It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers.

[1] James Roose-Evans was the founder and first Artistic Director, and the 1959–1960 season included The Dumb Waiter and The Room by Harold Pinter, Eugène Ionesco's Jacques and The Sport of My Mad Mother by Ann Jellicoe.

The studio theatre, Hampstead Downstairs, seats up to 100 people and was turned into a laboratory for new writing in 2010.

[2] In 2022, Arts Council England removed the theatre's public funding.

[3] Playwrights who have had their early work produced at the theatre include: This British theatre–related article is a stub.