Following a summer spent celebrating 100 years of radical theatre in Liverpool, Unity Theatre is looking ahead with an Autumn/Winter 2026 season that feels every bit as ambitious.
The Hope Place venue has long occupied a distinctive place in Liverpool’s cultural landscape, combining its reputation as one of the city’s most welcoming theatre spaces with a willingness to take risks, platform underrepresented voices and give emerging artists the same stage as nationally acclaimed touring companies. That commitment runs throughout the new programme, which brings together theatre, dance, comedy, film, physical performance and family shows. And, as the nights begin to draw in, there is certainly plenty happening behind Unity’s doors.
The season gets underway with the return of Physical Fest, Liverpool’s International Festival of Contemporary Physical Theatre, which runs from Monday 7 September. Produced by Liverpool-based Tmesis Theatre, the seven-day festival brings together some of the most exciting visual and movement-based performance from around the world, alongside workshops and events. Established in 2005, Physical Fest is one of only two dedicated physical theatre festivals in the UK and has built an international reputation for celebrating the form in all its many variations.
October brings Liverpool Irish Festival to Unity, including The Life and Times of Paddy Armstrong on Friday 30 and Saturday 31 October. The acclaimed one-man production tells the story of Armstrong, one of the Guildford Four, who was wrongly convicted in 1975 of involvement in the Guildford and Woolwich bombings. Starring one of Ireland’s best-loved actors, Don Wycherley, the production promises an unflinching but deeply human account of a man failed by the justice system, while refusing to allow that experience to define the rest of his life.
November sees the return of Homotopia Festival and a programme reflecting Unity’s continuing role as a home for Queer arts, culture and activism. Natural Behaviour, on Saturday 7 November, combines dance, satire, impersonation and poetry in an exploration of what we describe as natural and unnatural, while Fag Packet: DYKE Systems Ltd arrives on Thursday 19th November with an anarchic mixture of comedy and physical theatre. Selected as one of The Stage’s Fringe Five, it takes aim at everything from pyramid schemes to corporate feminism and ruthless heteronormativity.
Local stories remain central to the programme too. The Story of Edith Smith, showing on Wednesday 16th September, uncovers the remarkable story of the Oxton born woman who became Britain’s first female Police Constable with full powers of arrest. It’s part of the wider Her Stories of Wirral project, the production looks beyond the history books to explore Smith’s life, responsibilities and the restrictions placed upon women at the time.
Unity’s partnership with Liverpool Doc Club also continues with an intriguing selection of cinematic non-fiction. My Stolen Planet, on Saturday 26 September, pieces together an alternative history of Iran through private footage, family recordings and moments of quiet defiance. October then brings Wolf & Dog and Kora, while the extraordinary, wordless visual experience of Koyaanisqatsi, accompanied by Philip Glass’s iconic score, screens on Thursday 29 October. The series concludes in November with Pictures of Ghosts, the Oscar-nominated Kleber Mendonça Filho’s personal and cinematic journey through Recife.
Elsewhere, the season includes LUNG’s explosive true story Woodhill, the coming-of-age drama Off Key, and a suitably festive run towards Christmas. RAWD brings Tinsel on the Tracks in early December, Arts Groupie presents Ghost Stories for Christmas, while Unity’s own The Night the Toys Came to Life promises puppetry, physicality and plenty of seasonal magic for families.
But before all that, audiences can get an early glimpse of the programme at Unity’s Autumn/Winter 2026 Season Launch on Wednesday 2 September.
It is a season which once again demonstrates what Unity does best: creating space for stories that might otherwise go unheard, while ensuring there is always something unexpected waiting just around the corner.
To find out more and book tickets visit unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk.
