Nottingham Arts Theatre: 25 years on George Street

Twenty-five years is a long time for any arts venue, and the Nottingham Arts Theatre has spent every one of them working from the same old building. Set up in 2001 as an educational charity, the theatre sits at 12 George Street in Hockley, inside a 200-year-old former Co-operative Wholesale Society warehouse that it inherited in a pretty sorry state, complete with structural problems and poor facilities. A quarter-century on, the place has been steadily brought up to scratch without regular public subsidy: a refurbished auditorium with new seats, carpets and decoration, a better bar and foyer, modernised dressing rooms and a repainted façade.

The main room is a 270-seat proscenium arch theatre with an apron stage, an orchestra pit, dressing rooms, rehearsal spaces, a fully licensed cafe-bar and a set of technical facilities that are now state-of-the-art. There is also The Studio Theatre, a flexible space that takes up to 50 people and comes with its own bar, and The Space Upstairs, a large room for meetings, rehearsals and exhibitions. Theatre Manager Julian Phillips and Artistic Director Campbell Kay run the show, with a trustee acting as Financial Director.

What the building has grown into is hard to sum up in a single line. It works alongside the Playhouse, Theatre Royal and Lace Market Theatre, and takes in volunteering in costume, scenery and acting. It has given office and study space to Nottingham Pride for Pride Week, and its stage has carried everything from the LGBTQ+ pantomime The Wizard of Nottz to comedy and music for the Polish and Irish communities, Jah Makin It Happen – the Windrush Musical for Black History Month, a Cantonese opera for the Chinese community, a Japanese artists evening with stalls and food, and the qawwali group Warsi Brothers from Hyderabad. The Voice of Vision Community Project and 2 FunkyArts work with black, African and Caribbean artists.

Campbell Kay has written several plays that have gone on here: Phoenix Rising – D.H. Lawrence, Son and Lover; Divine Mountebank – Sir Donald Wolfit, Last of the Great Actor-Managers; Cranford, twice; and Fatal Friendship – Lord Alfred Douglas and Oscar Wilde. His book Divine Mountebank came out on 20 June 2025 and is £7.99.

The current season runs through October and November and gives a good sense of the range on offer. Underneath the Lintel is on Friday 23 and Saturday 24 October, followed by Ignacio Lopez: Nada on Sunday 25, An Evening With Jack the Ripper on Wednesday 28, 2Funky Arts - And Still I Rise on Thursday 29, and a double bill on Friday 30 with the Arabs & Asians Stand-up Comedy Show and The Play's the Thing. The Lady in the Bay Window closes October on Saturday 31. November opens with Seann Walsh: This is Torture on Thursday 5, The Rock & Roll Magic Show and Flippers on Friday 6, and The Ultimate 70s Show on Saturday 7. Fatiha El-Ghorri: Cockney Stacking Doll is on Wednesday 11, Thomas Green - Brainstorm Extended on Thursday 12, and Dancin' Motion In The Spotlight on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15, tickets £18 to £20 with a 20-minute interval. Full Throttle Live - The Ultimate Superbike Show is Monday 16, Jacob Hawley - Fighting Age Man is Tuesday 17, tickets £19, 20-minute interval, age 16+, and Rosie Holt: The Illegal Aliens Have Landed! is Wednesday 18. Tommy Cooper - Have I Got Time for More? is Friday 20, Dancin' Motion Rhythm In Motion is Saturday 21 and Sunday 22, tickets £18 to £20 with a 20-minute interval, and The Runrig Experience - All Roads Lead North closes the run on Wednesday 25.