Drama at the Depot showcases 'pint-sized plays' in Leith

It’s a clever 1950s poster-style sketch of Stead’s Place, with the slogan “Little Shops Of Horace”, and a line remembering the life of Stead’s Place architect Horace Gildard White; and it fairly captures spirit of Leith Depot, a pub (with food) and venue that has become a real community hub at the foot of the Walk, not least because of its leading role, half a decade ago, in that vital campaign.

In the past year, Leith Depot - already much-loved as a music venue - has also become the home of a new series of theatre nights created by PenPal Productions, a Leith-based group of writers and theatre-makers who met through lifelong learning courses and the MSc in playwriting at Edinburgh University, and are now creating space both for short-form performances of their own work, and for other writers.

“Some of us were very much involved in the old Village Pub theatre initiative in Leith,” explains PenPal co-founder Jill Franklin, “and our Drama At the Depot nights - every two months, on a Monday evening - have a very similar format. We were actually using the Leith Depot venue as a rehearsal space during the day, and it occurred to us that it would be a great space to present evenings of short plays - six short ten-minute plays in a session, with an interval so that people can get drinks in - and cake, to continue a very important Village Pub tradition!”

So far, Drama At the Depot has presented six themed evenings of plays, with the seventh coming up; and as co-founders Sophie Good and Jane Sunderland explain, the company are delighted with the audience they’ve won, over quite a short period. “The room has a capacity of 56, for a seated audience,” says Sophie, “and after a couple of sessions, we were already selling out. I suppose we’re building up a network of people involved who like to bring their friends along - so far we’ve worked with 20 writers, 19 actors and five directors, so that’s a good start.

“And then there are people who are just here in the Depot, and want to see what’s going on. At £5 an online ticket, and £7 on the door, it’s a pretty cheap evening’s entertainment; and there are certainly people coming along who probably wouldn’t bother going into town for an evening show, but are happy to fork out a fiver to see some theatre here.”

The next show, on 3 February, has the theme Up In The Air; and it features a new piece by Franklin herself, plus plays by Stephen Christopher, Isaac Frost, Hannah McGregor, Till Schindler, and Sally Hobson. The work is performed, after a single day of rehearsal at the Depot, by a team of professional actors, this month featuring Michael Dylan (star of recent Traverse hit Wilf), Andrew Corelli Jones, Laura Panton and Kirsten McGuire; and the PenPals group are emphatic that although the performances are script-in-hand, they don’t want the audience to feel as though they are attending some kind of open rehearsal or development session.

“We do want audiences to take an interest in our writers, and in how their work is evolving,” says Jill Franklin. “It’s lovely when that happens. But when it comes to the event, we absolutely try to give the audiences a good night of theatre, that works whether you’ve been here before or not. We love the atmosphere here at the Depot; and we hope that for our audiences, the evening feels like a show really well presented, that will make them laugh, and cry, and all of that - and then maybe come and chat with us afterwards, here in the bar.”

Drama At The Depot is at Leith Depot, 3 February. Tickets at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/drama-the-depot-up-in-the-air-tickets-1205071895479