Debut Theatre Company is rapidly gaining a strong reputation for producing intelligent and dynamic theatre. Ciaran McConville’s ‘Snowbound’, staged in April 2008 at Trafalgar Studios in the West End, was awarded Critic’s Choice in The Independent. Previous productions have opened at the Edinburgh Festival to great critical acclaim, before transferring or going on tour, including Critic’s Choice in The Scotsman, The Sunday Times, The Independent, The Guardian, and The Irish Post.

Debut is a Resident Company of the Corn Exchange and New Greenham Arts, Newbury.

For details of our current productions please click here.

History

Debut was founded in 2000 by Elizabeth Park and Ciaran McConville. First up was Much Ado About Nothing, performed open-air in Berkshire, followed by Jim Cartwright's Two, which previewed at The Young Vic Studio in London before touring to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2002. 

Two was joined at Edinburgh by Ciaran McConville's modern fairytale The Man Who Dreamed and our second world war drama, The Legend of Squadron 463. Under the new name of Immortal, The Legend of Squadron 463 transferred to the Etcetera Theatre in London in January 2003 before touring to the Corn Exchange, Newbury, and the Rondo Theatre in Bath. Its continued success meant we were invited back to London by The Courtyard Theatre in May 2003.

During the summer of 2003 we took Ciaran McConville's Touched by Fire to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Lewisham Theatre Broadway.

2004's season consisted of three new plays at the Edinburgh Fringe: a new adaptation of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four (The Guardian Critic's Choice), Shostakovich, which performed in theatres across Berkshire before going to Edinburgh, and These Four Walls, a new play about the Holocaust.

Late 2005 and early into 2006, we presented Christmas Lunch at the King's Head Theatre in London - a feast of three short Christmas stories, including a new play, an adaptation of Charles Dickens, and an O. Henry Christmas story.

In 2007 we toured a new production of These Four Walls, and in Spring 2008 our production of  Snowbound at Trafalgar Studios in London's West End was listed by The Independent as one of the top five plays to see in the country.