Matthew Jameson Archives

Appointment builds on six years at the venue with the man at the helm keen to welcome east Londoners into the Isle Of Dogs arts centre

Matthew Jameson is The Space's new permanent artistic director and co-CEO - image by Jon Massey — Matthew Jameson is The Space’s new permanent artistic director and co-CEO – image by Jon Massey

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Opened in 1996, The Space has spent nearly three decades hosting theatre and arts performances on the Isle Of Dogs.

Born of a dream dreamt by the late Robert Richardson – who also had a hand in creating the Roundhouse in Camden – the venue spent 19 years under the care of Adam Hemming who took over the reins in 2005.

Now a new era has officially dawned.

Matthew Jameson has been named permanent artistic director and co-CEO of The Space, after a year as interim director following Adam’s departure.

With nearly six years at the venue, he brings with him a wealth of experience as deputy director.

Now he’s looking ahead.

The Space's summer season is set to feature Lavvies, a play set in a ladies loo featuring former cast members of Grange Hill - image by The Space — The Space’s summer season is set to feature Lavvies, a play set in a ladies loo featuring former cast members of Grange Hill – image by The Space

a dream realised

“It’s always been a pipe dream of mine to run my own venue, but I never thought I would actually become attached to one,” he said.

“It’s the distance between a long-standing fantasy and reality.

“While getting to where I am hasn’t been like writing a goal down on paper and saying it would happen, looking back, I can see it’s the path I was going to take.

“It’s got me here and I’m really glad about that.

“My background is as an actor and performer who then fell into writing because there were things I wanted to see on stage that weren’t being written.

“Then I got into directing because people weren’t directing my work, so I thought I would give it a try.

“I came to The Space because it’s a wonderful place to be and I wanted to help others to work and make the opportunities for them that I’d had.

“I stayed with the venue and learnt all the things on the job which have got me to this position.

“I’m so grateful to have had this opportunity, it’s been like a lengthy apprenticeship.

“While I remain the custodian of The Space and the wonderful things that happen in this beautiful venue, there is a sense I’m no longer holding the fort.

“There’s a feeling of freedom and liberation – it’s great to take control and see what we can do in the future.

“There’s a certain giddiness in having the title of artistic director which goes beyond my functional role.

“I’m responsible for directing the art in this building and that’s a job that mingles with the the ghosts, the shadows and the memories of all the things I’ve seen in this room over the years.”

Snoligoster sees a Florida folktale transported to east London - image by The Space — Snoligoster sees a Florida folktale transported to east London – image by The Space

embracing the roots

Among Matthew’s ambitions for the venue are two key pillars, ensuring its programme is accessible, enjoyable and relevant to a local audience and also a focus on presenting a varied offering.

“People are likely to see a return to the original roots of The Space,” he said.

“It was established as a multi-form arts centre that had room for all forms of expression with a particular focus on music.

“We already have a series of recitals and we’ll be looking to make greater use of our Steinway baby grand in future.

“We’d never want to lose our identity as a theatre, but looking at regional venues you see a depth and breadth of programming that’s pretty inspirational.

“There’s room for all sorts of things under this roof – cinema nights, our regular symphonic metal goth nights and things we’ve never tried before.

“Now seems like a fantastic time to try them.

“I think it’s interesting people yearn for communal activities – I don’t know what subcultures we’ll be welcoming but, in a place like London, if you build it, then audiences will come to you.

“Our patron, Sir Ian McKellen has called this one of his favourite performance spaces in the world and I agree with him.

“Even after three decades we’re still finding new ways to use the building. It’s grand enough to be epic and do the big things, and small enough to share profound intimacies.

“At The Space you’re never more than 10 metres from the performers, you get that connection with someone who is baring their soul in their performance and giving you something wonderful.

“I think the immediate thing for me is making sure we’re listening to the communities, to the people of the Isle Of Dogs and east London – ensuring we know what it is they want to see on our stage, and that we’re representing them.

“I’m very conscious that a lot of people at the moment, who may be sceptical or hesitant to come to the theatre, should see it as an art form that can be daft, silly, wonderful and cheerful as well as gloomy, dark and highfalutin.

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t present the more serious work, but there is a duty to remember the light, the hope and the positivity we can bring.

“I’m going to tease the word ‘panto’ – something we haven’t previously embraced, but traditionally its a genre that’s all about making local jokes and engaging people who live in the area.

“We’re going to do something bright, something fun.

“There might be something to think about too, especially for the parents, but it will be something joyful whether you’re a regular theatregoer or watching a show on stage for the first time.”

Lobster Pot is a play about domestic terrorism that's also a comedy - image by the Space — Lobster Pot is a play about domestic terrorism that’s also a comedy – image by the Space

summer season at The Space

Right now, Matthew and the rest of the team at the venue are simply looking forward to The Space’s summer programme.

He said: “I keep looking at it and thinking it’s a really wonderful mixture.

“There are things which are about the state of the nation and the world, plus stories I wasn’t aware of dealing with things like religious mania and indoctrination.

“The jewel in the crown of our artistic vision for this season is going to be The Yourspace Festival, which we’re hoping to turn into a regular fixture.

“We’re starting off with a weekend in July, turning The Space over to local community groups – people we’ve worked with before – and inviting them back to do whatever they want.

“One of my first acts as artistic director will be to give control of the stage to the people.

“Other highlights include Lobster Pot, which is a play about domestic terrorism that’s also a comedy and a show called Lavvies featuring cast members from Grange Hill who recently got back in touch and have collaborated on a piece set in a ladies’ loo.

