Up Next Festival returns to the Unity Theatre this month

The Up Next Festival is set to return to the Unity Theatre this month for a fifth year.

The 2026 festival takes place from March 25-28 and will feature 20 new and diverse performances – many of them work-in-progress, readings, workshops and a guided walk, created by Merseyside artists.

The Hope Place theatre started the festival in 2021 as a response the Covid pandemic and the seismic effect it had on live performance, providing a vital platform for new work with the aim of supporting and developing local talent.

This year’s festival opens on Wednesday, March 25 with Winnie Southgate’s Bember and Steve Horay’s debut play Saint Jason, whose four-strong cast includes Connor Wray as Jason Varney and Josie Harrison as his mother Louise.

On Thursday, March 26 there is a triple bill of work at 6.30pm: the politically charged, darkly comic Muddle (set inside a long-running children’s television programme), My Little Brother Wasn’t Born to be Brainwashed – an exploration of family, social class and radicalisation, and Ukpahiu, a moving play about mental health, silence and the cost of emotional repression.

Then later on the same evening, catch PaintStripper. Rachel Louise Clarke’s bold new play about female friendship is directed by Margaret Connell.

There is a full day of events on Friday, 27 March, starting with a 1pm reading of the first half of Flying by Charlie Prothero, described as a “fast paced and highly theatrical kitchen sink comedy with elements of magical realism.”

Take a Silent Protest guided walk on Friday afternoon, starting from the Unity. The walk is repeated on Saturday.

Then the Hope Place theatre showcases three double bills of new work – actor/creator Isaac Nixon’s Standing on the Shoulders of Giants and Martha Jamieson’s Spinster at 6pm; Compost the Cabaret (the greatest show IN earth) and Greedy Theatre’s Do It Yourself at 7.30pm and, at 9pm, My Dead Nan’s Box Room by Molly Hannah and Lee Hithersay and Liam Hale’s Thumb Ducks, billed as ‘a whirlwind of eccentric sketches, crazy characters and pure absurdity’.

The festival concludes on Saturday, March 28.

Box of Tricks presents a practical morning ‘making connections’ workshop for theatre practitioners, while in the afternoon there will be a reading by Eithne Browne, Emma Dears and Kalli Tant of Helen Jeffery’s work-in-progress Mother/Daughter (already sold out); Brick – written and performed by Noah Xavier, and Mr Chubba Chubba, a spoken word theatre show exploring masculinity, body image and belonging.

Knickerbocker Glory at 7pm is a two-hander kitchen sink sketch show described as ‘dark, dry and deadpan’, and the final Up Next show stars Mark Smith and Keddy Sutton in Talking Heads Twice, a new piece of ‘spontaneous’ theatre inspired by Alan Bennett.

Unity Theatre artistic director Eli Randle says: “Up Next Festival is a vital space for artists to be bold, take risks, and develop new ideas. It’s a chance to experiment, play, and share new work on our stages.

“This year we’re proud to welcome and support 19 artists presenting an exciting mix of styles, perspectives, and theme, showcasing the depth of local talent. I’ve loved seeing the building buzzing with creativity this month as artists fill the space with new work in the making.”

Up Next Festival is at the Unity Theatre from March 25-28. Full details on all the shows and booking HERE