LAMBETH FRINGE FESTIVAL
25 SEPT - 25 OCT 2025
Festival producer ADAM LABODA on Celebrating the vibrant culture & community of Lambeth, platforming underrepresented voices in the arts. Produced by the team behind Bread and Roses Theatre in Clapham. The 2025 programme features theatre, comedy, cabaret, music and family.
WHO IS ADAM LABODA
Adam Laboda is a working-class theatre maker, playwright, and director from Shropshire. He is the producer of The Lambeth Fringe Festival, along with the Team behind the Bread and Roses Theatre, Rebecca Pryle and Velenzia Spearpoint.
THE EXPANION OF THE FESTIVAL FROM CLAPHAM FRINGE TO LAMBETH FRINGE
Adam Laboda: The Lambeth Fringe was born out of the passion of the artists! It was clear that Clapham Fringe needed to grow – having filled our venues with so many people’s sensational work – and needing to turn down more applications each year purely out of capacity’s sake. We looked to spaces in and around our neighbourhood in Clapham, and it seemed almost pivotal that we set the ambitions of the festival higher, to match the quality and drive of the festival’s participants.
THE FESTIVAL'S PRODUCERS AND DIRECTORS
We have a really small team making the festival happen; I think sometimes it looks like there are more of us, because we each wear many different hats, but there are really only three of us. There is me as the producer; I do a lot of the artists liaison, promotion, and programming side of the festival - and then there is Rebecca Pryle and Velenzia Spearpoint, who are Co-Directors of the festival and also run the Bread and Roses Theatre, they take on a lot of the big-picture activities, looking at festival funding and expansion, sponsorships and outreach. But we’re also a flexible team and often help each other with our strengths. We also have Lauren and Naz, who have joined us recently as our festival administrator, and social media manager respectively, to help us with the day-to-day running and promotion of the festival.
CLAPHAM, CLARM OR THE HAM?
No matter your views on the gentrification of Clapham, Clarm, The Ham, whatever you want to call it, The Lambeth Fringe still holds true to the roots of Clapham through its expansion of its reach across the borough. Clapham is historically a working-class area, with a history of Trade union activity that you could write a book on. The Bread and Roses especially, who created the festival, is supported by the Battersea and Wandsworth Trade Union, and is regularly involved in labour movement issues. Those values are stretched now, across the Borough, offering respectful, kind, truthful, and importantly, affordable, opportunities for artists, both local and across the UK, to grow and perform. Many of our artists maintain relationships with the venues they perform at and join a network of creatives making art in this trying time, which we are incredibly proud of.
RECENT DATA REVEALS THAT PEOPLE IN THEIR 20S AND 30S ARE SWAPPING SCREENS FOR SCENES
I think young people like me (I’m still in my twenties!) are choosing to come to pub and fringe theatres over cinemas and phone screens, as they offer a bit of escapism. You’ll often find that some of the most exciting pieces of work; pieces that transport us to new realities, or reflect real life, pieces that tell important and unheard stories, or just provide us with a good laugh; are the ones taking place in spaces like ours, in Pub Theatres, and not in the West End or Hollywood. In the festival this year, we have a few pub theatres, The Bread and Roses and Golden Goose for example are venues that we programme ourselves, and The White Bear also have their own programming included in the festival. We also have some new and emerging venues this year, such as Vaulty towers, The Glitch, Teahouse Theatre, and Club Silly, all of whom are growing relationships with us and expanding their artists relations. We’re always looking at how to expand the festival, and if there are any pub theatres nearby that want to get involved it the festival next year, drop us an email!
THE SHOWS
With over 200 fantastic shows in our 25 venues, it’s difficult to decide who to mention, as we are excited to see everybody’s work! But here are some of the ones we we’re particularly excited by during the application process:
Willy Witches – A brand new play about a village of men who lose their… well, manhood’s, and a selection of women they claim to be Willy Witches. Exploring the lives of 17th Century England, Mardy Cow Theatre shine a light on the bygone stories of women and retell them from the female perspective, with a sense of humour and sometimes, absolute absurdity! The Bread and Roses Theatre, 8th-10th October.
The Winner Rolls It All – A Fast-Paced, high-stakes board game musical, featuring a score parodying Mamma Mia; The Winner Rolls It All is a blend of between Monopoly and real entertainment. With Betrayal, Capitalism, and Gemma Collins Quotes, there’s something for everyone in this hilarious parody musical. Morely College Drama Studio, 10th October.
Moth(er…) – Following the character of Lucy, Jessica-Anne Blúm’s Moth(er…) semi-autobiographical play discusses the response to not wanting to have children, the intensity of almost having a child, and the loss that comes from a miscarriage. Written as part of her degree, Moth(er…) premiers at the Lambeth Fringe. The Bread and Roses Theatre, 11th & 12th October.
T(ea) boy – A genre bending poetic mashup of physical theatre, clowning, and cabaret. Come bend gender for a bit and be the tea bag bathing in a cup of queer and trans voices, where there is room for joy and grief. Enter a world of distortion, looking at lesbianism, queerness, and asking – are we trans enough? This is your official invitation to the T-Party. The Glitch, 3rd and 4th October.
