Singer and comedian Liza Pulman is just one of the headline acts in the opening season of the revived arts space in Hammersmith
Liza Pulman’s new stage show will premiere at the historic Riverside Studios in Queen Caroline Street which has been closed for five years to undergo a top-to-bottom redevelopment.
Three studio spaces, a cafe/bar/brasserie and a cinema are opening over the next few weeks.
On Sunday January 23, it’s curtain up on a theatrical adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s 1966 psychological thriller Persona, starring Alice Krige, Nobuhle Ketelo and musician William Close.
That is followed by Love, Loss and Chianti, starring Robert Bathurst and Rebecca Johnson, from 25 February, before Liza Pulman opens her new production, The Heart of It, from May 18. Accompanied by her band, she performs timeless classics by, among others, Stevie Wonder, Judy Collins and Randy Newman.
“The new building looks stunning, and we’re thrilled to have a run of seven nights in the spring,” said Liza (pictured above).
Riverside Studios artistic director William Burdett-Coutts said that it was the culmination of a dream to be back in business. “The old building held an extremely fond place in the hearts of people across the arts, television and film worlds,” he said. “But today the new building combines all of these in a fantastic new public venue.”
The Happiest Days of Your Life
A film studio from the 1930s to 1950s, producing such classics as Father Brown with Alec Guinness and The Happiest Days of Your Life with Margaret Rutherford, Riverside Studios was later home to BBC programmes including Doctor Who, Hancock’s Half Hour and Crackerjack!
By the 1970s it had become a community arts centre, hosting performers as diverse as Lenny Henry, Samuel Beckett, David Bowie, Amy Winehouse and Benjamin Zephaniah.
Run by a trust, Riverside Studios aims to make the arts accessible to a wider community via education and inclusivity programmes. An archive houses historic artefacts which are been made widely available through digitisation. The arts programme is partly funded by leasing office space in the new building, and renting rooms for private hire.
For more details of the new Riverside Studios programme visit: www.riversidestudios.co.uk or by call the box office on 020 8237 1010.
