UNEARTHED FESTIVAL RETURNS TO LIVE THEATRE WITH A FEMINIST SPIN FOR 2026
Unearthed Festival at Live Theatre from Tuesday 30 June to Saturday 11 July is a place for shows to take their first breath, for ideas to sharpen, and for artists to feel less alone in the making.
A showcase of exciting up and coming talents with a feminist slant, this year Unearthed sits within a season led by powerful feminist voices and work that reminds us that the stage can be a place or resistance and reclamation. A celebration of new writing with a focus on female, non-binary and trans performance alongside scratches, socials and masterclasses with major industry figures.
Unearthed Festival 2026 productions include: Mother? written and performed by NE Culture Award winner Rachel Stockdale; incredible comedy The Awakening by Nicola Mantalios and Kerris Gibson; Lasses X The Girlie Show from Rosy Cheek Productions and The Girlie Show Comedy; Juliet’s Confession: A Draft of Immortality by Vlodymyr Piterov an experimental solo performance starring Bridget Marumo; brilliant double bill Medieval Babes from Geet Northern and pals and What Adult Am I? a collaboration with Alicia Meehan, Rose Lewis, Emma Crawley-Bennett and Becky Glendenning-Laycock.
There is an exciting line-up of readings this year too: REVERB a new musical created and performed by Rosie Bowden and Maya Torres alongside Becky Clayburn, Meena Al-Nawrasy and Erin Thwaites; Beth Mullen’s Ulcers read by Chris Connel and Christina Berriman Dawson; Mam, Me, Mia written and performed by Chess Tomlinson with Jess Johnson and Lucy Eve Mann.
Opportunities for theatre makers to get involved include two portions of A Play For Breakfast, table reads and Nicola Mantalios leads a free Character Masterclass.
Returning to Unearthed Festival is the hugely popular Scratch Night which will take place on Thursday 9 July. This is a chance for artists to take risks, have fun and experiment with fellow creatives in front of an audience hungry for new theatre and fresh ideas.
John Dawson, Live Theatre’s Artist Development Producer said: “New writing must be rooted everywhere, in the places, voices and communities that shape us. The North East has always been a place of fierce voices, deep feeling and extraordinary imagination. Its artists carry the grit, warmth, humour and truth of this region through our own spaces and beyond. Our responsibility is to make sure those voices are not only nurtured, but heard, celebrated and carried forward. Provided a platform, a provocation and a declaration that artists working here deserve space to thrive and to shape the national conversation.
The stakes are higher than ever. Our stories are not too local. Our accents are not obstacles. Our communities are not niche. If we do not protect new writing now, we do not simply lose plays. We lose future classics. We lose writers before they have had the chance to become themselves. Unearthed Festival is a promise. To keep making space. To keep opening doors. To keep insisting that theatre belongs everywhere, that meaningful voices are everywhere, and that new writing must be allowed not just to survive, but to thrive.”
Check out the full Unearthed Festival line-up and book tickets at www.live.org.uk