“Then there’s Snoligoster, a folktale from the Florida swamps, captured and shipped to east London and so very many more.”

key details: The Space

The Space is located on Westferry Road and is easily accessed from Canary Wharf via D7, 135 and 277 buses, which stop right outside the venue. It’s a 10-minute walk from Mudchute DLR.

The performance hub features a packed programme throughout the year while The Space Bar to the rear of the venue serves up food and drinks daily to all-comers.

It’s currently open 5pm-11pm, Monday to Thursday, noon-midnight on Fridays, 10am-midnight on Saturdays and 10am-10pm on Sundays, with plentiful brunch options at the weekend.

Find out more about the venue, including listings here

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Theatre maker Matthew Jameson talks putting history on stage to reflect our troubling times

Theatre maker Matthew Jameson has created Ten Days

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History isn’t something that exists trapped between the pages of dusty books, for Matthew Jameson.

The playwright, actor and director doesn’t just see echoes of the past in the present – for him, it’s much more immediate than that.

So his forthcoming production at The Space on the Isle Of Dogs may be the story of what happened between February and October 1917 as the Tsar was overthrown and the communists rose to power. But it’s something else as well.

“I didn’t want Ten Days to be a piece of historical theatre, something that happened more than 100 years ago, which we can only learn lessons from,” he said.

“These kinds of things are ongoing around us, so I wanted the play to be in a contemporary setting – Europe 2023 – scarily close to where we are now.

“The characters are in modern dress and we have a diverse cast who will better reflect our own times than Russia in 1917.

“We also have a lot of video and tech to help to convey some of the scale of the events we want to portray.”

The production is set to run on various dates at the east London arts centre from March 14-25, 2023, with performances at 7.30pm and a pair of Saturday matinees at 2.30pm.

Matthew said: “People should look forward to something epic – it’s a story that covers the breadth and scale of the overthrow of Russia’s ruling family, the establishment of a provisional government and the eventual rise of Lenin and the Bolsheviks.

“It has a cast of 10, of which I am one, and we’ll all be playing multiple roles.

“Among others, I’ll be Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko the unlikely leader of the assault on the Winter Palace – a slightly baffled, befuddled and depraved man.

“Ten Days is something I’ve been working on for about a decade.

“I completed a masters in dramaturgy part-time over the last couple of years and the focus of that was on creating a play as a final project – this was the vehicle to complete it.

“It’s gone through various iterations and I’d never quite finished the draft, but through doing the course, I’ve now completed the whole thing – redrafting, streamlining and editing to reflect the ongoing chaos the world seems to be experiencing.”

Matthew isn’t new to putting real events from the past on stage.

Raised in the North East, he’d always wanted to be a performer and became involved with a company called the Heretical Historians whose play The Trial Of Le Singe brought him to The Space for the first time in 2017.

“That was as a visiting actor, but I really enjoyed being part of this institution,” he said.

“The play was about the story of the Hartlepool monkey and we were doing this post-Brexit, reflecting the idea of a conflicted, anti-European England.

“That’s when I first found The Space and I’ve never really left.

“A lot of the Heretical Historians’ stuff was telling previously untold true stories from history and bringing them to life for a modern audience.

Ten Days is set to run at The Space from March 14-25, 2023

“Ten Days feels like an extension of that. It’s a new company – BolshEpic Theatre – and it’s all about bringing the truth of history to life and making it accessible.

“A lot of my previous work was focused primarily on comedy and entertainment.

“Now I feel there’s a lot of stuff happening in the world that requires our response to be a bit more measured and serious.

“Within that, telling the story of the Russian Revolution is something that is directly relevant to the present.

“Although there’s a lot of entertainment in the story we’re telling, there are also more serious parallels we need to explore, and you can’t do that simply through comedy, although it does help the medicine go down.

“There is the war in Europe at the moment and the apparent collapse of some democracies across the world – it’s been exhausting to keep up with what’s been happening while writing.

“What I want is for audiences to be able to take a look at what it means to live through a crisis and to ask: ‘What hope can we have for democracy?’.

“Ten Days doesn’t give a definitive answer to that, we just present what happened. In Russia back then there was mass industrial action and it feels like we’re getting close to a general strike now.

“They had four heads of state in the space of a year. We’ve had three prime ministers and two monarchs.

“I don’t know whether that’s a cause for optimism that things can change, or a cause for worry that things could get worse.

“I think that in Russia in 1917 they really didn’t expect a revolution and that was one of the fundamental things that caught everyone by surprise.

“It’s not something that tallies with the Soviet version of history – a planned uprising of the people – or the rightist take – a well-calculated palace coup.

“The revolution was something in between, which was messier and muckier and, as a result, far more real and funny.

“What we’ve found is people don’t necessarily know that in the period between the Tsar and the Bolsheviks there was an elected government, where Russia could have turned into a European-style democracy.

“In Ten Days, we take things chronologically with a Sergei Eisenstein-style short film sequence showing the story as you think you know it – Lenin comes in and chucks the Tsar out, resulting in freedom for the people.

“That isn’t what happened but you need to see it as a reminder.

“There’s something about the truth of history that fiction never quite matches up to.

“As a writer you can aspire to be as absurd and ridiculous as you like, but as soon as you write something as silly as the truth people often won’t believe it.

“Hopefully, people will see our posters and think: ‘Lenin – OK, let’s see what this is about,’ but they may not know the other figures so it’s a way of introducing them to the audience.”

Tickets for Ten Days start at £5 and are sold on a pay-what-you-choose basis.