Work with the BOXVILLE engineers to craft-along with the story and build your own way through the tasks and trials of BOXVILLE, earning everything you need to become a fully fledged cardboard engineer!

Using designer Sam Wilde’s trademark sustainable cardboard puppet style you will travel to BOXVILLE, a land made entirely from sustainable cardboard.

You will meet paper dragons, corrugated crabs and cardboard space robots in this STEM skilled, hands on, interactive, cardboard adventure.

BOXVILLE includes craft-a-long participatory moments, and younger audience members may benefit from adult assistance for full enjoyment. You are encouraged to “bring a box” along with you, and all cardboard creations you make can be taken home at the end of the show!

Approximately 1 Hour

Join us for an Artists’ Forum meetup at Bristol Old Vic, for independent producers and self-producing artists.

Hosted by Amanda Fawcett, this informal and supportive session offers space to connect with fellow artists, share experiences, and discuss the realities of producing your own work. Whether you’re at an early idea stage or deep into making, this meetup is an opportunity to exchange knowledge, ask questions, and build your network within Bristol’s creative community.

When Amy Mason got hacked, she lost her number, bank account and social media access. And then the hackers started sending her gifts... A surprising, somewhat filthy dive into connection, intimacy, and the perils of using your dead cat's name as your password for literally everything.

Behold! is a silly yet razor-witted examination of digital dependency, friendship and community, delivered with Amy Mason’s signature blend of off-kilter storytelling and deadpan warmth.

As heard on Radio 1, Radio 5 and Radio 4. Guardian's Top 10 Funniest Jokes of Edinburgh Fringe 2024. Directed by Jessica Fostekew.

Following a sell-out 2024/2025 national run, Andy Zaltzman – host of The Bugle podcast and BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz, statistician on Test Match Special, and champion of Taskmaster series 18 – extends his hit tour into 2026.

Fully updated due to the UK and the world both steadfastly refusing to sort themselves out, Andy assesses the state of renowned planet Earth, its under-pressure current in-house millennium, and its most famous and controversial species – the human race.

With politicians the world over striving to outdo each other in splattering their people with a cocktail of incompetence, inexplicability and insatiable dishonesty, Andy, the universe’s leading and only 2-in-1 political-comedian-and-professional-cricket-statistician, harnesses the combined 21stcentury witchcraft of A.I. and his live audience. Between them, they will concoct vaguely plausible answers to perennially troublesome questions such as What?, Who?, When?, Where?, and above all Why?

WARNING: May feature talking penguin.

Approximately 1 Hour 55 mins

On a school trip to a photography exhibition, Sam - an emotional support dog - gently guides a group of young people through images from Europe during World War Two.

As the photographs unfold in the audience’s imagination, a difficult conversation begins about the history of the Holocaust, empathy, and what it means to witness harm - or to look away.

Told entirely by one performer, The Last Picture invites audiences to think, feel and imagine together. There are no projected images, no replicas of the past - just live storytelling and the quiet, steady presence of Sam, creating a safe space to explore one of the darkest chapters of our shared history.

Selected from over 2,000 entries for the RSC’s 37 Plays in 2023, a national playwriting project to create a new folio of brand new plays, Catherine Dyson’s The Last Picture leads audiences through time and space, from classrooms to museums, to moments where history shifts.

Director John R. Wilkinson reunites with ETT following his direction of Tonderai Munyevu’s Mugabe, My Dad and Me, which won Best New Play at the UK Theatre Awards in 2022.

Tilting at Windmills is the brand-new stand-up show from Taskmaster alumni and double Edinburgh Comedy Award Winner, John Kearns.

A fragmented, digressing portrayal of a 38-year-old man’s life, alluding to books he hasn't read, touching on the modern condition. Plus VAT! More allusive and bleak as ever, it is unreal the comedian you become. And for who? Decent craic with the right crowd. A show for those who have read about but not committed to the Guinness Nitrosurge.

Seen bewildered on Taskmaster (Channel 4), terrified on Live at the Apollo (BBC), getting through Never Mind the Buzzcocks (Sky), and implicating others on his Sky stand-up special The Varnishing Days. More comfortable on pods but comes alive on stage, for your pleasure!

New stand-up tour show from Mike Wozniak in which a story about a bench will be prominent.

Previous experience of or strong opinions about benches not required. Let Mike worry about that.

As seen on Taskmaster, Man Down and Junior Taskmaster. As heard on Three Bean Salad podcast.

