Underbelly Archive
Website Archive
Through this page you can access the website for previous years showing details of the productions and their reviews in that year.
For details of shows appearing at Underbelly venues in previous years and reviews of those shows, use the box opposite to select a year.
History of the Underbelly
In 1998, the now-famous Grid Iron theatre company used the vaults under the Central Library to put on one of their productions as the damp brick arches suited the dark nature of their production.
In 1999, the vaults remained unused, but in 2000, Double Edge Drama realised the potential of the space and atmosphere provided by the vaults. It set up performing spaces in what are now the White Belly and the Iron Belly where it staged its own five productions that year, together with a guest production from Oxford University. The venue was operated by Double Edge under the umbrella of the established venue company C Venues.
In 2001, Underbelly Limited and By Popular Demand Productions Limited were set up to turn the Underbelly into a professional venue with a number of performance spaces and a wide-range of productions. The venue was set up with performance spaces in the Iron Belly, White Belly and Big Belly. The Belly Laugh (then named the Belly Bar) was also used for late night cabaret as well as the venue's second bar. Space downstairs which is now used for Belly Dance was used to exhibit a film installation by Nick Hornby.
In 2002, The Underbelly was renamed The Smirnoff Underbelly to reflect our sponsorship by Smirnoff Vodka. We increased the number of performance spaces by adding the Belly Button and Belly Laugh comedy venues and introducing a third bar, the Jelly Belly, to the first floor. The number of shows increased from 18 to 50+ and this was the year that Underbelly really started to make its mark.
In 2003, we increased the usefulness of the Belly Dancer by soundproofing to ensure that it can be used throughout the day without disrupting performances in other spaces. This allowed us to team up with Forth One 97.3 to bring you a series of live music gigs every night in the Belly Dancer. We have also improved the standard of the venue facilities and made many cosmetic improvements. Ticket sales increased by over a third from approximately 20,000 tickets in 2002 to over 30,000 in 2003 and that's not counting the free tickets to Forth One Fringe events!
In 2004, we opened the Delhi Belly and made numerous structural and fire safety changes. We also rearranged the bars to create more space and ease congestion and queuing. Finally, we created a brand new large box office in one of the rooms off the front alley, which freed up the old box office to become a larger and more usable publicity office with a sofa and coffee.
In 2005, we have added the Caves on Niddry Street (known as Baby Belly) to our collection, taking the number of performance spaces up to 10 and our total seating capacity up to 1000. We also made some changes to improve accessibility of the Underbelly venue, but unfortunately on that front we are very much constrained by the nature of the building and its age. Finally, following popular demand, we have completely overhauled the venue's toilet facilities with brand new tiles and cubicles.
In 2006, we have added UdderBELLY and the Cow Barn as new venues. These not only increases the total number of performances spaces and shows we can host, but more crucially provides with two larger spaces (322 and 250 seats resepctively) that allow us to host the top shows and comedians that can attract regular audiences of that size.
