The Shop Front Theatre Coventry

In the eyes of a recent audience member, “…this space has the value that Stratford’s Theatre Royal East gave to theatre in the 1960s viz Joan Littlewood. A vital part of Coventry’s contribution to creativity.”

The Shop Front Theatre in Coventry, is an old fish and chip shop restaurant, once called Fishy Moore’s, located on the corner of Queen Victoria Road and the bottom of City Arcade, in the city centre precinct. In December 2009, after negotiating terms with Coventry city council, we opened for business. It is the only professional theatre space of its kind in the UK. The Shop Front Theatre is home to Theatre Absolute.

Based in Coventry, and founded by Julia Negus and Chris O’Connell in 1992, Theatre Absolute is a multi award winning theatre company. Our work is entirely driven by our relationship to the contemporary and the urban. The work we make is expressed through a mutually important relationship between text and narrative. To this end we have developed a body of work with the company’s writer and artistic director Chris O’Connell, whose plays for Theatre Absolute include the Time Out Live and double Edinburgh Fringe First winning Street Trilogy (Car, Raw, Kid), Zero, Arcade and Breathe.
We have a passion for developing the work of other writers and artists, demonstrated through the creation of both our Writing Gym and @38 development programmes.