Thou Shalt Sit The F*** Down – You do whatever makes the clients happy, because that is when you get the tips. And it’s all about the tips. Join William Sanderson on his travels around London entertaining clients, unphased by what they throw at him. Thou Shall Sit The F*** Down draws on Ben Everett Riley’s true stories working as a children’s entertainer and gives you his Ten Commandments for attending any party. Vaulty Towers, 20th & 21st October
NON-THEATRE STUFF
We have such a good line up of non-theatre stuff this year too! From Stand-up to Family shows, there really is something for everyone at the festival this year! Here’s my top pics:
Bald Personality Disorder – A working-in-progress show straddling alternative comedy, spoken work and performance art performed by poet, blogger, and performer Scott Manley Hadley. Exploring class history, gender identity, personality disorders, and most importantly, living a life after hair loss. Vaulty Towers, 13th October
A Noise Annoys – A Poetry show for all the senses, and ages! A family-focused performances featuring rhymes, noises, songs and lots of interaction, Jude Simpson’s A Noise Annoys is funny, sharp, and emotional, providing joy, with a healthy dose of nonsense. Aimed at children aged 6-12. Vauxhall City Farm, 4th October.
CatGPT – Feline & Feral – A ridiculous true story of how one man dealt with the death of his cat by bringing it back to life with the power of AI, rebooted with a synthesiser, mini bar, visuals, and an attitude problem. CatGPT is a perfect mix of satire, beauty, neurodiversity, interaction; you bring the questions to the self-professed life coach. Club Silly (Arch555), 26th & 27th September.
Elephant In The Room – Babar, King of the Elephants is nearly 94 years old, and currently has a problem… a drinking problem! But it's not just Babar who's aged badly – some modern-day critics are suggesting that his beloved stories are actually colonialist propaganda disguised as children's entertainment – are they right? Vaulty Towers, 29th & 30th September.
Views From The Real World, Komuna Collective – Launched in a night club in Oxford, Komuna Collective are a group of artists, DJs, and Musicians committed to experimentation. Featuring 10 tracks composed by Adam Possener and performed by the collective, their performance weaves samples from news broadcasting, TikTok trends, Reddit threads, and more, with string quartet and electronics. Omnibus theatre, 5th October.
ADAM'S PERSONAL TOP TEN
This festival is jam-packed full of events, and there really is something for everyone!
1. The Lambeth Fringe Launch Party, 13th September – The Bread and Roses
2. The Prop swap, 5th October – The Bread and Roses
3. Comedy Bandits, Every Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday - The Railway.
4. Weapons of Mass Creation, 11th October – Art4Space
5. Buttercream Boys, 9th October - The Great North Wood.
6. In Arabia We’d All Be Kings, By the Students of Central Film School – Central Film School
7. Nearly Non-Fiction, By the Students of Italia Conti – The Bread and Roses Theatre
8. The Scene Podcast – Online
9. Clapham Book Festival, 11th October – Omnibus Theatre
10. Home Movie Day, 25th October – Cinema Museum
ADAM'S OWN WORK
I love to tell stories – and feel incredibly honoured to be able to take up some space to talk about my work! As a director, I like to work on pieces telling stories from Queer and working-class artists; providing voices and opportunities to people that might get overlooked by traditional theatre making. Those values extend further as a writer, where I use my own lived experiences to create mainly fictional stories and worlds that reflect on the very real experiences people have on a day-to-day basis. I also have a passion for supporting fellow artists, offering them performance or directing opportunities, time to experiment, and feedback on new writing. My hope is to eventually expand on those beliefs, by creating a new theatre company & venue dedicated to artist improvement.
Coincidentally, before I took on the role as producer I had intended on applying for the festival with a new show of my own – and seeing as I thought it wouldn’t be hard enough to just produce the festival - I decided to do it anyways! My show is a work-in-progress piece called In Plain Sight and is on at the Calder Bookshop and Theatre on the 26th and 27th September. It’s very much an exploration of the beliefs I work towards in my work, featuring love, truth, honesty, passion, entertainment, and experimentation – all whilst providing new opportunities for artists, like my director, for whom this is their first time directing a show outside of a class. The work-in-progress piece takes the form of three short self-contained stories set in underrepresented areas of the UK, linked by the theme of Love in Contemporary Britain.
FINAL THOUGHTS
My honest hope for the festival this year is that it helps to kickstart at least one person’s life as an artist. It’s important to me as an individual, as well as an artist, that anything I commit myself to helps other people to grow and develop. I truly hope that one day, one of the people whose show we are helping to bring to life as part of his festival, will have the success they are looking for, and look back at The Lambeth Fringe as a place that helped to grow and support them when they needed it most.
Participating pub theatres include Bread and Roses Theatre in Clapham, White Bear Theatre in Kennington and Golden Goose Theatre in Camberwell.
View the Full programme here
