Dreams and Deconstructions

Alternative theatre in Britain

Editor; Sandy Craig. 1980

Showcasing the Fringe. The Venues. Malcolm Hays. OVAL HOUSE. Apart from the Arts Lab (Drury Lane), Oval House in Kennington was the only venue in London in 1968 or early 1969 that regularly presented the work of the new theater groups. Like the Arts Lab it furnished the groups with a space to perform in and freely allowed them the right to experiment and the right to fail, without the pressures engendered in mainstream theatres by the lack of immediate and constant critical evaluation. Oval House differed, however, in one important respect. Where as Jim Haynes (at the Arts Lab) had created an art-house which epitomized the ideal of the counter culture of the time, Peter Oliver (administrator of Oval House until 1972) laid down a much broader base of activities, most notably the workshops - in dance, theatre, music, mime, clowning and much more besides. These workshops, in which amateurs would often work along side professional performers, embodied in practice the ideal of everyone being a potential artist. Oval House was, and is, an arts lab in the true sense of the word, providing outlets for people to do things themselves and offering a valid alternative to conventional, consumer-oriented theatres where all you can do is go and watch a show.

Peter Oliver had been appointed way back in 1961 as Warden of Oval House, then a sports-oriented Boys' Club. In accordance with a "firm belief in the usefulness of the arts and their relevance to young people", he converted the old football gym into as theater which could seat 120 on movable rostra. A chapel upstairs became a second, smaller theatre, A room containing a boxing-ring was transformed into a dance studio (in the early days the dance workshop shared the space with an energetic weight-training club). A youth drama group was set up, run by teachers and out-of-work actors, and funded by the Drama Department of the Inner London Education Authority. When Jim Haynes' Arts Lab folded, Oval House, which had already housed shows by many of the new groups - became the natural 'home' for Freehold, The People Show, Pip Simmons, and many others to migrate to. The place switched from being largely seen as a centre for educational drama to becoming a complete arts centre. It is difficult now to name a group of any standing that hasn't appeared there, but Peter Oliver also offered other invaluable services and support. His most farsighted decision was to allow groups to rehearse at Oval House free of charge, provided that they performed the resulting show at least once at the Oval House.

Oliver's departure in 1973 to work as an actor with the Pip Simmons Company was partly motivated by his feeling that he was in danger of "...being institutionalized as a figurehead, as 'the father of the fringe'." Oval House itself has successfully avoided that fate. The aims have remained effectively unchanged, with the result that it is now the stamping-ground for a new generation of groups and performers, while the major, long established companies appear more and more often in larger theatres.