A Look Back at 2011 with Artistic Director Adrian Berry!

It’s been a year of highs and, well, highs really, as Jacksons Lane celebrated the busiest year in its history and cemented its reputation as London’s leading creative space for contemporary circus, participation and theatre. It’s hard to narrow down all the highlights of the last 12 months but a few do stick in my mind.

2011 kicked off with sell-out performances from one of the UK’s most exciting emerging circus companies Long Spoon with the thrilling and evocative H. In February we were delighted to welcome ‘bright new things of British theatre’ Analogue with the haunting visual spectacle Beachy Head.

March, and we received the announcement that Jacksons Lane would join the Arts Council National Portfolio with confirmed funding through to 2015, with support also coming from Haringey Council, ensuring we can grow and develop even further and make our ambitious plans come to fruition. This was great news for Jacksons Lane as well as its artists and audiences.

In May, Jacksons Lane was literally jumping to the sound of cheesy pop and ‘classic’ rock as the brilliantly funny Frisky and Mannish sold out three consecutive nights of their new show The College Years.  

June saw our inaugural Postcards Festival, Time Out Critics’ Choice 5 weeks running, and a smorgasbord of circus, cabaret and live art with brand new commissions, triple bills and even a flying visit from the USA for the deliciously down ‘n’ dirty Wau Wau Sisters.

In August we stormed the Edinburgh Festival, with five Jacksons Lane-supported shows and co-productions, including the hit of the festival, Blind Summit’s award winning Fringe First The Table.

Autumn was an embarrassment of riches with visits and co-productions from Little Bulb, Penny Dreadful and the Suspense London Puppetry Festival. Not to mention Stumble danceCircus’ Box of Frogs, a stunning visual spectacle that was possibly my highlight of the year. It was so well received in fact that we’re bringing it back to Jacksons Lane in April as part of CircusFest 2012!

As the year draws to a close, our autumn season culminates with our (still running) smash hit Christmas show from Stuff and Nonsense, The Enormous Turnip, which is breaking box office records as we speak!

We supported some 50 productions and 500 artists in 2011, and at the time of writing (with a  week to go until the new year) our theatre audiences totalled 21,535 , with an additional 100,000 people passing through our doors to eat, drink, meet and participate. Unbelievable.

We hope you got to be part of our exciting 2011 and that you’ll join us again in 2012 – it just wouldn’t be the same without you.

Merry Christmas and happy new year to you all!