The seven week reopening season features turns by Silent Faces, Charles Court Opera and Christmas cabaret from the Cocoa Butter Club in a redesigned auditorium

Potted Gilbert and Sullivan, and Queer Christmas cabaret are on the programme for the autumn season at the reopened Pleasance.

Strict hygiene protocols and socially distanced tables have been installed in a redesigned three-tier auditorium which can welcome 100 people a night.

Anthony Alderson, Director of the Pleasance Trust said a programme of comedy gigs is also in the pipeline for the seven week season.

“I’m thrilled that we are reopening and managing to bring theatre back to London audiences. We are making sure that your visit to the Pleasance is as safe as possible. The artists we work with are at the heart of what we do and so it feels particularly important that the season will commence with Silent Faces who were deep in rehearsals when Covid-19 hit. This re-opening season is all about bringing back that undefinable Fringe spirit that embodies us.”

The venue in Carpenter’s Mews reopens on November 11th with Silent Faces’ Godot is a Woman which was in tech rehearsals when the shutters came down in March.

The ensemble led company, which integrates disabled and non-disabled performers, offers playful political physical theatre based around events in 1988 when playwright Samuel Beckett sued a Dutch theatre company for trying to stage Waiting for Godot with an all-female cast.

Next up, Islington favourites Charles Court Opera present Express G&S, The Complete Works of Gilbert & Sullivan in just 75 minutes.

Co-devised by David Eaton and Charles Court chief John Savournin, the “masters of G&S in small spaces,” pledge a “modern major mash” up that will transport audiences from Penzance to Titipu, Venice to the Tower of London and Portsmouth to Fairlyland.

It’s followed by the best of London’s queer cabaret groups for a festive celebration of drag and performance, starting with pan-Asian collective The Bitten Peach who enchant with their Bedtime Stories.

All-female, non-binary theatre cabaret company Pecs Drag Kings make their Pleasance debut with Pecs: Christmas Queer.

And the one and only Cocoa Butter Club close out the season from December 15-17 with a promise to decolonise and remoisturise in their brand-new Christmas revue, featuring a mix of burlesque, spoken word, drag, RnB and soul music.

Bookings at pleasance.co.uk