Approximately 1 Hour 40 mins

Renad, a young Gazan girl, embarks on a dangerous journey. Carrying only the echoes of her grandmother’s tales and the spark of her own imagination, she searches for her family and the ‘Anqaa’ - the mythical Palestinian Phoenix.

A Grain of Sand is a one-woman show that takes an intimate look at war through the eyes of a child, blending Palestinian folklore with real-life testimonies from children in contemporary Gaza. Renad’s story is one of resilience, hope and the right of children to be children.

Based on the verbatim source A Million Kites, a collection of poems and testimonies from the children of Gaza, compiled by Leila Boukarim and Asaf Luzon.

Sienna is trying to deal with her grief by clinging on tightly to what she knows – in short, she’s seeing her dead sister everywhere she goes.

Not only seeing her, but having full on conversations with her. As Emily’s presence becomes more and more overwhelming, seeping into her relationship, damaging her performance at work, and straining her commitment to her ailing parents, the line between happiness and delusion becomes blurred. How do you truly let go of someone when you imagined they’d be there forever?

All The Happy Things is an award-nominated dark comedy about the power of sisterhood and grief, told through a Global Majority lens.

Approximately 1 Hour 20 mins

A monster’s guide to tolerance and temperance. Jess can feel herself becoming an emotional wildebeest right when her world (and the whole world, thanks) demands cool, collected ultra detached saint-like kindness and understanding. S**t.

She goes digging around in her DNA for answers and finds so many beautiful horrors. Witness her effort to become a brand new, mythical, mystical ‘coper.’ OR NOT. She gets cancelled, she gets touched and she gets a dolphin-based epiphany all in one show. The silliest of comedy for the scariest of days from Edinburgh Best Show Award Nominee.

You’ve seen Jess on BBC’s QI, Live at the Apollo, Celebrity University Challenge and Richard Osman’s House of Games. From Travel Man on C4 and World’s Most Dangerous Roads on Dave. You know her from her two BBC R4 series of Sturdy Girl Club plus podcasts The Guilty Feminist and Hoovering. And, of course, from new mighty smash hit Gladiator’s fan-podcast Contender Ready which Jess co-hosts with Olympic weightlifting superstar, Emily Campbell.

A decade ago, a two-foot-tall puppet took on the world — and he’s still fighting.

This darkly hilarious, critically acclaimed production follows Fred, a cloth puppet just trying to live an ordinary life — get a job, find love, be part of society. But with his Puppetry Living Allowance under threat, Fred’s world spirals out of control. How do you hold on to independence when the system pulls the strings?

With biting wit, razor-sharp political satire, and moments of unexpected tenderness, Meet Fred is an unmissable comedy that has resonated with audiences across the globe. Created by award-winning inclusive theatre company Hijinx, the show features a stellar cast of performers with and without learning disabilities and/or autism, whose lived experiences bring depth and authenticity to Fred’s struggle.

Celebrating 10 years of making audiences laugh, gasp, and rethink the world around them, Meet Fred is as urgent and relevant today as ever.

Approximately 1 Hour 20 mins

The Theatre Chipping Norton and Selladoor Worldwide present a new version of the West End classic – rebooted and reimagined for 2026.

The worldwide comic phenomenon returns with this updated and reinvented rollercoaster ride through all 37 of the Bard’s plays. Grab your tickets now for a wild and irreverent show that leaves its audiences breathless with laughter.

After nine years in London’s West End, two TV specials, and performances in over 20 countries, the Reduced Shakespeare Company are reinventing this classic comic masterpiece for a new generation of audiences.

Approximately 2 Hours

Michelle De Swarte is back with her entourage of trademark razor-sharp wit and no-holds-barred storytelling. After the main event's highs and lows, Michelle wonders what to do after the party.

She's heading to the afters for some brutally honest oversharing about life before social media, trying to scrape the barrel of youth, how to know when too much filler is too much, breaking down the cost difference of "party powder" to powdered greens, whether tarot card readers replace actual therapy and when is a good time to pregame perimenopause. Michelle is here to share all the fu@k ups, so you don't have to.

Star and writer-creator of BBC's critically acclaimed Spent, Michelle De Swarte has been seen on Sky/HBO's The Baby, Amazon's Backstage with Katherine Ryan and The Duchess on Netflix, as well as, Live at the Apollo and Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Michelle was recently named one of Variety's 10 Brits to Watch for 2025.

After delighting audiences across the country, the smash-hit, joyful play based on the bestselling novel is back with a celebration of friendship, kindness and compassion.

