WHAT'S ON at THE BREAD AND ROSES
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Alessandro Chessa Presents
Track Number 451 – A Rock Opera by Alessandro Chessa
14 - 15 June
Loosely inspired by Ray Bradbury.
In a future ruled by silence, music is the gravest of crimes.
The Silencemen raid homes to destroy every trace of sound — vinyl records, instruments, memory itself.
Roy Manfred is one of their finest agents, loyal and unquestioning — until a single encounter begins to fracture the silence within him. As forbidden melodies resurface and a hidden underground community emerges, Roy is forced to confront a world where sound is rebellion and listening is an act of courage.
Presented as an intimate concert staging, Track Number 451 is a contemporary rock opera about control, awakening, and the power of music to ignite change.
Music, Lyrics & Book by Alessandro Chessa.
Cast & Creatives:
To Be Announced!
Notebook Studios Presents
REFORMED
17 - 23 June
by Tommy Fletcher Mcmeekin, directed by Rikki Beadle - Blair
2028. Nigel Farage has recently been elected Prime Minister in a landslide, Joe is on track to another promotion, Lewis finally might be getting a job and England have made it to another final at Wembley so football might, just might, be finally coming home.
Reformed follows three young working class men, Joe, Lewis and Mark, as they navigate ever changing social norms, expectations and pressures. Their friendship is tested when they attend the European Championship Final at Wembley where they meet Dan, a violent nationalist who Mark has naively befriended. A rising political tide runs beneath the story, with the newly elected government pushing through a controversial "Patriot Act" under MP Penelope Thorngale.
The boys must ask themselves the question: What does being a patriot truly mean?
Makoto the Cat Productions Presents
DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS CONVERSATION Written and Directed by Mo Maka Shakespeare
25 - 28 June
Nneka is a young resident doctor finishing the late shift. Just as she is about to leave, she is suddenly asked to lead a Do Not Attempt Resuscitation (DNAR) conversation with the relative of a patient she has never met, about a patient she does not know, and with almost no time to prepare.
Set entirely within this single encounter, Do Not Attempt This Conversation exposes the emotional dissonance, and occasional absurdity of end-of-life decision-making inside a healthcare system stretched to its limits.
This play invites audiences to sit inside one such moment—witnessing the collision of grief, bureaucracy, compassion, and detachment—and asks what it really means to remain humane within an inhumane system.
Charlotte Barnes, supported by Scratch Built Productions Presents
Twelve Hours
29 & 30 June
by Phil Howe, directed by Nick Ash
You’ve read the books, or seen the film adaptions, but what do you really know about Jane Austen the woman? This is the untold story of Jane’s twelve hour
engagement. Jane must make the biggest decision of the life.
Join her on this emotional rollercoaster, as she transforms from giddy bride-to-be to strong independent woman. Help Jane decide, books or babies? Wealth or self-worth?
Hags Ahoy Theatre Company Presents
Goat. Books. Dad.
1 July
Written & Directed by Steven Todd
I’d lived with Dad all my forty-odd years, and never known him. I’d accepted that. Suddenly, the bookshop seemed like it would change everything. Did I really want that?
I was kidding about the goat.
Mockingbird 1
The Bread & Roses Theatre
Ryaknots Theatre Company Presents
Mockingbird 1
2 July
written and directed by Jonathan Ip
The world ended.
Humanity, undeterred, jettisoned themselves into the far reaches of space, on the promise of a new planet to call home. As was appropriate of the late twenty-first century, the people were carefully organised by their order of utility in society.
The musicians went last — aboard Mockingbird 1. In this gig theatre musical, a sentient spaceship sings the story of the final musicians in the universe. A popstar falls in love with an aspiring time traveller. The back-up band finally gets to work on their own masterpiece. A music teacher saves the world.
Mockingbird 1’s journey takes us all the way from the first utterances of our paleolithic ancestors, to the final notes of our doomed descendants.
And in the face of everything, unapologetically asserts that art was, is, and will always be, what makes us human.
SESTERCENTENNIAL
by Arif Silverman
3 July
Hamza, a young conservative immigrant in the United States, has abandoned his Bangladeshi cultural history, favoring instead the hypnotic allure of the American Dream. As he frantically prepares for his July 4th Barbecue celebrating America’s 250th Birthday, his anxiety continues to build. Something is clearly amiss, forcing Hamza to reflect on his relationship with his culture, his friends, and the divisions and contradictions, both longstanding and new, that exist between them and within himself.
SESTERCENTENNIAL is a new solo play that contemplates the inescapable role race plays in American politics and social life.
