As artistic director of the Highgate Arts Centre he inherited a crumbling building whose roof fell in midway through his first season.
When he leaves on January 4, 2026 he will hand over a shiny revamped venue that has just celebrated its 50th anniversary.
It boasts a packed programme of contemporary circus, comedy and children’s shows – alongside 50 classes and courses from tai chi to light sabre combat and jazz guitar.
He first encountered the deconsecrated church, which had been rescued from demolition in the mid-70s by a group of civic minded locals, in 2006.
Having run venues in Barnet and Kent, he had a brimming contacts book and programmed a comedy season including Alan Carr, Russell Brand, and Simon Amstell, who all lived nearby at the time.
“Jacksons Lane has changed a lot over the last 20 years for the better,” said the 56-year-old.
“When I first worked there I couldn’t understand why this brilliant building was failing. The Arts Council was thinking of disinvesting. They had no money, people weren’t being paid and they couldn’t afford to put on shows.”
By 2008 he was in charge and started building it up again – “then the roof fell in”.
The venue closed for a year to fix the roof and reopened with more comedy.
But Berry spotted the building’s potential to host a new kind of circus that he calls “baby versions of Cirque du Soleil”.
“I fell in love with it,” he recalls. “We had the height, and the venue didn’t stand for anything. It needed to stand for something.”
Over the years Berry has programmed international and UK acts blending the art form with mime, dance, comedy, cabaret and and burlesque – and made the 168-seat adaptable space a leading venue for contemporary circus.
Jacksons Lane has long been famed for comedy – Eddy Izzard and Mickey Flanagan learned their trade there on comedy courses in the 1980s, and huge acts from Michael McIntyre to Noel Fielding, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant play warm up shows in it for their tours.
“Ricky played 36 warm up shows – he probably didn’t need to do so many but he loves it and once tweeted he would sooner perform at Jacksons Lane every night than go on tour, which was nice of him,” says Berry.
Other cultural icons who got early breaks at Jacksons Lane – before Berry’s tenure – include Highgate actor Meera Syal, and theatre groups Theatre de Complicite and Frantic Assembly.
Even Joe Strummer and Adam and the Ants played the venue in the mid 1970s.
Berry is proud of Jacksons Lane’s trailblazing work with disability groups, as well as an outreach programme that includes poetry workshops with seniors in the east of Haringey.
Recent hits have included Die Hard tribute Yippy Ki Yay, a show inspired by the life and songs of Nina Simone, Buffy Revamped and true life football drama The Ghost of White Hart Lane.
“We’ve achieved so much,” he says. “The end of a successful 50th year seemed like a good time to go and seek new challenges.
“The new artistic director will inherit a huge amount of support and affection for this venue. The local community are brilliant – they used to be ‘what’s all this weird stuff?’ but they have been open to new things.”
With support from both Haringey Council and Arts Council England, he says: “Jacksons Lane is in a really great place – we made a small surplus last year which for an arts centre in the current climate is unheard of.”
Berry has programmed work until May, and after penning a successful play about one fan’s relationship with David Bowie, he has another in the pipeline, this time about Jarvis Cocker, Chateau Marmont and Route 29.
He added: “I have made so many friends – there’s a real community around this stretch from Gerry at the Boogaloo to Tom at The Woodman – I am going to miss it.”
