An actress in hit film Pride has been given the job of overhauling a south London theatrical institution — after a chance encounter with The Old Vic’s new artistic director.
Lauren Johns, 27, had a bit part in the Bafta-winning drama, directed by Matthew Warchus, which tells the story of the unlikely alliance between striking miners and gay rights activists.
Now Johns, who owns two cafes in south-west London with partner Jules Porter, is to overhaul The Old Vic’s Pit Bar, after bumping into Warchus. The bar, renowned as a late-night haunt for actors and audiences, is being renovated as part of a front-of-house transformation at the venue in Southwark.
Johns said: “I played a girl in Pride who snogs one of the miners when they meet at a nightclub. A few months later Matthew came into Fields — the cafe we run in Clapham Common. I recognised him and we got talking. He said how much he liked the place and it was his local. A little while later we got an email from him saying he wanted to think about changing the Pit Bar and could we come and see him.”
Porter, 25 — who like Johns studied at drama school before opening their first cafe — said he wanted a venue that would serve “creative” food and drink: “It is about making a place we would like to go and have a glass of wine and something to eat.”
It will open next month and be named Penny, after the Penny Lectures that were held at the theatre in 1882. The events, costing just a penny admission, were designed to “foster new thinking and ideas” and aimed at the working people of the area.
The venue will have a late licence and a menu full of local food, with bread from Brixton and fruit and vegetables from New Covent Garden Market.
Warchus’s appointment as Old Vic artistic director was announced after a successful decade with Kevin Spacey at the helm.
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