Southwark Playhouse Elephant: London's newest venue opens

Southwark Playhouse Elephant has become the latest theatre to open in London.

The 310-seat venue in Elephant and Castle, the sister venue to Southwark Playhouse Borough, is the fruition of an idea first conceived in 2006.

Among its first shows are Bermondsey Revolution, which opens on Thursday, and The Walworth Farce on 17 February.

Artistic director Chris Smyrnios said: "It's a great feeling to come to the end of the journey and to be at the beginning of a new one."

He added: "Because of the regeneration, we've always been renting places and never really had a place of our own.

"Finally, we're in a building which is where we can set our roots, it'll be our forever home and it'll be a great place to be able to serve the community but also put on world-class theatre by new and emerging theatre practitioners."

Dan Renton Skinner, best known for the Shooting Stars character Angelos Epithemiou, is among the cast of The Walworth Farce, the venue's first major production.

He said: "It's amazing to be part of any theatre in London to be honest, but this is a real privilege to be part of the first play that's going to be put on at this new venue.

"It's a really fantastic space and I'm very excited to be here and also extremely excited to be rehearsing and performing this wonderful play by Enda Walsh."

Set in a flat on the Walworth Road, a stone's throw from the south London venue, the play has "got everything in it", according to the actor, who grew up in Wimbledon but now lives in Muswell Hill.

He added: "It's really very real. It's very, very funny, but it has moments of real menace and darkness and sinister events and it's extremely touching as well.

"It's one of the best plays I've ever read and I can't imagine ever getting offered a better part in my life, to be honest, so I bit their hand off and said, 'Of course, yeah, I'd love to do it'."

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