As the dust settles on another Christmas season at The Wardrobe Theatre we wanted to say a massive thank you to the show’s utterly incredible cast and creatives, the theatre staff and front of house team and the wonderful audiences of our latest festive alternative comedy bonanza, Notting Hell: The Greatest Love Story In The Underworld. Directed by Bristol’s brilliant Helena Middleton, this year every performance was sold out before rehearsals had even started and in fact we had to add extra shows due to the demand! Overall, more than 5000 people caught the show in Bristol with another 370 watching in Weston-Super-Mare during late January as we toured to brilliant fringe space, Front Room Theatre. Thank you so much to everyone who came to watch the show and for some of the amazing feedback you gave us afterwards – it’s such a privileged to have such a loyal, generous and enthusiastic audience embracing our alternative-comedy and often bat-shit crazy show every Christmas.
We work really hard to try and make each Christmas show here feel individual and different and hopefully that was achieved this year. After horse races and train heist’s in the American West in 2023 with The Good, The Bad & The Coyote Ugly, this year with Notting Hell we wanted to parody the classic British rom-com. We enjoyed taking the audience to a romanticised, whimsical and sickly pink London with some of the tropes, cliches and archetype characters we all recognise from rom-coms before dragging them to hell! We particularly loved the design and feel of hell itself, not your traditional fire and brimstone but instead bright lime green – an inspired choice by our designer, Ella Barraclough.
A special thank you must go out to our incredible cast of Shôn Dale-Jones, Tom England, Stephanie Houtman and Adiza Shardow, supported by brilliant understudy, Holly Meechan, and the most dedicated, friendliest and all-round rockstar of a stage manager, Gemma Smith. Devising, rehearsing, teching, performing and touring a Christmas show at The Wardrobe Theatre is a gruelling 15 consecutive weeks of long, exhausting days but the team, supported by the rest of the show’s creatives (full list below), were a pleasure to work with, relentless in their positivity, hard-work and good-humour in the creation of something mad and fun for Bristol. Both Stephanie and director Helena had babies earlier in 2024 and supporting them back to work as new mothers was a real delight on this production – we loved having babies Remi and Raffy join us in rehearsals, tech and before performances, quickly becoming the mascots of the show!
Finally, another thank you must go to the staff of The Wardrobe Theatre and especially the front of house team including many volunteers whose warm and reliable presence meant we were able to welcome over 50 sold out audiences for Notting Hell as well as another 40 performances over the Christmas season. We couldn’t do it without you!
Hopefully this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Notting Hell but for now the ball-heads, the library of pink books and the giant silk curtains have been packed away, ready for another day.
Notting Hell: The Greatest Love Story In The Underworld
An original production by The Wardrobe Theatre, written and devised by the company
Director – Helena Middleton
Cast – Shôn Dale-Jones, Tom England, Stephanie Houtman, Adiza Shardow
Understudy – Holly Meechan
Stage Manager – Gemma Smith
Composer & Sound Designer – Jack Drewry
Designer – Ella Barraclough
Dramaturg – Matthew Whittle
Movement Director – Deepraj Singh
Lighting Designer – Chris Collier
Intimacy Director – Sophie Grenfell
Associate Director – Rachael Walsh
Associate Designer – Ruby Brown
Set Builder – William Datson
Session Musician – Tom Crosley-Thorne
Wellbeing Support – The Artist Wellbeing Company
Photography – Jack Offord
Producer – Alice Massey
Notting Hell: The Greatest Love Story In The Underworld was made with the kind support of Arts Council England