Running time: 75mins
Pecadillo Productions Presents
Brew Hill
Written and Directed by Kilian King
6 & 7 July
Gordon suffers from panic attacks and is obsessed with Berlin. Nat is a recovering alcoholic who has visions of the Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel. And Pieter, the great observer of wit and folly, has something he needs to tell us. As cracks appear in Nat and Gordon's routines and their story begins to overlap with Pieter's, this ‘kooky, self-assured tragicomedy with instant cult classic potential’ (Cherwell Newspaper) asks the big questions: What is the difference between community and suffocation?
Can creativity be home-grown? And is it a good idea to start a brewery if you don't like beer?
A "kooky, self-assured tragicomedy has immediate cult classic potential." - The Cherwell
Meishu Productions Presents
Party at Jackson Wang's
written & directed by Poppy Brian-Boys
8 & 12 July
Party At Jackson Wang's is a dark comedy about Quinn, a young woman in her twenties whose life revolves around a boyband member named Mason Prescott. Set against house parties, dead-end jobs, drifting friendships, and a grief she has never let herself fully feel, the play asks what it really means to love someone, and what happens when that love starts to consume you.
Written and directed by Poppy Brian-Boys, the production has movement woven into its DNA. Performed by an ensemble of professionally trained actors and dancers, with graduates from ArtsEd and Rose Bruford alongside dancers who have performed at Sadler's Wells and the Royal Ballet.
PLAYINTHEPARK Presents
HELLO, OUT THERE
by William Saroyan, directed by playinthepark company associate
9 - 11 July
Hello, Out There by William Saroyan is a short, emotionally charged one-act play set in a small-town jail during the Great Depression. It follows a young drifter accused of a crime he didn’t commit, who finds a fleeting but profound connection with a lonely woman working as a cook nearby.
As the two share their dreams of escape and dignity, the play explores themes of isolation, injustice, and the fragile hope of human connection. Despite its brevity, Hello, Out There delivers a poignant look at loneliness and the desperate need to be heard.
TOP PICK
Ain’t I A Woman? Initiative Presents
That Four Letter Word
by Nicole Acquah, Landé Belo, Sara Amanda, directed by Landé Belo
14 - 18 July
That Four Letter Word – devised and produced by Landé Belo
“Love is an action, never simply a feeling.” — bell hooks
What do we really mean when we talk about love?
The award-winning Ain’t I A Woman? returns with That Four Letter Word, three short plays that explore love in all its forms – tender and fierce, joyful and painful, complicated and hard‑won. Rooted in Black women’s experiences, these stories examine love not as a passive emotion, but as something we choose, practise and labour over. Love, here, is an action - and the consequences of acting (or failing to act) are deeply felt.
From a museum of memories to a tech boardroom to a couple’s bedroom three stories unfold, each exploring the courage, complexity and beauty of loving and being loved.
In Safekeeping, a woman journeys through personal and collective histories, inviting reflection on the objects and memories that shape us
In Heat a couple pass a restless night confronting the strains of change, revealing the difficulty of communicating when words aren’t enough
Whilst Pivot brings us into the high-stakes world of two women entrepreneurs, as they debate the future of their dating app and the meaning of love, friendship and self-worth.
A short post-show Q&A will follow the performance, offering audiences the chance to hear more about the work.
Edinburgh Preview
Simon Shaw Presents
I'm Not Myself Today: A Villainous Cabaret
19 & 20 July
by Simon Shaw, directed by Shannon Stuart
A bullied eccentric suffering from past traumas creates a machine to ruthlessly survive and to create a masterful future. The one problem is... he believes he's a monster.
Featuring a soundtrack almost entirely of villain (or connected to villains) songs, this show explores themes of bullying, classism, identity crisis, self-hate, defence mechanisms and the battle between reality and fiction.
Edinburgh Preview
Pawstudios Africa present
Esther's Revenge
21 & 22 July
written & directed by Kenneth Uphopho
Esther’s Revenge written and directed by Kenneth Uphopho is an experiential play inspired by true life events of Esther Ada Johnson who was reported to have murdered her white lover in 1953. The sentence is death by hanging. This participatory play as devised, explores themes around race, colonization, sexual abuse, violence against women, as well as political and social injustice. In this play, Esther takes the audience on a journey through time into the events leading up to the death of Mark. The jury, consisting of 12 audience members, is given the responsibility to vote in favour or against a stay of execution.
