A Fan of War
by Polina Polozhentseva

26 - 30 August 2025, 7:30 pm

An ironic, sharp-witted, and deeply moving new play exploring what it means to live with war when you’re not at war.

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Our protagonist stands at a strange crossroads. Her mother remains in Ukraine, waking each day to the threat of bombs and the courage of survival. Meanwhile, her foreign boyfriend, blissfully indifferent to the world’s chaos, insists on living in the moment – as if the news is just a bad episode of a soap opera he can’t be bothered to watch.

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As she navigates daily life in relative safety, each ping of her phone from home stirs panic, guilt, or helplessness. Is it possible to feel joy while others suffer? To laugh and make love while war continues elsewhere?

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With wit, intimacy, and heart, A Fan of War tackles the absurdity of modern war’s reach: how it shapes our relationships, interrupts our pleasures, and tugs relentlessly at our conscience.

Written by the acclaimed Ukrainian playwright Polina Polozhentseva and directed by Anastazie Toros, this new production stars Bogdana Kalantay and Nathan Trochet.

Dedicated to Ukraine’s Independence Day, it offers a timely reflection on grief, love, identity, and the emotional dissonance of living in one world while another burns.

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“There’s something haunting about experiencing war from a distance. The loneliness, the guilt, the fear of saying too much — or not enough — lives quietly in many of us. A Fan of War dares to name it. Let’s talk about it.”

A Rose by Any Other Name 
by Rosemary Loughlin

9 - 13 September 2025, 7:30 pm

Returning to Baron’s Court, Rosemary ‘Rose’ Loughlin charts the colourful journey of her real-life experiences in her quest to discover who is the real
Shakespeare?

From clues in Cambridge, to proof in Padua and validations in Venice, the show offers incredible insights, tales of entertaining encounters and moving monologues. The inspiration for the show is Rose’s passion around the Shakespeare authorship question, a subject she became interested in by accident while studying classical acting. For extra understanding of Shakespeare, she read up on his background, but became fascinated by the weight of evidence in favour of alternative candidate, Elizabethan courtier, poet and playwright Edward de
Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford to have written the plays and poems under the pseudonym William Shakespeare.

While Rose hopes the audience may develop curiosity around Shakespeare authorship, her human story shines through, underpinned by universal themes of personal transformation and the joy of discovery.

“Beautifully performed, genuinely insightful and full of interesting new research” The Scotsman (2022)

“For Shakespeare fans…this production could be exactly what you are looking for” Theatre and Arts Reviews (2022)

The Full English
by Melanie Branton

16 - 20 September 2025, 7:30 pm

It's a bish-bosh, wish-wash, car crash mishmash!

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Ever wondered where the word 'hoo-ha' comes from? Why there ain’t no party like a double negative party? And why 'bead' doesn’t rhyme with 'bread', 'machine' doesn’t rhyme with 'nine', and don’t get me started on 'yearly' and 'early'? From gangs of gung-ho Anglo-Saxons and smelly Vikings to Covidiots and Instagram influencers, from enormous vowel movements to katsu curries self-isolating in the Twitterverse, this one-woman show by poet, spoken word artist, former ‘A’ level English lecturer and all-round linguistics nerd, Melanie Branton, explores the fascinating history of the English language through the media of performance poetry, silly hats and dad jokes.

Melanie Branton has performed at festivals including Womad, Shindig and Valleyfest, as well as at spoken word nights the length and breadth of the country. She has also represented Bristol at three national slam finals. Her published collections are The Full English (2023), Can You See Where I’m Coming From? (Burning Eye, 2018) and My Cloth-Eared Heart (Oversteps, 2017).

“The Full English combines both entertainment and education to explore the quirky and fascinating history of our rich linguistic heritage with charisma, wit, and large dollops of expertise. Melanie's in-depth knowledge of the English language as a lecturer on the subject ideally complements her skills as one of the country's cleverest and most engaging performance poets, and I would highly recommend the show to anyone with an interest in our bizarre but beautiful language.“
Rob Casey

"A thoroughly entertaining and illuminating show from a talented wordsmith."
Tina Sederholm