The Arden Theatre Company is a leading regional theatre company located in Stockton-on-Tees

Stockton-on-Tees

Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in north east England. It is the major settlement in the unitary authority and borough of Stockton-on-Tees. For ceremonial purposes, the borough is split between County Durham and North Yorkshire as it also incorporates a number of smaller towns including...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Founded in 2002 by Robert Icke and Daniel Hill, the theatre has grown quickly to become one of the premier theatre companies in the region. Based at Stockton-on-Tees' multi-million pound theatre, Arc, the company began as a youth-only company but now seems to have grown out of its 'no adults' labels. The first production was Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

 in 2003 and a further five productions all sold out, proving that there is a keen audience in Stockton-on-Tees

Stockton-on-Tees

Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in north east England. It is the major settlement in the unitary authority and borough of Stockton-on-Tees. For ceremonial purposes, the borough is split between County Durham and North Yorkshire as it also incorporates a number of smaller towns including...

 for serious theatre.

The company has now completed a run of four productions through a major funding award from Arts Council England. Before that they were funded by the Tees Valley Community Foundation, the Agnes Spencer Trust and the Ropner Trust, as well as a series of sponsorship deals with local businesses.

...they have made the transition from being a youth theatre (albeit an unusual one) to a company whose work demands that they be considered alongside the other smaller companies we review here. What entitles a company to this - and it could be a dubious privilege, for the criteria we apply to a youth theatre production are less stringent - is an imaginative approach to the piece, quality of performance and high production values. Arden's An Inspector Calls qualifies on all three counts - and it is interesting that the theatre, too, no longer advertises them as a youth theatre but just as a theatre company... An Inspector Calls marks the real coming of age of Arden, which crosses the boundary which separates a high quality youth theatre from a thoroughly professional company.

Peter Lathan British Theatre Guide, July 2006

Off the back of many positive reviews (Peter Lathan, the British Theatre Guide's Chief Editor, is a huge fan of their work, returning, it seems, to every production) the company's website has announced their new education programme, going into schools and colleges and inspiring young people to get excited about Shakespeare and theatre.

The British Theatre Guide announced in its rave review of 2007's Journey's End, that it was

...we are told, Arden's last production. The management of the Arc really should do all in its power to persuade one of its greatest assets - for the Arts Centre is the company's base - to keep going.

British Theatre Guide, September 2007

The company website currently contains no announcement about Arden's future.

Arden Theatre Company Productions

• Julius Caesar, 2003
• A Midsummer Night's Dream, 2004
• The Taming of the Shrew, 2005
• An Inspector Calls, 2006
• Twelfth Night, 2006
• Hughie & The Zoo Story, 2006
• King Richard III, 2007
• Journey's End, 2007