✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper plus a pair of free tickets to a London event sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper


Sign up by Email or Facebook.

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we sent newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Turning tips into memories

Get started Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • About us
  • Tickets
  • Membership
  • Get Started
  • Membership
  • Tickets
Get our exclusive content
+ choose a pair of free tickets from our edit of favourite events
Theatre

Fun Palaces Festival 2016

01 Oct 16 – 02 Oct 16, Times vary between venues

The third nationwide Fun Palaces 2016 festival celebrates the arts and sciences side by side, inspired by the vision of revolutionary playwright Joan Littlewood

By Lucy Brooks on 26/9/2016

Fun Palaces Festival 2016
Fun Palaces Festival 2016
Fun Palaces Festival 2016 Fun Palaces Festival 2016 Lucy Brooks

Everyone an artist, Everyone a scientist: Joan Littlewood's legacy

Inspired by the innovation of pioneering playwright and director Joan Littlewood, Fun Palaces Theatre Festival celebrates the overlap between science and drama with a weekend of free, creative performances. All around the country, venues from parks and shopping centres to swimming pools and libraries will be transformed into palaces of fun in a free celebration of culture and learning- and there's a good few cropping up in London.


The lowdown: The inaugural Fun Palaces Festival in 2014 was established by theatre makers Stella Duffy and Sarah-Jane Rawlings to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the war and to celebrate what would have been Littlewood's 100th birthday. And the 2016 festival is set to be bigger and bolder than before.


This festival is more than just events: it's a movement, one which invites anyone, anywhere, whether a library, community centre, theatre or garden shed, to create a Fun Palace, with their own local residents at the core as both audience and participants.

And since this initial seed was sown, the invitation has been taken up in locations ranging from Cornwall to Glasgow, in theatres, historic homes, community centres and more. In London, there are sweet makeshift events in libraries and lidos - build a batbox and meet batman at Brockwell Lido or go to Storycycle at Crystal Palace.


The background: The central tenets of a Fun Palace are that it's a ‘laboratory of fun’, a ‘university of the streets’, where anyone and everyone can learn something, and participate in an arts culture that is too often elitist and closed in its creation and reach. So all events at Fun Palaces are free, most welcome all age groups (check with local listings) and bring together artists and practitioners from widely various disciplines.

Having started out to fuse of arts and sciences and continue Joan Littlewood's vision for greater public participation in both, Fun Palaces has exploded into a nationwide movement.


Click here to find your nearest Fun Palace



click for more theatre
recommendations


What Fun Palaces Festival 2016
Where Various Locations | MAP
When 01 Oct 16 – 02 Oct 16, Times vary between venues
Price £free
Website Click here to find your nearest Fun Palace

You might also like
Free for Members
Events are held in The Vaults beneath Waterloo Station
Free pairs of tickets available
09 Feb 19 - 16 Mar 19

Vault Festival

All booked All booked All booked

Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 22 - 24 February
Things to do in London this weekend: 22 – 24 February
Best art exhibitions, London, 2019
Best art exhibitions, London, 2019
Debut at the National Theatre: Cate Blanchett stars in When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other
When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other, National Theatre review

A little more...

  • click for more theatre
    recommendations

    ABOUT JOAN LITTLEWOOD

    Joan Littlewood (1914-2002) was a theatre director, famous for her uncompromising radical politics, and the way these appeared in her rehearsal room and work. After the Second World War she founded Theatre Workshop, who found a home at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in 1953, and continued directing with them until 1975. In 1965 the company created their most famous play, Oh What a Lovely War. This was based on a radio documentary that juxtaposed cheery wartime songs, with the real facts and statistics. This satirical irony formed the basis of research and improvisation undertaken by Joan and her ensemble over a long devising process, leading to its premier in 1963. It has seen award-winning productions from then until the Stratford revival this year.

    HOW FUN PALACES BEGAN...

    Stella Duffy, author, playwright and campaigner behind this project, was sure that a simple memorial would not do enough to mark this occasion, and there have been countless revivals of Joan’s most famous work. So instead, this festival takes up the reins of her own unfinished plan, with architect Cedric Price, for a revolutionary home for the exploration of art and science side by side, a venue which would involve audiences actively in discussion, debate and Fun.

Festival

Things to do

Free

Family

Fringe Theatre

Free

You might like

  • The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots, House of Illustration

    The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots, House of Illustration

  • Colour and Vision: Natural History Museum

    Colour and Vision review ★★★★★

  • a beautiful 60-tonne locomotive that steams into the theatre to delight all ages

    The Railway Children, King's Cross Theatre

  • Image: Quentin Blake

    Mrs Armitage and the Big Wave Autumn Tour 2016

  • The Culture Whisper team
  • What is Culture Whisper membership
  • Corporate membership
  • Give a gift membership
  • Retrieve a gift membership
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs

BECOME A MEMBER TODAY
TO CONTINUE TO ENJOY CULTURE WHISPER

You’ve clicked to view the best of our content that we
save exclusively for our members.

If you liked what you saw, subscribe from just £15 and get
unlimited access to our unique culture service as well as
all of our membership benefits.

BECOME A MEMBER ×

Want a pair of free tickets every month?
Upgrade to Gold Whisper now
and save 10% with GOLD10.
Become a premium member today.

UPGRADE NOW ×