There used to be an empty chair at the back of the class, but now a new boy called Ahmet is sitting in it. He’s nine years old (just like me), but he’s very strange. He never talks and never smiles and doesn’t like sweets – not even lemon sherbets, which are my favourite!

After learning that he has fled his own war-torn country, Ahmet’s classmates have ‘The Greatest Idea in the World’ – a magnificent plan to reunite Ahmet with his family. An unexpected and often hilarious adventure follows, all topped off with a terrific twist.

Told from a child’s perspective, balancing heart and humour, The Boy at the Back of the Class highlights the power of good friends and courage in a world that doesn’t always make sense and reminds us that everyone needs a place to call home.

Approximately 2 Hours 10 mins

Approximately 1 Hour

“When war comes to Ireland she must welcome it as she would welcome the Angel of God!”

This re-interpretation of Seán O’Casey’s masterpiece (one part of his renowned ‘Dublin Trilogy’) explores the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland through a modern lens where national pain and collective rage erupt in a hellish dream, where distant heroes are pitched against survivors trapped in the crossfire of history.

As the quest for Irish independence ignites the streets, O’Casey’s sharp wit and unflinching depiction of ordinary people, expose the conflict between nationalist idealism and the harsh struggle for survival.

This production celebrates the play’s centenary; showcasing O’Casey’s unique ability to weave riotous comedy, social observation and human tragedy into a heart-shredding whole.

This Plough and the Stars is performed by graduating acting students and supported by Technical Theatre Arts students from Bristol School of Acting.

Approximately 2 Hours 30 mins

It's hard to be good all the time.

A good mother, a good daughter, a good partner, a good friend, a good person. To be ambitious but not ruthless; a success but not a sell-out. A gentle parent but not a pushover. To be smashing life and make it look easy. The juggle. Suzi is exhausted and she hasn't even started. This is a stand-up show and a support group!

The Juggle is a brand new tour from confessional multi-award winning comedian Suzi Ruffell.

Suzi has appeared on Live at the Apollo, The Jonathan Ross Show, The Last Leg and QI. Suzi co-hosts smash-hit podcasts Big Kick Energy with Maisie Adam and Like Minded Friends with Tom Allen, as well as having her own podcast, OUT with Suzi Ruffell. She even finds time to host on Virgin Radio. Suzi's debut book,  Am I Having Fun Now? released in June 2025.

Approximately 1 Hour 45 mins

The legendary production of Susan Hill’s chilling ghost story The Woman in Black comes to Bristol.

One of the most successful and longest running theatre shows in the history of London’s West End, this gripping production is a brilliant study in atmosphere, illusion and controlled horror. Now seen by over 8 million people worldwide, The Woman in Black continues to delight and terrify audiences of all generations.

Obsessed with a curse that he believes has been cast over him and his family by the spectre of a Woman in Black, Arthur Kipps engages a skeptical young actor to help him tell his terrifying story and exorcise the fear that grips his soul.

Approximately 2 Hours

Young Artists Showcase (previously Young Ferment) brings together the next generation of theatre-makers from Young SixSix and Young Company to develop bold new ideas for the stage, in collaboration with Bristol Old Vic’s Artist Development team.

Mentored by Maddie Wakeling, Xahnaa Adlam, Kira McGuinness, and a range of guest artists, the programme supports writers, composers, directors and devisors from Young Company and Young SixSix to create four original 20-minute pieces.

Approximately 2 Hours

Fresh from its five star, sell-out Edinburgh Fringe run: a hilarious, politically sharp story of a working-class Scouser navigating Cambridge University, hiding her cleaning job, and exposing privilege with wit and charm.

Winner of The Scotsman’s Fringe First Award, The Holden Street Theatres Award and The Filipa Bragança Award, this is the play everyone’s talking about.

Inspired by Franks’ own time as a working-class student at Cambridge, the show follows Jade, a Scouse fresher juggling secret cleaning shifts with the culture shock of Oxbridge privilege. With razor-sharp wit and a dozen unforgettable characters, Eat the Rich exposes the absurdities of class, money and belonging in Britain today.

Listed in The New York Times among the ‘Buzziest Acts of the Fringe’ and in The Telegraph’s 'Top Plays to See', Eat the Rich has cemented Jade Franks as one of the UK’s most exciting new voices.

Brought to you by double Oliver nominated producer JFR Productions and award-winning director Tatenda Shamiso.

Approximately 1 Hour

Obsession or salvation? One kiss from the Spider Woman can change everything.

