Southwark theatre the Bunker to open beneath Menier in October

A new performance space located under the Menier Chocolate Factory is to open its doors as a full-time theatre in October.

Located beneath Southwark Street, the Bunker will have a 110-seat auditorium and a bar, as well as on-site offices and dressing rooms.

A separate venue from the Menier, it originally opened in February as a “cabaret-style space”, staging some concerts and private events as well as hosting rehearsals.

However, operation of the venue has now been taken on by Joel Fisher and director Joshua McTaggart, who have already programmed four months-worth of shows in the venue following its opening in October.

This includes a transfer of Philip Ridley play Tonight With Donny Stixx, which premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe last year, and a new musical, Muted, which will run over the Christmas season as an alternative to the tradition of pantomime.

As well as theatre, the venue promises to host art installations, film screenings and one-off performances of poetry, music, dance and works in development.

McTaggart acknowledged that opening a new theatre at an “unpredictable financial time” was a “risky venture”, but said he and Fisher approached risk “with creativity and ambition”.

He added that the theatre would be as much of a social space to discuss theatre as it would be a place to see it.

“The Bunker isn’t a place where you would leave straight after a show but rather a place that you could hang around in, meet the creatives involved and talk about the piece with your peers,” he said.

“In a way, it’s about creating a community of people who want to discuss what they have seen and debate what it means to them.”

Developer Don Riley, who is also the landlord for the Menier Chocolate Factory, has been overseeing the renovation of the studio over the past year on behalf of Southwark Square, which has funded the physical building work to convert the former underground car park into a performance space.

To fund the operation of the theatre, Fisher and McTaggart have raised nearly £80,000 through private donations.

Fisher said they wanted to “share ideas with the theatres around us” in Southwark and find “new and exciting ways of collaborating”.

He explained: “This part of London is quickly becoming a cultural hub with developments at Tate Modern and the Globe and the London Theatre Company taking up residency at One Tower Bridge, and The Bunker joins this cultural movement.”

Other productions in the their first season include a transfer of Isley Lynn’s Skin a Cat and a double bill of plays by Irish writers: Fiona Doyle’s Abigail and Conor McPherson’s Come on Over.

The Bunker will open on October 12 with a preview performance of Skin a Cat.