The Playhouse

Founded in 1992 with a grant of just £300, The Playhouse is an intimate theatre with numerous ties to the community with an aim to make “arts accessible to all”. Recently renovated to the tune of £4.6m, the Playhouse is a perfect example of ‘sympathetic’ renovations of listed buildings, and is particularly striking at night due to the secondary use of the building as a permanent light fixture of sorts.

Built just inside the city’s Walls, the Playhouse prides itself as a multi-disclipinary community arts resource center and is home to no fewer than three theatrical companies and a contemporary art gallery.

With a comfortable theatre that seats up to 175 people (dependent of seating arrangements), the Playhouse is one of the foremost arts and resource centres and is a hub of the local theatre.

Home to the Lilliput Theatre, a company for the promotion of local theatre involving those with learning disabilites, Sole Purpose Productions that ‘uses the discourse of imagination to illuminate social and public issues’ and the Theatre of Witness, developed by founder Teya Sepinuck as a means of providing a voice for those that have been marginalised, forgotten or ‘invisible’ in society.

With an extensive education and outreach department, the Playhouse also offers workspace units for several arts groups (such as The Playhouse Writers) all funded by the European Union’s Peace II Programme and administered by the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Investment and International Fund for Ireland.

Playhouse Derry