The Site: Royal Court's temporary theatre

The designer behind some of the most inventive sets onstage has created a new temporary performance space in collaboration with the Royal Court Theatre and a selection of promising playwrights.

Along with creating spectacular sets for shows including Amadeus, 1984, Teh Internet is Serious Business and The Twits, designer Chloe Lamford has also collaborated with the Tate Modern, auteur Katie Mitchell and European pop group Wanda.

Lamford's new project, The Site temporary theatre, will host a season of five new plays this summer. The Royal Court has rented this space from next-door TFL and transformed it into a workshop and rehearsal room.

Designer and writers invite audiences to be part what is described as 'an experiment in design, collaboration and process'. Instead of the boundaries of a traditional stage – which separates audiences and performers – the space is designed specifically to expose and explore the creative process, spanning language, form, physicality and direction.

Playwrights EV Crowe, Stacey Gregg, Theresa Ikoko, Nathaniel Martello-White and Deborah Pearson have created new works in response to the new space.

It's an experimental new season, taking the spirit of innovation for which the Royal Court is renowned, and shifting the writing and designing process. Usually a stage space is rearranged according to each different play, but at The Site, this dynamic is reversed.

'We’re making a space and then we’re having conversations with five writers in response to this space that we’re making,'
Lamford explains. 'Each writer is responding to the space in a different way.'

The five plays explore a diverse array of topics – automated manufacturing techniques, uneasy fiction, post-truth reality, dream narratives and a game show construction.

Click here to explore the season at The Site.

Tickets will be £12 and are on sale now. To increase accessibility there will be a second release of tickets online on Tuesday 2 May at midday plus an allocation of tickets that can be purchased in person, on the door at every performance.