Performers lavish praise on Camden People’s Theatre at 30th anniversary bash

This year marks three decades of innovative drama at the Camden People’s Theatre.

The ‘CPT’ is renowned for staging high-quality experimental work; what is perhaps less well known is the crucial role the iconic Hampstead Road venue plays in nurturing new talent.

Founded in 1995 with a mission to challenge conventional narratives and spark new ways of thinking, the theatre specialises in opening the door to the creative industries for artists working in non-traditional ways and who have taken non-traditional routes into the arts.

This includes, most notably, the ‘Starting Blocks’ programme, a development scheme that supports solo artists and small companies to develop new work and establish themselves as independent theatre practitioners.

In the past year alone, the CPT has given out 60 commissions, and 1,356 hours of free rehearsal space to 226 artists.

At the theatre’s birthday bash on 30 January, artistic director Rio Matchett summed up the essence of its role: “There is something in these walls that helps people take risks, and we’ve seen the artists go on to do world-transforming things.”

Chatting at this event with some of the actors and performers who had come to toast the theatre’s anniversary, I began to get a sense of what CPT means for those who perform there.

Among them was Tobi King Bakare, known for his starring role in Sky’s Temple series, who got his start at the theatre and returned there in 2023 to perform his one-man show Before I Go – his debut as a playwright.

He lauds the fact that CPT “is a kind space; above all I think what brings people back is how kind it is, and how accepting it is of people different personalities, cultures, and traits”.

Another of the attendees was comedian and performer Frankie Thompson, who says that CPT’s Starting Blocks programme was where she started taking herself seriously as an artist.

The theatre is, in her view, “one of the few places that invests in artists at the very start”.

For most theatres, the focus of activity is the productions they stage, whereas for the Camden People’s Theatre, it is the actors and playwrights themselves who are front and centre.

This is what makes the theatre so unique, and as it plans for the next 30 years, it is calling on you to help it to do even more of what has distinguished it in its first three decades.

To donate, visit cptheatre.co.uk/camden-peoples-theatre/support-us.