From legendary songwriting duo Kander and Ebb, the creators of Cabaret and Chicago, thrilling musical Kiss of the Spider Woman returns in an electrifying new production directed by Paul Foster (A Little Night Music, Watermill Theatre; Kiss Me, Kate, Sheffield Crucible).

In a brutal prison, Molina – condemned for his sexuality, and Valentin – a political prisoner, are forced into an unlikely friendship in the cell they share. To escape their harsh reality, Molina conjures dazzling fantasies of glamorous movies, spinning tales of the seductive and dangerous Spider Woman. As their conditions worsen and the line between truth and fiction blurs, the two men find a deeper connection – one that could cost them everything.

Adapted for the stage by Terrence McNally from Manuel Puig’s unforgettable novel, the original Broadway production won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Original Score.

Now, in its first major UK revival since 1992, this daring new production stars the phenomenal George Blagden (BBC’s Versailles, Netflix’s Black Mirror), Anna-Jane Casey (Cabaret, Billy Elliot) and Fabian Soto Pacheco (Dear Evan Hansen, Luciernaga Producciónes, Teatro Auditorio Nacional, Costa Rica; Guys & Dolls, Frinton Summer Theatre).

Sally and Susan aren’t your average suburban women. They're business women. And you’re invited to the most prestigious seminar of the year that could help you get filthy rich!

Step into the glittery, unhinged world of multi-level marketing mayhem with Fag Packet's Kheski Kobler and Holly Wilson-Guy, the award-winning cabaret and theatre double act.

Equal parts corporate seminar and queer fever dream.

DYKE Systems Ltd. is a sharp, subversive takedown of pyramid schemes, ruthless heteronormativity and corporate feminism.

Bring your wallets, your carabiner and get ready to find your inner (D)ynamic! (Y)oung! (K)nowledgeable! (E)ntrepreneur!

This is our PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD – inspired by the best worst band of all time, The Shaggs. It’s named after their album. PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD (1969). The best worst album of all time.

Part tribute act, part feminist reclamation, part fever dream, PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD is about power, patriarchy, band t-shirts, daddy issues and three sisters, who didn’t want to be a band but it was their destiny.

It’s also about who gets to decide if you’re good or sh*t.

But it’s mainly about dads.

Featuring questionable mime, high-intensity dance sequences, cheap wigs, jump scares and a well-trained actor.

We’ll play the band. You play the audience. It’ll be perfect.

Load up on guns, bring your friends. But please, no smoking in the auditorium.

Oh, and lastly, whatever you do, please don’t tell Tom Cruise about the show. He currently holds the rights to the Shaggs’ story. And we haven’t paid him.

(Free soda on admission.)

A double-bill presented as part of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School's Summer Festival.

Four Play by Jake Brunger

A sharp, millennial "rom-com" that explores the messiness of modern monogamy as a long-term couple considers inviting a third person into their bed to "fix" their sex life, only to find their relationship and their friendships spiraling into comic chaos.

"A smart comedy of gay manners which gradually digs a bit deeper to explore the ethics of deceit and concealment... The clash between the bright jokes and the exposed vulnerabilities of the characters is beautifully imagined." The Guardian

Meat by Gillian Greer

A provocative and intensely claustrophobic drama that reunites two former lovers in a restaurant kitchen to confront their conflicting memories of a single, life-altering night, questioning the murky boundaries of consent and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.

"Greer’s play is a gripping, uncomfortable sit that refuses to offer easy answers... it captures the agonizing 'grey area' of a past encounter where one person remembers a romance and the other remembers a crime." The Guardian

Three parties. One weekend. The invitations have been sent and there’s no going back… it’s Party Season!

Xander is back in town, and this weekend he’s on parenting duty. The kids are in the ball pit; the Entertainer is blowing bubbles; the adults gobble Perelló olives and pretend to like each other. As ancient grudges rear their heads, the tension rises like a helium balloon. Caught between who he was and who he’s supposed to be, Xander must decide whether he’s going to grow up or just pass the parcel.

From the multi-award-winning creators of Education, Education, Education and The Last of the Pelican Daughters comes a sugar-fuelled, bobbin-winding fever dream where class identities collide, social niceties unravel, and underslept parents do their best to hold it all together.

Party Season is a razor-sharp new comedy about privilege, party rings and the pressures of being a parent. RSVP!

Strap on your safety goggles... BRAINIAC LIVE IS BACK FOR 2026!