Edinburgh Fringe Preview
Threedumb Theatre Presents
One Man Poe: The Tell-Tale Heart and The Pit and the Pendulum
23 July
by Edgar Allan Poe, directed by Stephen Smith
An Edinburgh Fringe Preview:
Using Edgar Allan Poe’s original text from the 1840s, one actor faithfully brings to life two timeless tales live on stage:
The Tell-Tale Heart is an insight into the mind of a madman, convincing us he is sane.
The Pit and the Pendulum follows a prisoner of the dreaded Spanish Inquisition, undergoing various mental and physical tortures.
One Man Poe is produced by four-time OFFIE Award-winning theatre company Threedumb Theatre, bringing Poe’s work to life as never before.
Edinburgh Fringe Preview
Hags Ahoy Theatre Company Presents
Gag Writer
24 July
Written and Directed by Melissa Todd
Melissa Todd has been a sex worker for thirty years, and has loved each second and sequin. Weekly she delights Metro readers with anecdotes that range from hilarious to bizarre and beyond. Join her for a romp through her career as stripper, porn star and dominatrix.
"An excellent show! A wonderful hour of whore-positive stories that made me think and laugh in equal measure. If you get the chance go see!"
"Hilarious and a real eye-opener to the world of kink and the adult scene in general. Melissa tells her stories with humour and honesty. A great night out."
Edinburgh Fringe Preview
New Stagers Presents
Edinburgh Fringe Preview: BOOK CLUB
25 July
written & directed by Kate Bromage
Grab your wine, nibbles and notebooks and get ready to join Linda and her fellow “book clubbers” as they attempt to dissect the literary classics, over the course of 12 months.
This comedy explores the idiosyncrasies of a group of random acquaintances brought together (through Linda’s heavy persuasion) by their love (or mild interest) of books.
As we move through different meetings, each covering an array of classic novels, free flowing wine, endless crisps and small pockets of insight into each character’s life, we’re left with the question: can this motley group of strangers actually become friends? And what exactly is a cheese puff?
Rite of Passage
26 & 27 July
by Akah Nnani, directed by Kenneth Uphopho
A Nigerian actor arrives in the UK for the first time — no prior visits, no preview — and writes down everything that surprises him. Thirty days. Thirty shocks. One man, one suitcase, and a very confusing bathroom light. Rite of Passage is a 75-minute solo theatre experience about the West African immigrant experience in Britain — funny, political, and deeply human. "There is a clear voice and a strong observational lens running through it." — Mojisola Kareem, Artistic Director, Utopia Theatre Sheffield.
EDINBURGH FRINGE PREVIEW
Heavy Petting, Heavier Blankets (WIP)
27 July
by Ben O'sullivan
Can you seduce someone, even if they know you sleep with a weighted blanket?
That’s the question we all ask, whilst laying alone under our "Silent Night Washable Weighted Blanket" with removable cover. Now available in grey.
In his latest absurd outing, silly and surreal comedian Ben O’sullivan will try desperately to avoid talking about his intimacy issues, whilst allowing the full burden of his romantic failings to land on the, already heavy, weighted blanket.
Similar to a bed at your nans house, this show consists of many incomprehensible layers. We find out if pigeons are underrated and consider the potential jeopardy of getting a piercing at 31. Could it be a cry for help?
Together, we will finally uncover the truth hidden beneath the tog ratings.
‘Ben reminds me of a young James Acaster and look what he achieved’
Everything theatre
‘Side splittingly brilliant’
WeLoveBrighton
New Stagers Presents
Long Story Short
28 July
Written & directed by Veronica Montalbetti
Four short comedies about love, life, murder… and houseplants. From dating disasters to domestic dramas and a good old-fashioned whodunit, Long Story Short serves up four fast-paced plays.
- Two Sides: A couple replay their break up from both perspectives, because everyone has their own version.
- I Wrote a Play: A mum unveils her "masterpiece", with an unexpected twist.
- Hello Plant: A woman finds unlikely relationship advice from her house plant.
- 15 Minutes to Solve a Murder: A period face where everyone is desperate to solve Tubby's death.
Four Plays. Plenty of laughs.
Edinburgh Fringe Preview
MTAO Productions Presents
A Traitors Pantomime
31 July
by Ella Barnett & Jo Wickham, directed by Ella Barnett
Follow a new traitors series, with all the melodrama that we know and love, plus some panto pizzazz. Our Dame, Claudia, and her fringe will guide us through the twists and turns of each roundtable. A devious trio of traitors, a comical set of faithfuls, and a Romeo-and-Juliet love story; this series will be unlike any other. Using the power of deduction and a predictable parody (or two), will good win out? Or will evil take all the money, money, money for itself? (Yes, that is an Abba reference). Come and find out!
