Welcome to The Warren, we hope you enjoy reading about what we’ve been up to and what we’re about to get up to!
The Warren have been around for over 70 years (not all of us!) and in that time have put on well over 150 pantomimes and shows – all to raise money for local charities.
We estimate that we’ve raised more than £200,000 over the years and we’re all immensely proud of this. You can find out more about who we raise money for by visiting our who we help page.
There are currently around 40 members (aged from 12-60+) in The Warren.
We perform a pantomime every year, usually in late January or early February. Our pantomimes are lively and colourful with wonderful costumes and scenery. They’re a great night out for the whole family – we haven’t met a child who didn’t enjoy a bit of good old-fashioned slapstick or an adult who didn’t enjoy a bit of saucy innuendo from the Dame! You can find out more about our past Pantos and Shows and see pictures from our productions under Our Shows.
But we don’t just perform – we get up to all sorts. We have Quiz nights, car rallies, dinner dances and we run the catering and car parking at boot sales to raise funds.
The Warren are a terrific bunch of people who give their time and effort week in, week out to make sure we put on great shows that’ll enable us to raise as much money as we can for local charities. If you think you’d like to become a part of this please visit our new members page. Don’t hesitate to call us with any questions.
Our History
In 1949 a Mr. E.J. Bunn organised a group of fellow East Barnet Royal British Legion members into a concert party to put on shows and pantomimes to raise money for needy ex-servicemen and their families.
The group called themselves “Bunny’s Warren” and “Bunny” produced the first pantomime “Dick Whittington” in St. James’ Hall, New Barnet in January 1950 from which a very worthwhile sum of £43 was raised for the British Legion’s Not Forgotten Fund.
In 1981 we decided to branch out on our own, thus enabling the proceeds of
the charity to be donated not only to the Not Forgotten Fund, but also to other local charities.
Up until 1991 we performed our annual pantomime at the Church House Hall
in Cockfosters.
However, 1992 saw The Warren move to a ‘real theatre’, when we performed “Frankenstein the Pantomime” at the Intimate Theatre in Palmers Green.
In 2006 we moved to The Bull Theatre in Barnet which is a lovely, intimate theatre where the audiences feel really close to the action. Unfortunately the theatre only holds 150 people for each performance and due to the success of our pantomimes we took the decision to move to the Wyllyotts theatre in Potters Bar in 2018, so we could perform to bigger audiences and therefore raise more money for our chosen charities. And it looks like the Wyllyotts will be our new permanent home as from 2020 we’ll be performing our May musical show there as well. The Wyllyotts is a wonderful local theatre with great facilities including a bar, cafe and disabled access – hopefully we won’t be moving again for a while!