Due to popular demand and following its 2025 Olivier Award for BEST FAMILY SHOW, Science’s greatest and most volatile live show is back with a vengeance and coming to Bristol in 2026.

More mischievous than ever before, Brainiac Live! the UK’s original and favourite family science show explodes on stage and will take you on a breathless ride through the wild world of the weird and wonderful.

Watch from the safety of your seat as the Brainiacs delve fearlessly into the mysteries of science and do all those things on stage that you’re too scared to do at home!

With a great range of explosive experiments join the Brainiacs in this all-action live show that’s set to blow your minds!

Approximately 1 Hour

A double-bill presented as part of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School's Summer Festival.

The Étienne Sisters by Ché Walker

A play with songs, which tracks the journey of three sisters coming to terms with their mother’s death. Working through grief, sisterhood and the long-lasting impact of generational trauma. Cleverly using music to explore emotion and relationships.

"Thrilling... Walker’s richly plotted story may be swift, but it weaves a colourful tapestry around the lives and aspirations of its three protagonists." The Stage

dirty butterfly by debbie tucker green

A visceral, haunting exploration of voyeurism and complicity, following three neighbors in a terraced house who are inextricably linked by the sounds of domestic violence bleeding through their paper-thin walls.

"Its subject of domestic abuse... is a painful one, but also the elliptical, poetic style in which it is written demands that we read between the lines to work out the characters' inner lives." The Stage

A double-bill presented as part of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School's Summer Festival.

King Troll by Sonali Bhattacharyya

A folkloric thriller examining the complex narratives and emotions surrounding the asylum system.

“Nerves jangle from the first moment, and never get a chance to calm during this cracking show that nudges activist drama into atavistic horror.” The Guardian

The Crocodile by Tom Basden

A play exploring the crossovers in human and animalistic behaviour - based on a short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky and written for the Manchester International Festival 2015.

"Tom Basden turns Dostoevsky’s allegory of capitalist inhumanity into a sharp satire on political celebrity in the Twitter age… by turns absurd, charming, and subtly sinister." The Times

Following a hugely critically-acclaimed London run, legendary performance artist Bryony Kimmings (I’m a Phoenix, Bitch; Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model; Fake It Till You Make It) brings her hit show Bog Witch to Bristol for a strictly limited run!

As with all her previous works, Bog Witch follows a part of Kimmings’ real-life story… this time the journey of uprooting her and her son’s life to live in a tumbledown cottage in the wilderness… to plug back into nature as a last-ditch attempt to be happy and sane.

Approximately 1 Hour 30 mins

‘I love London Society! It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics.’

Sir Robert Chiltern is riding high on all the very best that modern life has to offer a man of his impeccable taste and immaculate reputation. The house, the clothes, the wife.

All seems well until the arrival of the devious Mrs Cheveley, who has a taste for drama and secrets to spill. Her revelations threaten scandal, betrayal, public disgrace: so how far will this perfect gentleman go to protect his good name?

This bold new production of Oscar Wilde’s enduring comedy is directed by the Lyric’s Associate Director Nicholai La Barrie.

A double-bill presented as part of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School's Summer Festival.

Island Town by Simon Longman

A funny life-affirming coming of age story which follows teenagers Kate, Sam and Pete drink, chat, and dream of leaving their unnamed, dead-end British town.

"A moving three-hander about the claustrophobia and hopelessness of broken small-town life... Longman takes a potentially bleak subject and fills it with unexpected shards of humour." The Stage

Blackthorn by Charley Miles

Blackthorn is a lyrical, decade-spanning drama that explores the shifting relationship between the only two children born into a small North Yorkshire village as they struggle to reconcile their shared past with a rapidly changing rural landscape.

"A heartbreakingly honest look at the cost of progress... It asks what happens to a community when its heart is ripped out to make way for commuters and 'second-homers'." The Yorkshire Post

‘I’m not gonna stand up in front of a bunch of strangers and tell stories about you and me.’

She’s signed them both up. Her and her husband. For stand-up comedy.

So tonight, they’re locking themselves in their living room until they’ve got a ‘tight five’, delving through their past for material. But some jokes hurt, and laughter isn’t always the best medicine.

With the clock ticking and nothing but a baby monitor for an audience, they wrestle with the spotlight as questions about their future are forced to the surface.

A new play about hope, endings and how to survive if a knock knock joke hits you in the gut, I’m Not Being Funny is written by Piers Black (Catching Comets, Pleasance & UK tour), directed by Traverse Theatre Associate Artist Bryony Shanahan (Bloody Elle, West End) and produced by Prentice Productions (How I Learned To Swim, Brixton House).

