| Hampstead Theatre | |
| Address: | Eton Avenue |
| City: | London, England |
| Designation: | RIBA Award 2003 |
| Coordinates: | 51.5433°N -0.1742°W |
| Publictransit: | ; |
| Architect: | Bennetts Associates |
| Owner: | Hampstead Theatre Company |
| Capacity: | Main House Configuration: End On 374 Thrust 370 Traverse 383 Hampstead Downstairs: 90 |
| Type: | Flexible stage and seating |
| Opened: | 2003 |
| Yearsactive: | Since (various locations) |
Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in South Hampstead, in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers.
The original Hampstead Theatre Club was created in 1959, in Moreland Hall, a parish church school hall in Holly Bush Vale, Hampstead Village.[1] James Roose-Evans was the founder and first Artistic Director, and the 1959–1960 season included The Dumb Waiter and The Room by Harold Pinter, Eugène Ionesco's Jacques and The Sport of My Mad Mother by Ann Jellicoe.
In 1962, the company moved to a portable cabin in Swiss Cottage where it remained for nearly 40 years, before, in 2003, the new purpose-built Hampstead Theatre opened in Swiss Cottage. The main auditorium seats 373 people. The studio theatre, Hampstead Downstairs, seats up to 100 people and was turned into a laboratory for new writing in 2010.[2]
In 2022, Arts Council England removed the theatre's public funding.[3]
Playwrights who have had their early work produced at the theatre include: