North Wall Arts Centre
The North Wall is an arts centre with a vibrant public programme of theatre, music, comedy, dance, talks, virtual & digital arts and family shows. The programme places an emphasis on new and innovative work, offering an alternative to the mainstream.
The venue is based on the campus of St. Edward’s School in the heart of Summertown. Built on the site of a listed disused Victorian swimming pool, the site was converted by leading architects Haworth Tompkins to combine the original building with modern architecture, winning several architectural awards. It opened in 2007.
The arts centre offers a 200-seat theatre space, drama and dance studios and a public art gallery. Exhibitions change every three weeks, with free admission.
The North Wall actively supports early-career artists through residencies, mentorship and festivals of new work. It also puts children, young people and families at the heart of its participation programme, forging long-term partnerships with local schools and community groups.
Family Activities
The North Wall Arts Centre offers children’s performances once a month, as well as family-friendly workshops alongside these shows.
Opening Hours
Box Office: from 30 mins before performance start.
Online ticket sales: 24 hours.
Pricing
Gallery: admission free
Performances: from £6 – £16
Address:
South Parade, SummertownOxford, Oxfordshire OX2 7JN United Kingdom
Events
October 2022
YouthLab: Weekly Drama Sessions
Join the YouthLab youth theatre to develop skills in drama, discover an artistic style and be the creator of your own work. Spend the autumn term developing skills in performance, the spring term devising a show and the summer term rehearsing for a Summer Showcase at The North Wall. For ages 12-17 Course fee: £210...
Find out more »Anna Dumitriu: Collateral Effects
How can art help us understand the complex world we are living in? The North Wall is proud to present a solo exhibition of new BioArt works by internationally renowned artist Anna Dumitriu, exploring synthetic biology, genomics, carbon capture, and infectious disease. Collateral Effects reveals unexpected twists in the story of our co-evolution with the microbial world through installations and sculptures created in the lab and the studio.
Find out more »Gary Delaney: Gary In Punderland
Get ready to dive into a rabbit hole of the best jokes in the world – star of Live At The Apollo and sell-out sensation Gary Delaney is back. One of the most sought-after joke writers in the country and longstanding Mock The Week special guest, Gary has been through the laughing glass and he’s ready to bring you a brand new show with hit after hit of the kind of one-liners only a master could craft. If you’re hunting…
Find out more »Folkatron Sessions
Folkatron Sessions is a fascinating band of talented, free-thinking musicians who bring their wide-ranging musical heritages to the fore in a ‘wondrous’ (BBC Music Introducing), ‘genre-bending’ (Folk Radio UK) experience. Its ‘unique soundscape and feel’ (Songlines Magazine) refracts strong traditional folk through contemporary electronic, jazz, ambient, sound art and progressive rock lenses into a glorious melting pot of music. This is experimental folk at its best; subtle, atmospheric, celebratory.
Find out more »Hot in Here
A protest. A theatre show. An energy-generating dance party. Hot in Here celebrates action taking place around the world for climate justice. Developed from conversations with climate activists across the globe, Hot in Here uses dance, real-life stories, spoken word, and music to share the action taking place internationally against climate injustice, and the UK’s place within it. The show is powered by the first energy-harvesting dancefloor in live theatre. Like the collective action needed to tackle the climate emergency,…
Find out more »Making Tracks Tour 2022
Making Tracks brings together exceptional emerging musicians from the UK and around the globe to showcase diverse music and initiate new collaborations. Re-launched in 2019 and now based around an annual residency and tour, the project is based around the idea that musical encounters have the power to reach across social, cultural and geographical divides, and foster a deeper appreciation of musical and cultural diversity. Making Tracks also believes that musicians are in a unique position to inspire reverence and…
Find out more »2065
The year is 2065; the people are stifled under an oppressive regime. We follow a group of rebels who live outside the system and believe things can change for the better. How can they remind people of a time when things were different? When they hoped not only to survive but to thrive? Can they bring music back to a city where it is needed more than ever? 2065 is a futuristic sensory extravaganza for audiences with profound and multiple…
Find out more »Frozen Light presents 2065
The year is 2065; the people are stifled under an oppressive regime. We follow a group of rebels who live outside the system and believe things can change for the better. How can they remind people of a time when things were different? When they hoped not only to survive but to thrive? Can they bring music back to a city where it is needed more than ever? 2065 is a futuristic sensory extravaganza for audiences with profound and multiple…
Find out more »Inspiring People: Jess Thom
Artist, writer, and activist Jess Thom is the co-founder of Touretteshero. Jess has Tourettes syndrome, a neurological condition that means she makes movements and noises she can’t control, called tics. Jess will be in conversation with a member of The North Wall team, discussing how she has turned her tics into art, making theatre accessible, and advocating for change. Our flagship Inspiring People series is a joint venture between The North Wall and our principal sponsor, St Edward’s School. We…
Find out more »The Naughty Fox
Snuggle up in a magical den with comfy creatures – Honk, Splash and TaWit TaWoo – as they teach The Naughty Fox a very important lesson: it’s better to share. Experience a world of puppetry, music, light projection and bubbly energy as our two storytellers bring household objects to life. The Naughty Fox is an immersive, multi-sensory journey of friendship and play for little ones and their grown-ups. All performances are relaxed and fully accessible with creative captioning. There will…
Find out more »NW Inventors: Spooky Storytelling
Join us this October half term to create spooky stories and thrilling drama. We will spend three days learning how to build tension in a story, create mysterious characters and give our audience a fright! We lead playful, energetic, and inclusive workshops with a strong commitment to having fun! This workshop will culminate in a sharing of work to family and friends. For ages 8-11 Full bursary places are available: email Abie Walton on waltona@thenorthwall.com by Fri 30 Sept 2022…
Find out more »YouthLab: Musical Theatre Masterclass
Have you ever wondered how a musical is created? Come along and join us this October for a week-long course where you’ll join a professional workshop process with theatre-makers, Jen Fletcher and Harry Blake, to develop new parts of a brand new musical: Mermaids. Mermaids is a warm-hearted comedy about a drama group in a remote Cornish Fishing Village. A feel-good show about teenage obsession, local politics, and our need for glitter in a world full of grey. The week…
Find out more »Jericho Comedy Live | October 2022
The well-loved, award-winning Jericho Comedy club presents a new series of ever inventive and ‘very funny’ (Daily Telegraph) comedy gigs. Recommended by the Sunday Times and featured on BBC Radio 4’s The Circuit celebrating the UK’s best independent comedy clubs, Jericho Comedy won the 2019 and 2020 Chortle Comedy Award as one of the top six comedy nights in the UK, and the best comedy night in the region.
Find out more »November 2022
Sian Gourlay: Falling
We are delighted to welcome Sian Gourlay back to The North Wall. Sian was one of the selected artists in Fourteen, The North Wall’s exhibition for Photo Oxford 2021. Sian recently graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a BA in Fine Art and for one week only we will be exhibiting her degree show piece Falling. Sian is a multi-disciplinary artist who explores human emotion and bodily physicality. The work re-thinks the traditions of painting, witnessing canvases in their collapsed…
Find out more »Beautiful Evil Things
What if there was another take on the Trojan War, an untold, breath-taking adventure you had never heard before? Enter Medusa. She was there. Monstrous gorgon? Snakes for hair? A turn-to-stone glare? Perhaps. But she was there – as a bodiless head strapped to the shield of a goddess. Her forever-open-eyes saw it all. Epic combat. Mighty swords. Giant horses sculptures filled with men. But as the war raged on, Medusa’s petrifying gaze focused on three extraordinary women who might…
Find out more »PUSH
This is the story of a woman staring down the barrel of motherhood, torn between her own ambivalence…and an uncontrollable urge to push. A mischievous look at (un)maternal instinct, by one increasingly knocked-up performer. Fresh from debuting at Edinburgh Fringe, award-winning Popelei present this fiercely funny solo show, interlaced with punchy choreography and an electrifying original soundtrack.
Find out more »St Edward’s School: In Progress 5
In Progress 5 celebrates the fantastic work from St Edward’s School 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 5 also gives a platform to showcase work produced on the Teddies Foundation Course, which provides Lower Sixth A Level and IB pupils an opportunity to explore a range of media over a sixteen-week programme. Pupils…
Find out more »December 2022
Oxford Printmakers Co-operative: A Time to Gather
Oxford Printmakers Co-operative returns to The North Wall this Christmas with a vibrant selection of members’ work. OPC was formed in 1977 as an open access Fine Art Print workshop. It is known for the high standard of its printmaking facilities and many of Oxford’s established printmakers have made work, taught or exhibited there. The North Wall has had the pleasure of showing prints by OPC members since the arts centre opened in 2007 and looks forward to showcasing framed…
Find out more »The Tale of Beauty and the Tail of the Beast
“Tales of wonders, fairies and blunders, tales of flowers, castles and towers, tales of the beauty and the beast.” We are thrilled to welcome back Creation Theatre to The North Wall stage this festive season with a joyfully anarchic adaptation of this Christmas classic for the whole family to enjoy together. Introducing Monsieur Affable’s Performing Players as they present the original French fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast, as performed by a beleaguered eighteenth century acting troupe – one…
Find out more »NW Inventors: Creative Christmas Workshops
In this three-day workshop, we will be doing a mixture of all things festive. Expect to get crafty with the tinsel, make snow globes and Christmas scenes as well as act out some much-loved Christmas stories. We lead playful, energetic, and inclusive workshops with a strong commitment to having fun! For ages 8-11 Full bursary places are available: email Abie Walton on waltona@thenorthwall.com by Thu 1 Dec 2022 to apply.
Find out more »YouthLab: Winter Workshops
Join us for three days of fast paced, fun and creative workshops; we will improvise, devise, write, direct, build characters, explore movement and PLAY. We lead playful, energetic, and inclusive workshops with a strong commitment to having fun! For ages 12-17 Full bursary places are available: email Abie Walton on waltona@thenorthwall.com by Thu 1 Dec 2022 to apply.
Find out more »March 2023
Mike Wozniak: Zusa
Ever wondered how Mike’s Great-Aunt Zusa made it from Poland to Luton with a war nipping at her heels? Here’s your chance to find out. As seen on Taskmaster (Channel 4) , Man Down (Channel 4) and Would I Lie To You? (BBC One). As heard on Small Scenes (BBC Radio 4), the St Elwick’s Neighbourhood Association Newsletter podcast and the Three Bean Salad podcast.
Find out more »
