North Wall Arts Centre

Helen, Alan and Graham are told they are impaired and need fixing. Connected through a shared past, they are transported to one pivotal moment in 1880 when a dangerous ideology was born: one that would impair the way the world views Deaf people for over a century. Extraordinary Wall is a bilingual performance in English and BSL where Ad Infinitum combine the company’s signature style of physical storytelling with the beauty of British Sign Language in an unmissable feast for the senses. Age…

A classic murder mystery is created on the spot in this ingenious and hilarious show from Bristol Improv Theatre’s resident company. You become Agatha Christie in this improvised comedy as each night an original murder mystery play is created based entirely on audience suggestions. So take up your magnifying glasses and don your deerstalkers for a never-seen-before (and never-to-be-seen-again) evening of murder, mayhem and making it up on the spot. Miss Crimson poisoned in the parlour? Mr Gold exploded by…

A music theatre show combining an incredible true family history with cabaret and humour. Miriam and her granddad are making a cabaret together. They’re the perfect double act: He’s got the stories, she loves telling them, and they both have a flair for the theatrical. The only problem is – they’ve never met. And he’s been dead for 39 years. Rendezvous in Bratislava combines new music, a four-piece British Slovak band, comedy, cabaret and original 1940s photographs and recordings to share…

With fans ranging from Emma Watson, Pink and Benjamin Zephaniah, Ted Hughes Award winner Hollie McNish is a poet whose readings are not to be missed. She has garnered millions of YouTube views for her online poetry readings and was the first poet to record at London’s famed Abbey Road Studios. Here, she will join us to read from and chat about her latest poetry collections. Expect strong language. Hollie McNish is a poet based between Cambridge and Glasgow. She…

Colin Jones (b.1936) is one of Britain’s most significant photojournalists but he began his creative career dancing with The Royal Ballet. This dancer-turned-photographer focused his lens on fellow dancers as his subject matter, capturing hardworking bodies and backstage drama. Jones’ backstage ballet photographs show not just the emotional intensity and beauty of ballet but also reveal the sustained physical exertion and discipline of a dancer’s life. Photographs from the 1960s include Britain’s iconic ballerina, Margot Fonteyn and the Soviet-born Rudolf…

Playing ON presents a two-day festival exploring mental health and the arts. Events include masterclasses, pre- & post-show workshops, and panel discussions. Headlining the festival is Philip Osment’s poetic and uplifting final play Can I Help You? Full programme to be announced on the website in January. Can I Help You? An off-duty policeman is about to throw himself off Beachy Head when he is met by a woman carrying a laundry bag and a cat box. Over the course of…

Hello, we’re Ell and Mary. We’re best friends and ex-girlfriends and we’re bored of playing it cool. So this is a show about what gets you hot. We asked women and trans people aged 11 to 97 what makes them flush, rub and gush. We made a sweaty verbatim dance party out of their answers. After selling out London’s Soho Theatre, HOTTER is launching arse-first in your direction. Blushing already? Age guidance: 16+

Chloe lives in a world with only one colour, a world that is completely grey. But at night, when she’s wrapped up tight, her dreams are colourful and bright. Unable to contain her imaginative thoughts, Chloe tells of the vast blue seas, lush green jungly-trees and golden yellow sands she’s seen. But, hushed at once by her parents, Chloe is warned to keep such thoughts at bay – for the Grey Queen is out to wash all trace of colour…

An outrageous play about imperialism, cross-racial adoption, cultural appropriation…and tea. Brighton, 1862. A day in the life of Sarah, an African girl, adopted by Queen Victoria and raised in the Queen’s circles. Today is the eve of her having to return to Africa but will she go? The present. A day in the life of Sarah, a black middle-class woman staying in a Cheshire village with her husband and small child. They are paid a visit by well-meaning neighbours who have…

