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Blondie Blue Eyes

4, 9, 10 November

Asian person does white woman drag.
A part of the Voila! Festival

“There is no point
in national pride
When the nation I’m from
is lost to me.”

Against the backdrop of an upbeat comedy, BLONDIE BLUE EYES is a tragedy rooted in the horror of breaking down one’s sense of self to fit a social norm stemming from a post-colonial culture of white supremacy. Combining elements of slapstick, movement and drag artistry, the play follows the turmoil of titular character Blondie, who so desperately desires to be the epitome of the White ideal that she herself becomes a caricature of it. From an implication of the audience at the very beginning of the performance, it is a reminder of our role in perpetuating social norms and upholding Eurocentric beauty standards–whether consciously or unconsciously–through consuming media.

With concepts like gentrification, whitewashing and representation being tossed a big zeitgeist tumble dryer, BLONDIE BLUE EYES is a piece surrounding the literal erasure of culture in the pursuit of perfection. Throughout the piece, Blondie exists in a cyclical hell loop where she keeps breaking out of her façade but always ends up pushed back into the ‘perfect’ presentation she initially shows herself as. Will she break free of her shackles? Or will she succumb to the immovable force of ‘the norm’? Stay tuned to find out.

P.S.: audience participation is strictly mandatory.

21 Days

6 & 7 November

A heartbroken man spirals into addiction until an enigmatic flatmate forces him to confront whether logic can tame the chaos of human emotion in a technology-driven 2030.
A part of Voila! Festival

The year is 2030.

After a painful break-up, Jay hits the reset button on his life—but instead of healing, he spirals into a cycle of rage, isolation, and alcohol dependency. In a world increasingly disconnected by technology, his search for meaningful connection is overshadowed by his own self-destructive habits.

Enter May: a strange and enigmatic new flatmate whose unexpected presence begins to challenge Jay’s worldview. As their uneasy cohabitation unfolds, truths are confronted and emotions unravel.

21 Days is a bold new work exploring how we cope with heartbreak, addiction, and emotional suppression in a world where we humans face the unpredictability of technology. It asks: can logic ever explain the chaos of human emotion?

Stuffed

8, 11, & 15 November

Confessions of a Market Researcher

A part of Voila! Festival

Hi, I’m Chiara. My father was a hippie, my mother an avid consumer. I guess I wound up working in market research to see what the fuss was about. Or maybe to pick a side. Twenty years later, I am still in that job, and still ambivalent about what -and how much- we buy. As the world gallops towards an uncertain future, it may well be time to rethink the role of ‘stuff’ in our lives, before it stuffs us.

This play tells the story of my years growing up in 80s Italy and later working with ‘consumers’ across the world. Through a recollection of my most memorable work moments (riding trucks when eight months pregnant, getting my hair done in India, and more) and personal events (immigration, estrangement, motherhood), Stuffed wants to show the complex, subtle pull of consumerism, and wonders how best to handle it now that there is no Planet B. Hungry for an authentic, sustainable coexistence with Things- and with the people in my life- I ponder on the good, the bad and the ugly of ownership. I venture that possessions can be imbued with salience, and wonder what we are really seeking through the acquisition of things.

Cocaine

13 & 14 November

A gripping, 80s drama that follows a man’s descent into cocaine addiction alongside a lady’s emotional struggle with love, helplessness, and frustration, delivering a raw, unflinching exploration of dependency, desire, and self-destruction.

A part of Voila! Festival

Cocaine by Pendleton King is a one-act play, originally published in 1917, that delves into the psychological and emotional turmoil caused by drug addiction. The story has been adapted for the 80s decade, and centres on the character of a former boxer, Joe, once full of potential, whose life spirals downward as he becomes consumed by his addiction to cocaine. He struggles with the overwhelming cravings and the need to escape from reality. Also, caught in the turmoil of growing cocaine addiction is Nora, who wrestles with feelings of love, helplessness, and frustration.

Through these characters, King explores themes of dependency, self-destruction, and the impact of addiction on relationships. King’s writing is poignant in its portrayal of the human psyche, and the work is rich in themes of self-deception, moral decay, and the conflict between desire and consequence, making it a powerful commentary on the broader societal issue of drug addiction.