Frankie Goes to Bollywood returns — bigger, bolder, and bursting with Bollywood glamour.

This dazzling musical comedy-drama dives deep into the glitzy, high-pressure world of Indian cinema, where dreams are mass-produced, identities are reshaped, and women are expected to smile and play by the script written for them.

At the centre of it all is Frankie, a young British woman with little interest in fame. But her quiet suburban life is turned upside down as she is thrust into a world of dazzling lights, choreographed perfection and media obsession. Frankie must decide: Can she become a star without losing who she really is?

What must she give up to succeed in a man’s world — and what is she willing to fight for?

With show-stopping choreography, lavish costumes, and a cast of unforgettable characters, Frankie Goes to Bollywood is a bold, uplifting story of ambition, transformation, and the power of telling your own story.

Featuring original Bollywood songs by hit composer Harry Anand, this is Rifco Theatre Company’s most ambitious production yet —a celebration of love, identity and courage, packed with joy, drama, and spectacular entertainment.

Whether you're a fan of musicals, Bollywood films, or powerful British stories, this is a night at the theatre you won’t want to miss.

Approximately 2 Hours 30 mins

We all want to meet people from history. The trouble is everyone is dead!

So, it’s time to prepare yourselves for Horrible Histories live on stage! Using actors and eye-popping 3D special effects, these two astounding shows are guaranteed to thrill you and your children. Historical figures and events will come alive on stage and hover at your fingertips!

Approximately 1 Hour 30 mins

“For my lunch today I would like… a nice juicy little child!”

He’s greedy, he’s grumptious, he’s horrid!

The Enormous Crocodile is weaving his way through the jungle to Bristol Old Vic in search of delicious little fingers and squidgy podgy knees… Only the other jungle creatures can foil his secret plans and clever tricks, but they’re going to have to find a large amount of courage to stop this greedy brute.

This mischievous musical based on Roald Dahl’s snappy book has toe-tapping tunes by Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab, a rib-tickling book and lyrics by Suhayla El-Bushra, and additional music and lyrics by Tom Brady. Developed and directed by Emily Lim, it features a menagerie of puppets by co-director and puppetry designer Toby Olié, with set and costume design by Fly Davis and puppetry co-designed and supervised by Daisy Beattie.

Snap up your tickets today for this wickedly funny musical adventure, perfect for the whole family!

Approximately 0 Hour 55 mins

Experience a special evening with the multi award-winning, five-star performance, Still Alive (and Kicking).

Haunting, raw, uplifting and life affirming, this extraordinary show is a celebration of being alive, a transformative journey masterfully told by artist and London 7/7 bombing survivor, Gill Hicks.

Still Alive (and Kicking) features internationally acclaimed musicians, including violinist Dr Julian Ferraretto, framing Hicks’ soulful jazz voice and her powerful projected artworks, leaving audiences spellbound by the visual and sensory feast.

Gill Hicks is one of the most thought provoking, powerful and life affirming speakers in Australia. She is globally known as a survivor of the London terrorist Bombings on July 7th, 2005. She survived, but suffered severe and permanent injuries, losing both legs from just below the knee.

Following a sell-out run in 2024, Black Is The Color Of My Voice returns to Bristol Old Vic.

Inspired by the life of Nina Simone, and featuring many of her most iconic songs performed live.

Apphia Campbell’s acclaimed play follows a successful jazz singer and civil rights activist as she seeks redemption after the untimely death of her father. She reflects on the journey that took her from a young piano prodigy destined for a life in the service of the church, to a renowned jazz vocalist at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement.

Black Is The Color Of My Voice is touring the UK in 2026 after sell-out seasons in Adelaide, Shanghai, New York, Edinburgh and London’s West End.

Approximately 1 Hour 10 mins

Don your deerstalker, grab your magnifying glass and get your ‘finger of suspicion’ at the ready because Edinburgh Fringe favourites, Degrees of Error, are bringing back their multiple sell-out show for your sleuthing pleasure.

They’ll create a classic murder mystery on-the-spot in this ingenious improvised comedy. You, the audience, become the author as the cast act out your very own Agatha Christie-inspired masterpiece live on stage. At each show this extraordinarily talented company use audience suggestions to create a unique, original and extremely comical murder mystery just for you. All you have to do... is solve it!

