Etcetera Theatre Club

The best word for this venue: chaos.
If you can squeeze through the heaving bar downstairs, make it up the narrow staircase and find a seat in the tiny theatre, you will then have the hard task of getting enough oxygen to sustain you. The Etcetera Theatre was so unbearably hot and suffocating, I was forced to strip down to the bare minimum amount of clothing allowed in decent society.
During the quieter moments of a performance, the actors on the small stage will need to compete with the raucous pub crown downstairs as well as the din of traffic from the Camden streets.
In a nutshell: the show better be a must-​see.

I also went here for the first time to catch a fringe festival preview. Random is right, in the way that only Camden can deliver. If I was not tipped off about this place I never would have come across it. And now it’s on my radar I can see that it makes an amusing substitute to visiting the Edinburgh fringe itself (not that I’ve ever been). The array of comedy on offer is impressive, and with your first ticket you get a membership card which offers you discounts on all tickets you buy for the etcetera for the rest of your life, woohoo.
You’d be forgiven if you could not find this place. It’s entrance is at the bottom of some stairs tucked behind a door at the back of the Oxford Arms on Camden High Street. Get your drinks at the bar and bring them upstairs with you. The venue is extremely tiny and intimate, maybe 5 or six short upward sloping rows of seating.
The acts for this summer season looks mainly to be comedy. For the performers this set up is a challenge. Either your whole audience laughs wholesale or, with only a half-​laugh response, your ego is at risk of being bruised. It’s small but it’s great and I’d definitely go back regularly if Camden became a regular haunt. Pub’s not bad either with a cosy outdoor seating area at the back.
This is one of those ‘must be a Londoner to know’ it places.
Enjoy.
x

On a recent return to the Etcetera Theatre (I produced a show there in March) to see improvised comedy, I thought once more about the pros and cons of an above pub theatre.
The Oxford Arms is a fairly decent pub. Perhaps a little too heavy on the sports screens and bouncers on the doors, and a little light on anything bordering cultural, but it’s fine. But sadly, it’s probably the main contribution as to why one might not approve of The Etcetera. It’s where the conflict comes in: the Etcetera rent the space about the Arms, and have made a great effort to deck it out with blackened walls, a perfectly acceptable rig and tiered seating. The lighting box is workable too. However, the sound from below in the pub, especially on Friday and Saturday nights, and the high rent charged by the pub, mean some viewing experiences can be really disturbed by noise and ticket prices are higher than they should be for a studio theatre putting on many acts that can’t pull in numbers.
But on the plus side, the space is in fact excellent and intimate and used well, can provide some first rate theatre, both drama and comedy. The improvised sketch comedy, if I dare call it that, that I saw on Sunday (Scenes from Communal Living, 22÷11÷09, recurring every Sunday until 20÷12÷09) and Punchcut’s stirring drama back in March both optimised the proximity of audience to performer and played upon the tenderness of the space.
So be selective! Look for shows here that are worth the pricey tickets (£10 or so) and will make use of closeness to give you something raw or engaging or sensitive or close-​up. And maybe avoid the noisier nights of the week…

The Etcetera Theatre is a great little place, probably the best Theatre to see Fringe Productions in town. It’s basically just a small room, completely black — with a few rows of seating… I don’t imagine you can cram more than about forty people in there.
The space for performers is quite small; and I’ve talked to actors who say it can be a little too small — but I think it adds a real immediacy to the performances, and you’re really able to see what they’re doing up close and personal. I think what’s great about a venue like this is how the performers feed off the audience, and vice versa. If it’s an awkward audience, the actors are going to struggle whereas if it’s a good humoured audience who are really up for it, the actors are going to have a blast. Likewise, the audiences can really see a great actor shine here; yet also if an actor is struggling to find the truth; their mistakes are going to be noticed by everyone in the room.
A fascinating little venue; and worth getting there early so you can have a drink or two downstairs. I’ve seen some great plays here, it really does seem to be the best place to catch a small play.

Ok. Pub theatre. Where do I stand? I guess that I think it’s a vital part of the London theatre scene, but worry that the lack of any kind of funding means that the quality of theatre that goes on in them is often not worth parting with 10 pounds for.
I’ve been to the etcetera twice in the last six months, once to see a play satirising the royal family, once to see an old peter schaffer play, both times because I had friends in them. And both times I left feeling slightly unsure about the evening. Did I enjoy the plays because I knew people involved, or because I was actively engaged by the stories. I fear it was the former, but can’t help thinking that the sheer determination of actors willing to get up in a room above a pub and tell stories is so important and so necessary, that there’s something so engaging about that in itself.
So basically, it’s a wonderful thing, I just wish there was more time and money to ensure that the production values could match the performers ambitions.

The Etcetera Theatre is the smallest theatre in London, located above the Oxford Arms in the heart of Camden. It’s got 3 or 4 rows of seating, ampitheatre style, facing a small ‘stage’ area. So the plays you are going to see are unlikely to have more than a few cast. Over Summer 2007, Etcetera Theatre, along with its sister above Liberties down the road, took part in the Camden fringe showcasing a range of new comedy and theatre every single night. Ok, what we saw was not funny at all, but it didn’t really matter as the experience was great and unique. You can pop to the pub downstairs in the breaks for a drink, which also has an outside seating area where you can smoke. Bigger names also appear here — tried to get tickets to see Simon Amstell last summer but, unsurprisingly given the tiny capacity, that had sold out long in advance. You can book tickets online, or just pop in and see what’s on that evening (unless it’s a big name performing…). Well worth a visit.