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About Us

History

Tobacco was the main industry in South Bristol from the beginning of the twentieth century and at its peak around 40% of the local workforce worked in the Imperial Tobacco Factory. The relocation of Imperial Tobacco in the 1980’s was devastating to the local area, causing massive unemployment and deprivation. The Tobacco Factory building itself fell into disrepair but rose again from the late 1990’s when George Ferguson acquired the building, inviting Show of Strength Theatre Company to use part of the first floor as a theatre space. The building became a mixed-use cultural space driven by a café-bar and a 250 seat studio theatre, under the name of Tobacco Factory Theatre. This has had a transformative effect. In the early 1990’s BS3 was one of the ten poorest postcodes in the country but it is now a confident and affluent area that retains a distinct individuality.

In 2005 the Tobacco Factory Theatre became a charitable trust and in 2007 it became a Key Arts Provider of Bristol City Council. It has grown dramatically, particularly since 2008. It now has two auditoria (the Factory Theatre and the Brewery Theatre) and two rehearsal spaces. It has made significant capital improvements, which include installing the second largest renewable energy system of any arts organisation in the country. It attracts an annual ticketed audience of over eighty-five thousand to more than six hundred performances plus several thousand more to talks, workshops, school visits etc. The theatre has excellent programming standards and is regularly attracting national critical acclaim. It has strong relationships with many individual artists, with venues and with theatre companies. It has a wide-ranging programme and is particularly well-known for world-class Shakespeare, critically acclaimed and popular inhouse family-friendly productions and an unrivalled comedy line-up, as well as classic and contemporary theatre, dance, puppetry, film, opera and music.

“ The Tobacco Factory is an inspiring venue. ”

Sylvestra Le Touzel

Production Archive

  • A Christmas Carol

    A Christmas Carol poster image

    11 December 2008 – 18 January 2009: Bah! Humbug! Christmas is a fraud! Scrooge has lost his way in life. Once upon a time he was an honest, hard-working man; now… read more >>

  • Alice Through the Looking Glass

    Alice production print image

    13 December 2007 - 20 January 2008: If you look in the corners of the mirrors, if you look very hard and quickly…there are people, often very small, so tiny that you… read more >>

  • The Ugly Duckling

    6 December 2007 - 20 January 2008: A Travelling Light / Tobacco Factory Theatre co-production Spring is sprung, and Mother Duck is delighted when her eggs begin to hatch. But the last… read more >>

  • Topless Mum by Ron Hutchinson

    28 May - 12 July 2008: Tobacco Factory Productions and Imagineer Productions in association with the Tricycle Theatre A powerful new satire on how the media manipulates images of war He… read more >>

  • Mimic

    19 July - 21 September 2008: Performed and underscored on a piano, this one-man tour-de-force is a unique and entertaining vision of what happens to a nation that forgets its heritage.… read more >>

  • Ali Baba & the Forty Thieves

    09 December 2009 - 17 January 2010: Once there lived two brothers. For the good-hearted Ali Baba, a poverty stricken wood-cutter, life is all toil and hardship. But for the proud Kasim,… read more >>

  • The Adventures of Pinocchio

    The Adventures of Pinocchio (c) FarrowsCreative

    08 December 2010 - 16 January 2011: Geppetto, the brilliant Italian carpenter, carves a block of wood into a puppet who will be the son he has always wanted and a loving… read more >>

  • Cinderella: A Fairytale

    Cinderella (c) FarrowsCreative

    7 December 2011 - 15 January 2012: Joining forces once again with the brilliant Travelling Light, we brought you Cinderella, our most successful show to date. The creative team behind Ali Baba… read more >>

  • Hansel and Gretel

    06 December 2012 - 19 January 2013: In the middle of a cold, dark forest Hansel and Gretel are lost and hungry. But as they sit, shivering, they glimpse a tiny cottage… read more >>

  • The Lost Present

    19 December 2012 - 13 January 2013: It’s a busy day in the Number One Lost Present Department. It’s Christmas-time and lots of presents have gone astray. Vic and Ed need to… read more >>