Ms Gold poisoned at a synchronised swimming gala? Dr Blue exploded by cannon during a hot air balloon race? Professor Violet crushed to death at a Love Island recoupling? You decide!

But will you guess whodunnit before the killer is revealed?

With Lost Dog’s blend of dance, theatre and comedy, this duet reveals the real story of Romeo and Juliet. It turns out they didn’t die in a tragic misunderstanding, they grew up and lived happily ever after. Well they lived at least.

Now they’re 40ish, at least one of them is in the grips of a mid-life crisis, they feel constantly mocked by their teenage selves and haunted by the pressures of being the poster couple for romantic love. They have decided to confront their current struggles by putting on a performance – about themselves. Their therapist told them it was a terrible idea.

Directed by award-winning director/choreographer Ben Duke, Juliet & Romeo takes on our cultural obsession with youth and our inevitable issues with longevity.

Approximately 1 Hour 15 mins

Stevie Martin (Taskmaster, 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown) has been doing online comedy for a while (45 million views worldwide) but is now returning to live comedy with her latest show, which sold out at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and at Soho Theatre earlier this year.

It's like her online stuff but she'll be on a stage and you can't pause her to get a snack (meats?). Also you have to sit in a specific room to watch it (please don’t bring your meats to this room).

Approximately 1 Hour

This uplifting comedy brings you a jet-powered tour through your favourite characters, and all the romance and action of Tom Cruise’s aerial blockbuster, alongside the heartfelt story of father and son superfans who can’t agree on anything except their favourite film.

Can Maverick and best friend Goose beat Iceman to the Top Gun trophy? Can instructor Charlie get a drink without anyone singing at her? Can one Fringe First-winning poet/nerd re-enact the movie’s signature dogfights – alone?

On the 40th anniversary of Top Gun’s cinema release, this unauthorised parody celebrates the iconic film and its enduring fandom. Essential viewing for Top Gun veterans and rookies alike, this show will take your breath away.

From the creative team behind the global smash hit Yippee Ki Yay. Written and performed by Richard Marsh – Fringe First-winner, London poetry slam champion, BBC Audio Drama Best Scripted Comedy Drama award-winner and fighter pilot (one of these is untrue).

Approximately 1 Hour 10 mins

The time has come for critically acclaimed musical comedy duo Flo & Joan to write another bio as they make their highly anticipated return to the stage with a brand-new show.

“Gosh, they are almost like a real band” (Bruce Dessau, Beyond a Joke). The pair will try and take up as much of the stage and as little of your patience as possible as they use another "real band's" setlist to write their own show - ruminating on themes such as ‘what is music?’, ‘how do you be a band?’, and ‘is comedy?’ in the sharp-tongued, deadpan way they have become accustomed to.

As seen on Live at the Apollo, The Royal Variety Performance, Comic Relief's Red Nose Day Live 2023 and their own comedy special Alive on Stage for Amazon Prime.

Approximately 1 Hour 50 mins

Not far from Bristol, there is a village.

This village belongs to the people who live in it and to those who lived in it hundreds of years ago. It belongs to England’s mysterious past and its confounding present.

It belongs to families dead for generations, and to those who have only recently moved here, such as the boy Lanny, and his mum and dad.

But it also belongs to Dead Papa Toothwort, who has woken from his slumber in the woods. Dead Papa Toothwort, who is listening to them all.

By the author of Sunday Times Bestseller, Grief is the Thing with Feathers, Max Porter’s spectral novel Lanny rocked the literary world in 2019. Described as “a joyously stirred cauldron of words” (The Guardian) that is “magically beguiling” (Financial Times), it intertwines reality and imagination to thrillingly eerie effect.

Adapted for the stage by award-winning West Country playwright Bea Roberts (And Then Come the Nightjars), and directed by Nancy Medina (The Beautiful Future Is Coming; A Good House; Choir Boy – Best Director, Black British Theatre Awards 2024), this dark and powerful story of folklore, fable and the nature of belonging is the flagship production of our 260th year.

Have you ever forensically over-thought your life choices? Are they all somehow connected to a passing comment your Spanish teacher made when you were 15? Has it impacted everything from your love life to your career?

Following sold-out shows across the UK, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Soho Theatre, Celya AB (“One of the most gifted joke writers of her age” – Chortle) is back with a new show with her brand of “exceptional, not to mention impressively original” (British Comedy Guide) jokes and sharp observations.

This is a show about breaking free from shame, and what ensues when you do. As seen on Live At The Apollo, the Off Menu podcast and Comedy Central Live.