“Why should I continue to be tolerant? When the world has been so intolerant of me.” Amnesty International Freedom of Expression & Fringe First Award-winning production Trojan Horse explores a local story that hit the national press, accusing ‘hardline’ Muslim teachers and governors of plotting extremism in Birmingham schools. Adapted from the real-life testimonies of those at the heart of the UK Government’s inquiry, critically-acclaimed theatre company LUNG investigate what really happened. Originally developed with Leeds Playhouse, Trojan Horse is the story of a…

Suzi Ruffell has made a name for herself by turning tragedy and anxiety into big laughs. This year she is actually happy. This show answers the question: are all stand-ups at their best when they are miserable? Fingers crossed no! A mix of storytelling, observations, a dash of social politics and a lovely routine about a smear test. This show has everything. The last twelve months have been massive for Ruffell: a smash hit UK tour, heaps of television appearances including Live At The…

A feel-good family show mixing Kathak, hip hop, contemporary and street dance, with live music and physical storytelling, to create a playful and colourful world exploring curiosities and fears, the times we feel different and when we belong. Inspired by the well-known Anglo-Asian phrase ‘same, same but different’, meaning “Yes, something kind of similar, but not the exact same thing”, the three dancer-musicians conjure a magical atmosphere celebrating individuality, diversity and the bonds which connect us all. Award-winning Sonia Sabri…

Dispatches on the Red Dress is an intimate and courageous new show by twice BBC Radio 2 Folk Award-winning songwriter Rowan Rheingans. Adventurous new writing meets the warmth of a folk gig in this heartfelt and personal one-woman show, uniquely weaving immersive storytelling with live fiddle, banjo and original songs taken from Rowan’s brand new genre-melding debut solo album The Lines We Draw Together. Unravelling the joy and pain from a story of her grandmother’s youth in 1940’s Germany, Rowan celebrates small…

Jess Thom has Tourettes, a condition that means she makes movements and noises she can’t control, called tics. Following award-winning Backstage In Biscuit Land, she takes on Samuel Beckett’s short play in a theatrical experience that explores neurodiversity and asks who is allowed to perform what and who gets the final say. Access Note All performances are BSL integrated and Relaxed. This means that if you tic, shout or move about, you’re more than welcome. And the great thing is, everyone…

This is a special year for the Society of Wood Engravers as they celebrate their Centenary. It was founded in 1920 by artists including Eric Gill, Gwen Raverat, Robert Gibbings, Philip Hagreen and Lucien Pissarro. A break during the war years and then again in the 1970s meant that their annual exhibition ceased for a time, making this their 82nd show. Since their revival in 1984, they have built a reputation for excellence, attracting exhibitors and collectors from around the…

When a shipment containing a highly protected SYPHER CORP suit goes missing in space, it’s up to John Hawk and a team of space marines to collect the asset, transport it across the Galaxy, and uncover what happened to the shipmates of Mama Bear. Following this smash-hit success of WOLF and BOAR, ArtsLab alumnus Lewis Doherty returns with a work-in-progress performance of HAWK, the third and final instalment of the BEAST TRILOGY. Age guidance: 14+

Multi award-winning comedian Simon Munnery reprises his notorious alter ego, the bedsit anarchist Alan Parker Urban Warrior. Once the most radical, now the only radical, Alan returns with the old gold, the old truths, and some new truths (based on the old truths). For over 35 years, Munnery has performed around the world, experimenting with and innovating the stand-up form. In the 1990s, his Alan Parker: Urban Warrior character took the comedy circuit by storm, garnering Munnery his own BBC…

One night, Arthur has an amazing dream about a beautiful pink and green boat with a stripy mast. He can’t wait to tell everyone about it but no one (not even his dog!) is interested. In fact, they don’t even notice that this very same boat is growing on his head, getting larger and larger by the minute! Soon, Arthur is bouncing along the waves in his very own dream boat. Maybe now his family will listen to him! A magical…

