Join the YouthLab youth theatre to develop skills in drama, discover an artistic style and be the creator of your own work. We will spend the autumn term developing skills in performance, we will spend the spring term devising a show and we will spend the summer term rehearsing for a Summer Showcase at The North Wall.

YouthLab: Weekly Drama (Kidlington)

St John’s Church, Waterloo

Join the NW Inventors youth theatre to make new friends, build confidence and develop skills in drama. We will spend the autumn term developing skills in performance, we will spend the spring term devising a show and we will spend the summer term rehearsing for a Summer Showcase at The North Wall.

NW Inventors: Weekly Drama (Kidlington)

Grammy nominated, post-punk pioneers The Tiger Lillies present a new show on a theme which has always run through their work – the meaninglessness and absurdity of existence. Brimming with wit, wisdom and humanity they argue that our achievements will come to nothing – like throwing stones into a pond, the effects of our actions will ripple away into nothingness.

The Tiger Lillies: Come On Down (The Nihilism Tour)

The North Wall

Join Designer Sam Wilde and Director Ian Nicholson (I Want My Hat Back Trilogy) on their next cardboard adventure. Using their trademark sustainable cardboard puppet style explore BOXVILLE, a land made entirely from sustainable cardboard!

Boxville

Cutteslowe Park

Where ancient singing traditions and electronic music meet, çhâñt élečtrónïqùe is an international collective of traditional singers, electronic musicians and producers. The seven artists from France, Portugal, Ireland, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina formed in 2019 with the idea of exploring musical traditions from their home countries and electronic compositions. Creating intriguingly hypnotic music that feels at once familiar and at the same time delightfully and comfortingly otherworldly, the group released their debut album, çhâñt élečtrónïqùe vol. 1 on London-based independent label Rika Muzika, to great acclaim in 2020. They are currently in the process of recording a hotly anticipated second album due to be released later this year.

çhâñt élečtrónïqùe

Found Stories, Found Theatre is a theatre-making and story-telling workshop. During this 2-hour workshop, participants will explore archival stories and hidden histories through devising and physical theatre methods. The stimulus for the creation session will be an archive library: a set of archive packs created by writer and historian Lily Sheldon. Each archive pack will spotlight a historical LGBTQ+ figure with a connection to Oxfordshire.

YouthLab: Found Stories, Found Theatre Workshop

Join us this summer for three days of exploring how to use your voice as an actor, where to add the inflections and change the tempo as well as an introduction to accents and how to use these to add depth to a character.

YouthLab: Voice and Accents

Join us this summer for three days of exploring how to think on the spot, expect the unexpected and develop skills in improvisation. Expect lots of laughs, playful moments and heaps of fun.

NW Inventors: Improvisation

This workshop is for anyone who loves playing games and creating, and sharing, stories. Come along, have fun and try out some new skills along the way! We aim to create a welcoming and inclusive space for all young people to flourish and work alongside industry professionals.

NW Inventors: Drama Workshop (Kidlington)

Rosie and Hugh the Hedgehog are best friends. They want it to be the last day of the summer holidays forever.

Impossible? Not if they can find the Witch, who lives in the middle of the forest with her pet dragon.

Rosie & Hugh’s Great Big Adventure

Alchymy is The North Wall’s annual new work festival shining a light on the talents of early-career theatre-makers and presenting bold new work.

The festival features fantastic work made by ArtsLab alumni and North Wall Creative Associates. Join us for entertainment, connections, and conversations – a day exploding with inspiring performances, panel discussions and workshops.

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Alchymy 2024

Lewis Arts Complex

The combined vocal and multi-instrumental talents of Rowan Rheingans, Hazel Askew and Hannah James make up the uniquely captivating band Lady Maisery who have for well over a decade enraptured audiences throughout the UK and Europe.

Individually three multi award-winning artists, Lady Maisery form a unified voice, carrying stories of sisterhood, human struggle, the joy of living and the vitality of song with the “freshest possible take on traditional music” (Folk Radio UK). Their long-standing effervescent collaboration has been described as “adventurous and beautiful” (Mark Radcliffe, Radio 2) “exquisite and thrilling” (The Guardian) with “a generosity of spirit and joie de vivre that seems to emanate from every minute of their recorded output as well as from their exuberant live shows” (Folk Radio UK).

Lady Maisery

Inspired by the touching children’s story The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde, Bristol’s two leading family theatre experts are combining forces to explore an unusual friendship, and how even the grumpiest giant’s heart can melt when Spring finally comes.

