Archway Road and Jacksons Lane. The building was of red brick with stone dressings, designed in an early Gothic style included a Sunday school and was designed by W. H. Boney of Highgate. The church seated 650 and the schoolroom 400. Jackson's Lane was well known during the 1960s for its community work. The church was closed in 1976 and soon after was reopened to begin its new incarnation as an arts centre.