Casanova

17 & 18 November

Casanova: lover, hero, clown! Hilarious physical comedy from award-winning clown Jon Tilley

A part of Voila! Festival

A man who relies entirely on his wits – and his incredibly alluring face and body. Join award-winning physical comedian Jon Tilley (“Magnetic” The Scotsman) for a hilarious ride through the ridiculous and the sublime, in an anarchic, comic retelling of the myth of real-life ultimate lover and original rom com leading man, Casanova!

Following smash-hot fringe favourites ‘The Bakers’ (Fringe World Comedy Weekly Award Winner 2020), Scotland! (★★★★★ Fringefeed), Attenborough and his Animals (★★★★★ Adelaide Advertiser), and Strictly Barking (Fringe World Children’s Event Award Overall Winner 2023), Jon Tilley won the Prague Fringe Comedy Award for his first solo show ‘Old Man’. Now he’s back with his new creation.

‘Casanova’ was created by Jon Tilley, with creative input from Norwegian clown Peder Skjemstad and British dramaturg and performer Caitlin Campbell, with support from the Astronef Theatre Marseille and Theatre de la Noue Montreuil. The show toured to Australia in early 2026, and then to finland where it won the Finfringe Baltic Nordic Fringe Network Award.

“It is evident immediately that Tilley is a master clown” ★★★★ Binge Fringe

It’s Curtains

20 - 22 November

Absurdist physical comedy about curtains, performed by curtains – “the ideal clowning experience” (Chortle).

A part of Voila! Festival

Everything starts and ends with curtains.

Formidably stupid, physical comedy from Gaulier-trained clown couple Julie Nesher (Offie-Nominated) and Tom Curzon (Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality). ‘It’s Curtains’ is an absurd visual spectacle inspired by curtains, about curtains, performed by curtains. You will not leave the show uncertain about what was in the show because the material is consistently 100% curtains and may be understood by anyone who has ever touched a curtain or curtains.

Ridiculous, brave and important theatre which dares to ask what others avoid asking. Should we be making shows about curtains?

“Wonderfully surreal” – Reviewshub

“Simple, wonderful visual gags… with the animate personality of the Pixar lamp… the ideal clowning experience” – Chortle

Devised and Performed by Julie Nesher and Tom Curzon

BE

24 - 25 November

A funny, messy look at ambition, love, family and the gap between who we think we are and how everyone else sees us.

Following Hope and Believe, BE is a new hour of short plays about ambition, love, family, ego and the gap between who we think we are and how everyone else sees us. Among them, two actors prepare for the biggest opportunity of their careers after years of auditions, rejections and undying optimism. Siblings try to find the right words to say goodbye to their father. A married couple who built an online following around being #CoupleGoals spend the day filming anniversary content for the people who know them best. BE is about all the strange ways we measure ourselves. Some people are trying to prove something to the world. Others are trying to prove it to themselves.

There will, however, be bad acting, social-media oversharing and at least a few jokes that probably should have been cut in rehearsal.

Embers

27 November

A glowing acting ensemble will perform extracts of original new plays that will warm, or ignite, your late Autumn.

Join us for an intimate, cosy night of new theatrical work under incubation. This showcase features three distinct voices bringing different genres and perspectives to the stage. As our nights draw in, experience the new work of Martin Keady, Nirjay Mahindru, and Tamsin Irwin—an evening that offers warmth, nourishment, and wit. Don’t miss this exclusive first look at these new stories in the making.

METRONOME

By Nirjay Mahindru

FAKESPEARE

(or The Man Who Pretended

To Be Shakespeare)

A Play by Martin Keady

Based on a Remarkable True Story

VROOM

By Tamsin Irwin

A Christmas Carol II

28 & 29 November

It’s Christmas Carol meets Die Hard – can Scrooge save Christmas..?

You’ve seen A Christmas Carol! And if not, where have you been for the last 183 years? But did you know about its long-lost sequel? Hidden in a discarded desk, gathering dust all this time. It has finally been discovered!

Now, have you seen Die Hard? And you agree it’s a Christmas film? Brilliant! But did you know, Die Hard is actually a rip off of the planned Dickens sequel?

That’s right! It’s Christmas Carol meets Die Hard, meets the budget of Fringe theatre!

Christmas Carol 2!

One year on from the events of the original, Ebenezer Scrooge has given away to every charitable cause he could find. Unfortunately, he’s now penniless.