The Selfish Giant

Three teenage girls forge an unlikely friendship. They challenge each other with Tik Toks, beat-boxing, rap and dance routines… They just want to build their social media empire, or study astronomy, or become as good a rapper as Megan Thee Stallion. But they undergo a political awakening when they realise that what you say – even what you think – is viewed very differently depending on who you are.

Liberation Squares

If there is one musician who embodies the dynamism and vitality of the current English folk revival, it’s Eliza Carthy MBE.

As the daughter of folk legends Martin Carthy & Norma Waterson, Eliza grew up immersed in the world of traditional music and from an early age was championed by John Peel, Andy Kershaw and Billy Bragg.

Eliza Carthy

Forensic anthropology and physical theatre collide in REWIND, a compelling, kaleidoscopic show inspired by Latin American refugee stories.

Premiering at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe to critical acclaim and multiple awards, REWIND is a visually stunning, deeply powerful new show, inspired by testimonies of Latin American refugees and migrants across generations.

Rewind

Join us this Easter for Dogs Don’t Do Ballet, a critically-acclaimed puppetry show for families, based on the well-loved book by Anna Kemp, with illustrations by Sara Ogilvie.

Biff is not like ordinary dogs. He likes moonlight. And music. And walking on his tiptoes. You see, Biff doesn’t think he’s a dog, Biff thinks he’s a ballerina…

Dogs Don’t Do Ballet

This three-day in-person workshop runs from 9am-12pm each day in the Drama Studio at The North Wall. Participants must book for the full three days.

Our experienced workshop facilitators are DBS checked and there is always a first aider and fire marshal in The North Wall 

NW Inventors: Clowning

In an age of retail therapy, climate crisis and click and collect – how does our ‘stuff’ define us? And have we reached peak stuff?

Award-winning theatre company ThickSkin have teamed up with the writing talents of Billie Collins (Too Much World At Once) to produce one of the most visually thrilling and inventive shows you will see this year.

Peak Stuff

Take your little ones on a magical journey with Skydiver and experience how movement, sound and stunning visuals bring whimsical characters to life in an enchanting encounter in the skies.

Skydiver

The glasses are polished, the lights are low, and time will be hopping.

The Bar at the Edge of Time waits only for you, so what are you waiting for?

Leave the hours, minutes, and seconds behind, step across the threshold and meet the bar’s maestro mixologists, crooners, and hosts. But a mystery lies at the heart of this place, a mystery hidden even from them. One that can only be solved when we spend our time together.

The Bar at the Edge of Time

LORE is the new production from award-winning dance company James Wilton Dance. It’s a folklore-inspired journey into a pagan world of gods, demons and humans, all embodied through otherworldly athleticism.

LORE is about connection to nature, making you feel the energy that flows from the ground, through our bodies and back into the earth.

The specially-composed soundtrack by Michal Wojtas, who draws influence from Viking, Celtic and Slavic folk music, is like listening to the tales our ancestors told while sat in a clearing in the woods, and hearing the ancient stories that bind humanity together.

LORE

A variation of Amina Khayyam Dance Company’s critically-acclaimed production ONE, this new piece uses high energy Kathak featuring the cyclic phenomenon of south Asian classical arts and philosophy – where there is no beginning or end, incorporating Nritta (pure dance) and Nritya (expression of narrative), to capture the first beat of that cyclic time and nest it until it becomes the ‘one’ again – to tell the experiences of migrants maligned with generalisation and stereotype.

Story of One, Story of Many

The effect of being told you’re loved is very powerful. But what happens when that love becomes an invisible threat?

Ruckus

Nick Cope has been writing and recording his beautiful and totally unique songs for children and their families for over 10 years, he performs with his guitar and animations to sell-out crowds all over the country. He has an incredible fan base from all over the UK which has just grown immeasurably over the last year due to the phenomenal success of his CBeebies show Nick Cope’s Popcast, now into its third series.

Nick Cope’s Family Show

A unique opportunity to explore the fast-growing dance form Kathak with the award-winning Amina Khayyam Dance Company.

YouthLab: Dance Masterclass

‘Queen of the Fringe’ (BBC) premieres her new show, a rare intimate evening of dark and light songs, including Bowie, Cohen, Pulp, Radiohead and Rufus Wainwright.

Chameleon like, Camille O’Sullivan’s five-star sell-out performances include Sydney Opera House, Royal Festival Hall, La Clique, Roundhouse, Later with Jools Holland and a Herald Angel award for RSC solo performance Lucrece.

