The Bunker Theatre in Southwark will be transformed into a functioning pub, The Anchor, for their next play.
As well as pints, there will be pub quizzes, karaoke nights and live music taking place after the performances.
The new play, We Anchor in Hope, is set in a local pub which is closing for good. The regulars, for whom the pub is a haven and a home, have gathered to drink the place dry and send it off in style. The script is inspired by real interviews and drinking sessions playwright Anna Jordan had in pubs around Pimlico.
Artistic director Chris Sonnex commissioned Succession and Killing Eve writer Jordan to write the play in response to the fact that a quarter of UK pubs have closed since 2001, with two closing every day and often being made into flats.
This is the first play Sonnex is directing after taking over the Bunker. He said: “This play is rooted in my soul. I grew up in a council estate in Pimlico and spent childhood and teenage years running around pubs. Pubs created a community and provided theatre for me before I even knew what both were.”
Jordan added: “I started the interviews in July 2016. It was two months after my mother had died and I was very raw. Three months later we were performing the play in a pub in Pimlico, script in hand. I almost didn’t do it, but I’m so glad I did. It saved me, in many ways.”
We Anchor in Hope runs at the Bunker Theatre from September 25-October 19, bunkertheatre.com