In a desperate attempt not to fall back into his miserable ways of old, he tries to rekindle his relationship with his ex-wife, Belle, at the Fezziwig Plaza Christmas Party. But his plans are put in jeopardy by the arrival of some very Christmassy terrorists.

Can Ebenezer defeat the terrorists, win back his beloved and actually make a legacy sequel work?

Featuring all the beloved characters from the original, and a few new ones to boot, come and join us at the Canal Café Theatre on the 28th and 29th November.

Stag Night

3 - 5 December

A musical retelling of hunting stories from Ovid’s Metamorphoses set in a post-apocalyptic military hellscape.

We will give you a seat. We will give you a torch. What you see is up to you.

For one week only, step into a pitch-black Canal Café Theatre for a brand new musical theatre experience.

Loosely based on the hunting myths from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, this new rock musical transports audiences to a violent post-apocalyptic society. Social cohesion is paramount, but as human insecurity infests an elite military camp, a peculiar love quadrangle emerges and conventions unravel.

Same Shift Different Day

6 - 8 December

A scintillatingly silly comedy about two girls struggling to hold down a job.

Joanne and Clare work together and despite trying Joanne’s best, things always go awry. How many jobs will they rattle through until one sticks?

Written and performed by Marina Johnson and Kathryn Pridgeon, one part NewsRevue alumni and one part Welsh person, this show is a laugh a minute.

“Absolutely incredible!”

“I got a real Catherine Tate feel from this.”

“Hilarious physical comedy and comedic timing.”

Christmas Cabaret

11 & 12 December

Get into the holiday spirit with PTC’s rip-roaring, joyfully festive Christmas Cabaret!

Join Pulchritude Theatre Company for their first annual Christmas Cabaret!

This rip-roaring, joyfully festive show will be delightful for all (recommended 12+)! Audiences can expect to be dazzled with Christmas songs, silly sketches, classic Christmas stories, and a whole barrel of fun.

In this season of giving, all profits from this show will be donated to The Brain Charity. The Brain Charity, based in Liverpool, seeks to support the 1 in 6 individuals in the UK who live with a neurological condition to lead longer, healthier, happier lives. They offer coffee mornings, creative groups and a rehab gym for those local to Liverpool. They provide counselling, support, and information to individuals and their carers/families navigating a new neurological condition diagnosis all over the UK.

For Sale: 2096

13 December

Set in a dystopian 2096, a desperate circus troupe is forced to host a Grand Housing Auction to win a home of their own

What is the true price of a home, and who actually gets to live in it?
Presented by the Wandering Artist Collective, FOR SALE: 2096 is a dark, immersive theatrical satire that tackles the modern crisis of gentrification, displacement, and algorithmic control through the lens of a retro-futuristic dystopian circus.

The year is 2096. Artists work five jobs just to survive, rents soar to impossible heights, and real estate is auctioned off to the highest corporate bidder. Promised a real home by the state if they can pull off the ultimate show, a ragtag circus troupe—including the trickster Gemini twins Luce and Lil, a crumbling Ringmaster, a muscle-bound acrobat, and a glitching AI prophetess and more—takes to the stage. As digital surveillance deepens and system pressures escalate, the performers must navigate performative corporate promises while fighting to maintain their grip on stability.

Combining the physical energy of Meyerhold’s biomechanics with the eerie tone of a Lynchian cabaret, FOR SALE holds up a theatrical mirror to systemic exploitation, asking: in a world where everything is commodified, how do we reclaim our humanity?



WILL & NOAH: DINNER DINNER CHICKEN WINNER

18 December

Fresh from being crowned ‘Best Sketch Act’ at SketchFest 2026, Will & Noah invite crowds – losers welcome – to join them for an hour in which they will celebrate life’s unsung heroes and zeroes.

BEST SKETCH ACT – Sketchfest 2026 (Canal Café Theatre and Hen & Chickens)

Wanna feel like a winner for one hour of your miserable, worthless life? Join perennial losers Will and Noah for sketches, songs and a gazillion trophies in this award-winning show* (*show about winning awards)! Under our roof, all winners are created equal: U13s player of the season, app of the year, soup of the day, oldest man, Nobel pizza prize, Sunday best, Monday worst, longest time survived in lion cage (our money’s on the lion) and many more…