Camille O’Sullivan: Dreaming

Come and join cellist/singer & founder of the award-winning Tots Tunes – Tara Franks and band at this interactive family gig.

The Tots Tunes family band brings together a collective of top-class musicians from the global folk/jazz scene to perform exciting expanded arrangements of the Tots Tunes repertoire of world, folk and new music to an audience of all ages (babes in arms upwards). Expect some singing along and dance moves for all!

Tots Tunes Family Band

A group for home educated people and young people not in education or employment, working towards their Gold Arts Award.

Open to young people aged between 13 – 18 with an interest in developing skills in theatre and performance or visual arts. This could include playwriting, directing, acting, painting, illustration and more. Participants will work to develop skills in their chosen art form, create an Arts Award portfolio and deliver a public performance or sharing.

YouthLab: Young Creative Makers

This Christmas, Creation Theatre return to The North Wall with their usual brand of joyful, anarchic, heartwarming festive theatre. Creation’s Rep Company will present a new spin on their 2017 production of A Christmas Carol, complete with suitably grim Victorians, a Fezziwig party you’ll never forget and, at its heart, the most christmassy tale of redemption around. We can’t wait!

A Christmas Carol

Wes Anderson meets Hitchcock meets Spaghetti Western in this multi-awardwinning, fast-paced whodunnit.

Roger, a Frenchman in 1960’s New York, has followed the same predictable routine for years, until a minor delay saves him from an explosion. Throwing his ordered world into chaos, Roger chases his would-be assassins around the globe.

The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much

Securely ranked among Scotland’s most skilled and imaginative contemporary folk acts, Breabach unite deep roots in Highland and Island tradition with the innovative musical ferment of their Glasgow base.

Breabach are: Megan Henderson (Fiddle, Vocals, Step Dance), James Lindsay (Double Bass, Vocals), Calum MacCrimmon (Bagpipes, Whistle, Bouzouki, Vocals), Conal McDonagh (Bagpipes, Whistle, Vocals) and Ewan Robertson (Guitar, Vocals, Cajon).

Breabach

Three men at Woodhill prison are dead. The families demand answers. This is a call to arms about the crisis facing prisons.

Gut-punching choreography and unflinching beats shine a light on the hidden story of HMP Woodhill. Lyrically told in their own words, three families investigate what happened to their boys. What they discover is so haunting, it turns their world upside down.

Woodhill

Leveret is a unique collaboration between three of England’s finest folk musicians.  Andy Cutting (button accordion), Sam Sweeney (fiddle) and Rob Harbron (concertina) are each regarded as exceptional performers and masters of their instruments.  Together their performances combine consummate musicianship, compelling delivery and captivating spontaneity.  Leveret’s music is not arranged in the conventional sense and the trio rely on mutual trust and musical interaction to create new settings of their repertoire in the moment, with no two performances alike.

Leveret

Welcome to Sparkle, a gentle, interactive performance and creative play session for babies and young children by Alison McGowan of PuppetShip and visual artist Tanya Axford.

Sparkle

Best friends Mohsen and Kash are gearing up for the biggest night of their lives – Jess Denver’s pool party. There’s just one problem…they can’t swim.

Fuelled by halal Haribo and chicken wings, the pair throw themselves in at the deep end, tackling cramped cubicles and cold showers as they learn how to be at one with the water.

Brown Boys Swim

Woodhill (Preview)

Ever thought of stealing someone’s ashes? Neither had Millie. Now she’s barrelling down the M6 in a Fiat Punto with three accomplices, forty five packets of crisps and a large decorative urn.

Four Felons and a Funeral

Shakespeare’s romantic comedy of mistaken identity is both hilarious and heart-breaking.  

Twins Viola and Sebastian are separated in a shipwreck on a strange shore. Oblivious to whether her brother has survived Viola sets out to explore this new land and is caught up in a heady confusion of misplaced passion and unrequited love.  

Twelfth Night

Bark Bark is a high-tech two-hander about the lifespan of a relationship from the perspective of a dog. The play follows Laika, an award-winning agility dog, and her reluctant new owners Peter and Laura. When Laika freezes on the spot one hour before her final run, Peter and Laura scramble for a solution.   

Bark Bark

Rom-coms and pop songs collide in a musical rollercoaster charting the highs and lows of identity politics, romantic clichés and open-mic nights.

