A young man in American football gear speeds down Broadway Market in Hackney on a lime bike before pretending to crash. And quick to make a stage entrance of the fall, he joins a band of horned satyrs – busting dance moves and rock-paper-scissors as if they were ancient Greek rituals – their pinned, plaited tails blowing in the wind outside this East End bar. Yes, I'm still on a London Pub Theatres job, before you ask; joined by a growing audience outside the chicken shops and off-licences after accepting an offer to observe this bacchanal on a typically flustered Wednesday evening.

If you haven’t guessed yet, this is a ‘modern’ take on the Odyssey by a new ‘pop up’ pub theatre company named Globe Road Theatres. Our jockey on and then off the lime bike is Odyessus but, much more chic, looking like he’s straight out of a Nike advert. The initial fears I felt after first seeing the press release for this show named The Cyclops of East London at Off Broadway Bar are now beginning to be confirmed. I’m bewildered, cold - the first pint hasn’t started hitting me - and the actors have started calling us ‘sheep’ (scary stuff). In fact, fear begins to creep up on me as to what we are all about to witness. 

Diaz understands the issues threatening our industry and is now doing something about it. “I think the problems for [pub theatre] come back to COVID. It comes from people not going out as much and we are trying to create this space to introduce new audiences to the local pubs,” Diaz tells me over call from New York, where he’s been rustling up new scripts, other concoctions and getting to know performers from the US who want to take their theatre to London’s pubs.

Indeed, The Odyssey has already been traced back to tales of debauchery, drinking and a love of telling stories in pub-like settings, of course. One only has to recall how many times we are brought across “the wine dark sea” in the English translation of Homer’s original. “It’s a play that revolves around wine and all the madness that comes out of drinking,” Diaz says: “We’re not trying to deny the reality of this space.” With the Cyclops as a vessel, he’s made a tongue-in-cheek barrel of laughs in the dark corners of a bar’s basement despite my initial hesitation.

Pub theatres have always been ancient oral tombs built brick by brick on the backs of sturdy bar stories that ring in the din of a regular’s chat – always helped by a landlord who has no idea what to do with the spare room upstairs. Just look at some of the most recent developments across the industry that speak to their durability. The Finborough stands as one such noticeable testament having survived its bottom level being turned from a pub into an Indian restaurant; I’m told that many creatives love to go get a curry downstairs after finishing a show. Even Matt Trueman claimed that pub theatres survived an “identity crisis” in the late 2010s due to the experimental work of other major venues taking off. And even if the finance chief of Greene King recently warned that pubs are reaching their breaking point, the spotlights turn on and the show always must continue. 

Using a “direct translation” of the Odyssey, what Diaz calls “some old copyright free version from the 20s”, Globe Road Theatres wanted to make this story feel real and relevant for now. “I invited international playwrights to come in and add their own words and their own jokes to make a hodgepodge which is representative of the different people who call East London their home”. And whilst this isn’t for everybody – I did catch an audience member asking their partner “what the hell was going on” during my own watch – most of the audience left thoroughly entertained. In fact, the pub landlord got up to thank the whole cast and group of creatives for putting this together to help their business. Theatre, when done properly, oozes off the stage and builds a love of the space that holds it.

Now open for submission for new plays, Globe Road Theatre wants to continue to bring global talent to the local setting – “no story is too small” claims their advertising. I will add that Diaz is one hell of a marketer with a natural flair for sales and promoting which, though it can seem off-putting at first for us up-tight Brits, comes from an innate passion for bringing people together. “Through our pub partnership network, I want to introduce more people to the love of pub culture,” he continues.

Whilst many of the traditional pub theatres are bridges to the youngsters newer to the scene, they may wish to stick to their test-proven old ways – but are newer kids to the block like Diaz proving us wrong?   We are perhaps in desperate need of groups to shake things up, take the bull by the horns and reinvent how theatre can come alive in our pub spaces.