Have a look at our Associate Artists
Meet the fantastic young companies that we support to create new work and tour both nationally and internationally
Our ArtistsLooking to hire a theatre space
At certain times of the year, our beautiful 166-seat auditorium is available to hire.
Find out MoreThere has never been a better time to support Jacksons Lane
Help us continue our artist support programmes, and the work we do in our community. Every £1 donated to Jacksons Lane is curently being matched £ for £ by Arts Council England!
Double Your Donation!Get involved!
Did you know that every week we have around 50 different classes and courses in our building that you can take part in. Whether you want to dance, act, or exercise, you can find great activities every day of the week
Join In at Jacksons LaneCommissions
Jacksons Lane is committed to supporting artists make great work
We support hundreds of artists every year with studio time, technical support, marketing mentoring, dramaturgy, business planning and support in accessing Grants for the Arts awards. This approach is vital to the overall ecology of the sector, and has a value of hundreds of thousands of pounds every year. We facilitate residencies and act as supporters for artists when approaching the Arts Council about their work.
Occasionally we are also able to commission our supported artists to create something new.
Previous Commissions
2021 Hangwire Microcommissions
In March 2021 we were thrilled to announce our new #JLHangwire artists. They will each receive cash awards and residency space to develop their innovative new work. These awards are just the latest support that we have provided to artists in the contemporary circus sector.
These commissions, ranging from £500 to £2,000, will allow each artist to create new working in the coming months.
When our vibrant contemporary circus sector re-opens, it will thrive with innovative new work. We can't wait for you to see these projects and others come to fruition in our rejuvenated building, which will open in late summer.
Hangwire is supported by Arts Council England.
You can see more information about all of our Hangwire artists by clicking here.
Throwback by Silver Lining, commissioned by Jacksons Lane July 2015
Throwback by Silver Lining
We have been super-fans of British circus company Silver Lining since they were still students at National Centre for Circus Arts.
Over the years this support has grown and in 2015 Silver Lining were announced as Associate Artists at Jacksons Lane. Throwback was originally commissioned for summer 2015 to help commemorate Jacksons Lane's 40th birthday.
Throwback harnesses the power of collective memory: it is a love note to nostalgia and the things you can’t forget. With awe-inspiring aerial and acrobatic work, Silver Lining tell stories that are honest, emotional and absorbing. It is a fast-paced, feel-good explosion of physical skill and fun.
Original cast in July 2015: Tom Ball, Eric Bates, Isis Clegg-Vinell, Lydia Harper, Lj Marles, Niamh O'Reilly, Nathan Redwood Price.
Whether flinging each other across the stage like frisbees or pausing to reflect on their past, they are constantly engaging, seriously attractive and occasionally moving. Super.
The Stage
Throwback by Silver Lining, August 2016
Life for Throwback after the commission
We loved Throwback so much and we knew it deserved a wider audience. With a couple of cast changes (guys, could you really not get out of those really prestigious tours with Cirque du Soleil or at the Southbank?!) and a couple of national partnerships (Underbelly and National Centre for Circus Arts), Throwback was ready to return. For a three week in in a 600 seat Spiegeltent at the Circus Hub at the Edinburgh Festival.
Jacksons Lane produced Throwback in Edinburgh between 3 - 22 August 2016, before delighting audiences at the Shambala Festival, the Greenbelt Festival, and returning triumphantly home to Jacksons Lane as part of the London International Mime Festival in February 2017.
Cast in 2016: Tom Ball, Craig Dagostino, Sammy Dinneen, Lj Marles, Niamh O'Reilly, Ulrike Storch.
meta by Gandini Juggling
To celebrate our 40th birthday we knew we wanted to commission one emerging company (Silver Lining) and one established company. We started thinking who, in an ideal world, if logistics and money were no barriers, would be our number one choice. Of course that choice would be Gandini Juggling: world-renowned, acclaimed beyond measure, globally touring. They have created work for Sydney Opera House, the National Theatre, the Royal Opera House, you name it. It wouldn't be possible for Jacksons Lane to commission a new piece of work from those geniuses at the Gandinis, surely?
We have never been so happy to be wrong.
Gandini Juggling's meta, commissioned by Jacksons Lane
meta is a show about making shows. An elliptical reflection on entertainment.
In the 1990s the Gandinis made a series of experimental pieces with Choreographer Gill Clarke that were performed at Jacksons Lane. For this commission they revisited those pieces with 6 jugglers and 3 dancers, for a specially-commissioned show that features complex juggling, text, ballet dancing, hammers, nudity, tables and a comedy sketch.
The show is bursting with concepts and commentary about form, style and substance. They explore this dissection of things, about dwelling deeper into the anatomy of a show.
meta sees the Gandinis simultaneously looking back to the past and forward to the future.
Comic, and possibly erotic, the show is as risky as it is risqué