Alex is singing – Stevie is watching. The songs tell us their story. Will they fall in love “properly” – as seen in Richard Curtis’ 2003 mega-smash Love Actually? Or is that just for straight people?

Actually, Love (Work-in-Progress)

Henrietta Lacks is one of most remarkable people in medical history. Her cells form the basis of the most important medical research and breakthroughs happening today, from cancer to HIV to COVID.

Family Tree

Margaret is a pillar of her local community. Norson is a brilliant cook. He loves cricket and fishing. She loves singing and her lavender plants. They’re both surrounded by loving families. Their lives are full… So what happens when you lose your independence, your voice, your mind – the essence of what makes you, you?

If You Fall

Fortunately renowned singer Fay Hield has agreed to step in and will perform a duo show with Rob Harbron. Fay and Rob have worked together for many years – in Fay’s trio, in her band the Hurricane Party and in the BBC Folk Award-winning project The Full English.  Alongside traditional material Fay will perform songs from her album Wrackline which explores ideas of the spaces between, telling stories of ghosts, fairies, spirits and talking animals and drawing parallels with the modern world.  Along with Rob’s multi-instrumental accompaniments and transporting instrumentals this will be a special evening which we hope you’ll join us for.

Emily Portman & Rob Harbron

Using Max Richter’s recomposed version of Vivaldi’s seminal work The Four Seasons, James Wilton Dance has created a work of immense physicality, driving energy and sweeping beauty.

The work features the company’s signature blend of capoeira, acrobatics, martial arts and classical dance, alongside stunning stage and costume designs. This abstract, yet honestly human choreography relates each of the four seasons 

The Four Seasons

Sex with friends and other tiny catastrophes. Told over 18 months, Smart Casual is a brand new musical that follows six inseparable friends as they fall in love, and fall apart.

MEL has got to get a job, MARC doesn’t believe in love, WILLOW is addicted to yoga, BEN would wear a hoodie to the opera, LILY has emotional problems and JORDAN might have herpes.

Smart Casual

Too often, relaxed performances involve simply turning down the sound and raising the lights in the auditorium. However, there are far better ways to engage our diverse audiences.

The UK Pantomime Association Trustees invite you to our sharing of good practice event with panelists, including Chris Jarvis (CBeebies presenter, Pantomime Director, Performer, and Writer), Annie Bannister (Freelance Access Consultant), and Dr Chris Abbott (Emeritus Reader in Assistive Technologies, Project leader supporting young people with disabilities), for a discussion and debate on making relaxed and accessible performances as inclusive as possible.

Relaxed and Accessible Pantomime Performance Panel

This multi-sensory, interactive workshop ignites the imagination and curiosity of the babies who are in the space with the performers. The babies will be able to play with their adults and the performers whilst also exploring some unique sensory props and toys, including laying in the aerial sling. There will be moments for grownups to play and engage with their babies, guided by our two highly experienced facilitators.

Take Flight Workshops

This is the story of a young girl named Anna Hibiscus. Anna lives in amazing Africa. Ibadan, Nigeria to be exact.

Anna Hibiscus is so filled with happiness that she feels like she might float away. And the more she talks to her family about it, the more her happiness grows! There’s only one thing to do…sing!

Anna Hibiscus’ Song

This is the story of a young girl named Anna Hibiscus. Anna lives in amazing Africa. Ibadan, Nigeria to be exact.

Anna Hibiscus is so filled with happiness that she feels like she might float away. And the more she talks to her family about it, the more her happiness grows! There’s only one thing to do…sing!


Anna Hibiscus' Song

Join in too. You can can chalk pictures, chalk and play games, chalk and sing songs, chalk and be silly, chalk and chat, ask Jane to chalk your favourite picture – or just watch the colourful magic as the chalking takes place!

Chalk Party With Jane Gallagher

This inclusive storytelling session will take you and your family to the depths of the sea and bring the underwater world to life through the senses. Recommended for sensory seeking individuals, this accessible workshop will encourage play, imagination and a lot of fun. If you’re lucky, you may even bump into a sea creature or two.

Under the Sea

Always unafraid to call out injustice, now her life hangs in the balance, targeted by the very factions she spoke out so bravely against. As she fights for her life in a UK hospital far from her homestead in Zimbabwe, her cause is taken up by her grand-daughter Zahra, desperate to find out what happened to her beloved Gogo.

Seed Guardians

Four Felons and a Funeral follows four dysfunctional friends on a road trip to scatter their mate’s ashes. En-route, they experience the five essential stages of grief: screaming, shouting, fighting, fainting and fleeing from justice.