Approximately 1 Hour 45 mins

Following a sold-out 2024 tour, acclaimed stand-up and online sensation Morgan Rees is back on the road with a hugely anticipated brand-new show.

After Morgan and his partner went on separate holidays – one to a Mathematics Forum in Coventry and the other to a Bear Party in Barcelona – a massive revelation forced Morgan to re-evaluate everything. Being banned from Great Western trains, being fired as a Naked Butler, and ghosting Paul McCartney… were they really his fault?

Has that got you hooked? Good, because that’s the only stuff appropriate enough to include in the blurb. A stand-up show about the trials and errors of falling in love and keeping the spark alive, the spiral-inducing limbo of awaiting a diagnosis, and the experience of being a white Welsh valley boy integrating into a proud Gujarati family. Oh, he’s got plenty to talk about.

As well as garnering millions of views online and rave-reviews for his live shows, Morgan has supported Joanne McNally, Rhys James, Lucy Beaumont and Jayde Adams on tour, appeared as a finalist in the BBC New Comedy Awards, and hosts hit podcasts My Bad and Chatting With Cherubs alongside Josh Jones and Gearóid Farrelly.

Approximately 1 Hour 45 mins

The greatest story never told of the first ever female president of a country in the history of the world…

During Isabel Perón’s time in power (before she was overthrown in a military coup), Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice were writing their blockbuster musical about her dead husband’s even deader ex-wife. And now, nobody remembers Isabel. Coincidence?

Sh!t Theatre are here to right that wrong.

EVITA TOO tells Isabel’s story – and the story of Becca and Louise, who travel across Argentina and Spain in search of the mysterious former president.

While Becca and Louise endeavour to write a musical to match Evita, their lives surprisingly and tragically intertwine with Isabel’s.

Truth! Justice! Songs! Wizards?! Yes, wizards. And if you play your cards right, naked roller-skating.

Approximately 1 Hour 30 mins

Lucy Beaumont has had quite the year. She lost a contestant £79,000 on The Wheel, forgot to revise for Mastermind, and generally confirmed she’s terrible at quiz shows. So she’s sticking with what she does best – this autumn, she’s back on the road with a brand new show.

Following the success of her sell-out debut UK tour, Lucy returns with Bad at Quiz Shows, Good with Weirdos – an evening packed with chaotic brilliance, mayhem, and beautifully surreal storytelling that's made her one of the UK's most beloved comedians.

Expect tales of going into hiding after Celebrity Traitors, creating cow udder couture on The Great British Sewing Bee, and navigating life as someone for whom "normal" has never made much of an appearance.

Whether you loved her on Taskmaster, know her from her award-winning sitcom, or just appreciate someone who turns everyday disasters into comedic gold, this is the night out you need. Come for the chaos. Stay for the weirdos.

Following a huge debut national tour and sold out runs across London and Edinburgh, Kiell Smith-Bynoe (Ghosts, Taskmaster & Stath Lets Flats) returns with his smash-hit improv show.

Every night features a celebrity guest, a cast of the UK's best improvisers, and stories from you, the audience, to inspire the comedy!

Previous special guests have included: Amelia Dimoldenberg, Lily Allen, Jamie Demitriou, Adam Buxton, Mo Gilligan, Loly Adefope and Nish Kumar.

Previous improvisers have included: Emma Sidi, Lola-Rose Maxwell, Graham Dickson, Lara Ricote, Janine Harouni, Nic Sampson, Brendan Murphy and Rob Gilbert.

Sally Cookson and Adam Peck’s much-loved adaptation of Cinderella is back in Bristol, re-imagined for 2026.

After the death of her mother, the free-spirited Ella seeks solace in the woods surrounding her and her father’s home, enchanted by the birds that roost peacefully in the trees.

When her father remarries, Ella’s life is turned upside down by a host of new – and most unpleasant – relations. Ella’s feathered friends begin to feel like her only true family, until a mysterious boy (who shares her love of bird watching) stumbles upon her woodland hideout. And he has in his hand an invitation to the Royal Ball...

But Ella’s cruel and scheming Stepmother has other ideas. Will Ella ever make it to the ball? And is there more to her chirping chums than meets the eye?

Join Bristol Old Vic this festive season for an enchanting ensemble retelling of one of the best-loved fairy tales of all time. Inspired by the Brothers Grimm’s story, this dazzlingly original take will set your heart aflutter with live music, modern mischief and festive joy.

Approximately 2 Hours