Multi-award-winning singer, songwriter and musician Eliza Carthy is one of the most recognisable faces of the English folk revival. This concert features music from Restitute, her first solo album of traditional music in 14 years, originally recorded at Eliza’s home in the picturesque Robin Hood’s Bay, North Yorkshire. The band comprises Eliza Carthy, Ben Seal, Ben Somers, Willy Molleson and David Delarre – with support slot and special guest appearance from Saul Rose. In addition to material from Restitute, the band will perform songs from brand new recordings of original songs by Eliza Carthy & Ben Seal…

Find yourself right in the middle of an immersive world, from ancient rite to banging club. What has changed in 4,000 years of dance culture? It’s May Day 1988, the Second Summer of Love. Martin Green (fearless inventor and accordion player in esteemed folk trio Lau)  is nine years old and morris dancing at dawn while the ravers are still going in the next field. What’s the difference? What’s the same? Martin Green leads us through a mind-altering, bespoke audience…

In 1940, at the beginning of the Second World War, Stalin’s troops invaded eastern Poland. A million Polish people were forced from their homes at gunpoint and sent to labour camps in Siberia. Diana Forster’s mother and grandparents were among them. Diana avoids showing traumatic, disturbing images in her installations and prints as they can turn viewers away. If we accept a role for art in presenting subsequent generations with the realities of war, we have to find new ways…

A violinist. Living in her trendy canal-side Amsterdam apartment. Nine months pregnant. One day a mysterious unpaid gas bill from 1944 arrives. It awakens unsettling feelings of collective identity, foreignness and alienation. Stories of a devastating past are compellingly reconstructed to try and make sense of the present. Amsterdam is the UK premiere of a strikingly original and audacious play by award-winning Israeli playwright Maya Arad Yasur. Age guidance: 14+

Mark uses his trademark style of storytelling, stand-up, subversion and really, really, well researched material to try and find out how the hell we ended up in the middle of this shit show. 50 Things About Us is a show about songs, gongs, loot, tradition, wigs, nicking, statues, art and identity. A sort of funny national edition of Who Do You Think You Are? Mark says, “Look, I have been doing this for 34 years. I have gone from stand-up to theatre…

Three thieves break into the same gallery on the same night. They’re all intent on stealing the same Extremely Valuable Painting. They’re bound to meet and it’s bound to get messy. Join our thieves as they discover what makes art Extremely Valuable and what Extremely Valuable really means. An existential comedy caper about the power of frames and the absurdity of labels. From the team behind multi-award-winning Lights Over Tesco Car Park. Age guidance: 12+

The North Wall celebrates Oxfordshire Art Weeks throughout May with a wonderful exhibition of paintings by Elaine Kazimierzcuk. Since establishing a studio in Oxford in 2016, Elaine Kazimierczuk has rapidly won admiration for her original landscape paintings. Whether she’s painting an English cottage garden, a Tuscany hillside or a palace in Marrakech, her unique style is both inventive and arousing, revealing a strong emotional response to the environment. She combines elements of landscape with painterly abstraction, interweaving direct observation with remembered places…

Acclaimed harmonica and melodeon player Will Pound is embarking on a musical journey across the states of the European Union, to discover and unveil the diversity and common ground of their traditional music and song. From the lively Swedish polska to the upbeat Italian tarantella, the lilt of the Irish jig, to buoyant French bourées, relentless rachenistas from Bulgaria and the rip-roaring Spanish jota – these tunes have travelled, evolved and merged as Europeans have enjoyed freedom of movement and expression, a…

After performing to a sold-out audience at The North Wall last year with The Unfinished Violin, Sam Sweeney returns with music from his highly anticipated second solo album. Performing with three of his favourite musicians, this concert will capture the swagger and groove of traditional English music with the huge sound, flare, energy and festival spirit of bands coming out of the Celtic and Scandinavian music scenes. Sam is a veteran of the mighty Bellowhead, former artistic director of the National…