Four times nominated in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and double winners of the Spiral Earth Awards, MEGSON create a truly unique brand of folk music.

Combining an infectious mix of heavenly vocals, lush harmonies and driving rhythmic guitars, MEGSON have gained a reputation not only for their arresting & intelligent songwriting, but also for their exquisite musicianship and northern humour.

Megson

M6 Theatre presents a fantastical production by the award-winning playwright Mike Kenny. Based on the extraordinary story of Fenella, the Holmfirth Tiger, A Tiger’s Tale is a high-spirited balancing act of circus, puppetry, live music and song.

A Tiger’s Tale

Join us this half term for a collaborative workshop experience, combining storytelling, singing and songwriting to create a new composition together. Come along, have fun, and try out some new skills along the way!

YouthLab: Songwriting Masterclass

A journey through the vibrant swing scene of the 20s, 30s & 40s. Immerse yourself in the musical tales of Eloise DeFleur, brought to life by Airlie Scott and her talented band, with a swinging blend of French chanson, gypsy jazz, blues, and American songbook classics popular in Paris from the roaring twenties through occupation to Liberation at the end of the second world war. Relive the songs, the clubs, and atmosphere of Paris in the Jazz Age, through the eyes of Eloise DeFleur, as she sifts through the music, her love story and tales of her Parisian life.

Paris in a Jazz Age: The Memoirs of Eloise DeFleur

Europe’s major powers are at war and King Boris III must choose a side or be swept away. A raucous and poignant tale in which a bunch of underdogs use every trick in the book to outwit the Nazis and save nearly 50,000 Jewish lives.

The Brief Life & Mysterious Death of Boris III, King of Bulgaria

With exceptional musicianship and boundless energy, Granny’s Attic are going from strength to strength. Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne (melodeon, anglo concertina, vocals), George Sansome (guitar, vocals) and Lewis Wood (violin, vocals) have honed their skills touring the UK and Europe since 2009. They are much loved by audiences up and down the country, with bookings everywhere from Cambridge Folk Festival to Cecil Sharp House.

Granny's Attic

Granny’s Attic

Whoever makes up a story makes up a world, so you should always try and welcome people into the home of your story. That’s my suggestion.

Summer 2016. Britain has voted to leave the European Union, Elisabeth has returned home to the village she grew up in, and her elderly former next-door neighbour Daniel won’t wake up. New fences are going up, the library is closed, and her mother keeps talking about the latest antiques show on TV.

Autumn

In Progress 7 celebrates the fantastic work from St Edward’s pupils across all year groups. The exhibition will highlight the breadth of work produced from the Shells (Year 9), the SESC Art Pathway and GCSE Ceramics, the IB and A Level. In Progress 7 also gives a platform to showcase work produced on the Teddies Foundation Course, which provides Lower Sixth artists an opportunity to explore a range of media over a sixteen-week programme. Pupils are encouraged to choose a theme to centre their work on and teachers introduce pupils to a new technique fortnightly. In Progress 7 showcases the outcomes produced to date, approximately half-way through the course.

St Edward’s School: In Progress 7

Meet Grey. Our journey begins as Grey finds themself trapped inside a jar. They try to remember how they got there and how they could be free…

SeedHeart tells the important tale of human impact on the environment and questions what we can do to restore our once green planet, with interactive

SeedHeart

Nathaniel is a serious romantic who sees love as a fine art. He’s looking for the Mona Lisa to his da Vinci, and tonight is the night: his date with Destiny…’s Child.

Winner of the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2022, Nathan Queely-Dennis‘ debut play is a love letter to Birmingham, exploring Black masculinity through Beyonce lyrics, techno raves, and the deeply intimate relationship between a man and his barber.

Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz

We aim to create a welcoming and inclusive space for all young people to flourish and work alongside industry professionals.

NW Inventors: Lantern Making Workshop

Join us as we delve into the role of the director and explore how you can move work from page to stage. Expect a practical and fun workshop, participants will have the opportunity to act and direct in this workshop

YouthLab: Intro to Directing Workshop

This Christmas, Creation Theatre will be transforming The North Wall into an atmospheric winter wonderland full of magic, mystery, and misadventure.

Join Hansel, Grettel, and a host of bewitching characters and feathered friends as they serve up a musical menu of catchy songs, mystical spells, and just a touch of winter magic.

The North Wall Arts Centre

Sep 26, 2024