A new, affordable theatre festival in London is launching February, to try and address the rising costs of the arts.

Basic Space is bringing together six companies for the event, which takes place from 16th-21st February in a derelict Victorian house.

It was created by Mark Rolland to try and off set the soaring costs of other arts festivals in the UK.

He said: “The current opportunities for emerging artists are becoming prohibitively expensive.

“In London and at the Edinburgh Fringe, companies can expect to absorb losses of thousands of pounds to get their work seen.

“This is simply not possible for a lot of people, and I don’t think enough is being done about this problem.

“It seems to be accepted that to succeed in the arts you will need to have financial backing of family and friends, which is a recipe for excluding the voices the fringe scene was set up to represent in the first place.”

The six shows will all be performed the Safehouses in Peckham, and focus on the finality of death, and what it means to be alive.

The immersive theatre and site specific companies involved include Entita, Ransack Theatre, workshOPERA, Do It Theatre, Broken Stereo and As&When Theatre.

Entry costs for the Basic Space festival were purposely kept low, and tickets will be capped at £10.

Rolland added: “There is a huge vacuum of affordable options for theatre-makers to get their work on, and I would say this problem is at its worst in site-specific and immersive theatre.

“The burden of sourcing and renting your own venue as an emerging company is an uphill struggle to say the least.

“By taking on much of the administrative and financial planning ourselves, we allow the artists to do what they do best: make great work.”

Basic Space festival kicks off in Peckham on 16 February. For more information, click here.