Open Works is a bold celebration of theatre, offering a platform for the most exciting and dynamic artists in South Yorkshire.
The Open Works Festival will take place for the first time in autumn 2026 across the Montgomery Theatre and Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse at Sheffield Theatres.
Open Works brings together leading names in British theatre alongside exciting local creators, featuring work from theatre companies Forced Entertainment, Roots Mbili, Stand and Be Counted, The Bare Project, LUNG, and Swans Productions.
The festival is a dynamic melting pot of world premieres, fully staged productions, works-in-progress, rehearsed readings, in conversations and industry workshops – all designed to champion bold stories, diverse perspectives, and fresh ideas.
Work in Progress stagings will offer early glimpses of shows. Rehearsed Readings will showcase stripped-back script performances allowing writers to gauge audience reactions to pieces. And Scratch Nights will offer informal evenings of 30-minute fragments and experiments where artists take risks and share brand-new material with an audience for the very first time.
The new festival will also feature artist-led workshops that offer a rare insight into the creative process from some of its most significant practitioners aimed at industry professionals and those wanting to develop their craft.
Open Works 2026 programme:
Performances
Good Day Sunshine | By Monica Hunken, co-produced by The Signal House
Playhouse | Mon 28 Sept | 7.30pm
A solo show from a frontline American activist. Cycling through New York delivering charity valentines, one woman fights to stay tender and hopeful in a collapsing world.
A Simply Beastly Murder | By Rachel E. Thorn
Montgomery | Tue 29 Sept | 7.30pm
A stage film noir starring the Famous Five. Expect gangsters, intrigue, lashings of tinned pineapple, with additional voices by Alistair McGowan. Nominated for the Funny Women Awards.
Batty! | By Victoria Firth
Playhouse | Thu 1 Oct | 7pm
Have you got a wild side? Batty does—she dreams of running barefoot, wild swimming, talking trees, and turning seasons. In fact, she’s starting to wonder if she might be a witch…
BIG STRONG MAN | By The Growth House
Montgomery | Thu 1 Oct | 7.30pm
Four Northern lads face the impossible task of fixing the men’s mental health crisis in a single night. A raucous cabaret-comedy featuring song, dance, game show parodies, and a bear.
Cold Sweat | By Forced Entertainment
Playhouse | Fri 2 – Sat 3 Oct | 7pm
Virtuoso performers map their bodies to the strange, non-human rhythms of AI voices. The result is absurd, hilarious, unsettling, and poetic contemporary theatre.
Woodhill | By LUNG
Playhouse | Tue 6 – Wed 7 Oct, 7pm | Wed 7 Oct, 2pm
Three men are dead inside Woodhill prison. Their families demand answers. An explosive true story and rallying cry regarding the UK prison crisis from multi-award-winning LUNG.
Ìlọ́yá... the Journey Begins | By Oluwasegun Lafup Ogundipe
Montgomery Studio | Wed 7 Oct | 2pm & 6pm
Mokan has a plan: dream job, family home, the girl. Lagos has other plans. A joyful, moving, and immersive one-man odyssey of migration, ambition, and love.
The Hunger | By Black Bright Theatre
Montgomery | Wed 7 – Thu 8 Oct | 7.30pm
Megan and Deborah live isolated on their Yorkshire Dales farm. What was once home is now their last refuge. Kitchen-sink drama meets post-apocalyptic horror.
How Could I Forget? | By Joe Carnall Jnr
Playhouse | Fri 9 – Sat 10 Oct, 7pm | Sat 10 Oct, 2pm
Set in Sheffield, a new original musical blending heartfelt storytelling, humor, and unforgettable songs. Created by Sheffield musician Joe Carnall Jnr (Milburn, Reverend and The Makers).
Work in progress
For Worms | By Caitlin Clough — Montgomery | Mon 28 Sept | 7pm
Suzie breaks ground on an urban guerrilla garden, but her digging unearths long-buried trauma and attracts mysterious enemies.
Tuesdays at Tesco's | By Emmanuel Darley — Playhouse | Tue 29 Sept | 1pm
All eyes are on Jacqueline when she takes her father shopping on Tuesdays. They know her—before Jacqueline, her name was something else. A dead name that her father still holds onto.
TOFU | By Ke Li — Montgomery Studio | Wed 30 Sept | 2pm
Built from real conversations with British East and Southeast Asian communities, exploring how food holds memories, heritage, and home.
Soap Box Spotlight | By Stand & Be Counted — Playhouse| Wed 30 Sept | 7pm
A vibrant celebration of storytelling and fresh works-in-development presented by the Soap Box Collective from the UK’s first Theatre Company of Sanctuary.
KalakutHER | Queens of Fela's Republic | By Oluwasegun Lafup Ogundipe — Montgomery | Fri 2 Oct | 2pm
18 February 1977: Soldiers stormed Kalakuta to silence the Afrobeat revolution. They failed. Now, the Queens who rebuilt it from the ashes finally speak.
Seven Magic Birds | An African Panto | By Roots Mbili Theatre — Montgomery | Sat 3 Oct | 2pm & 7pm
What happens when British pantomime rules and conventions are thrown into chaos by an African folktale? Let's find out together.
Cat | By Chris Salt — Playhouse | Mon 5 Oct | 1pm
Catalina of Motril, former servant to Queen Catherine of Aragon, suddenly becomes Europe’s Most Wanted—watching her hard-won sanctuary slip away once more.
Double Bill: School Uniforms & Not That Asian —Montgomery | Tue 6 Oct | 6.30pm
School Uniforms (By Chris Dean): It's the last day of Year 11 and Joe is buzzing! But when he follows Liam into the science block toilets, his world flips upside down.
Not That Asian: (By Not That Asian Theatre) A work-in-progress clown show mixing projection, physical comedy, and music to celebrate East Asian culture.
Double Bill: Echo Echo Beach & Tuesdays at Tesco's — Playhouse | Thu 8 Oct | 7pm
Echo Echo Beach (By Sh!t Theatre): An ode to the crumbling glory of British seaside towns and aging bodies.
Tuesdays at Tesco's (By Emmanuel Darley): All eyes are on Jacqueline when she takes her father shopping on Tuesdays. They know her—before Jacqueline, her name was something else. A dead name that her father still holds onto.
The Thin Places | By Voyager 3 — Montgomery Studio | Fri 9 Oct | 1pm & 4.30pm
An intimate storytelling performance exploring the folklore and landscape legends of our islands—from Balmoral to Barbrook, Iona to the Mendip Hills.
Ijakadi (The Wrestle) | By Julius Obende & Joshua Alabi — Montgomery | Sat 10 Oct | 12pm
Blending spoken word, movement, visual storytelling, and live African percussion on a journey through colorism, identity, masculinity, and belonging.
Rehearsed readings
Jack and Gill | By Grace Waga Glevey — Playhouse | Mon 28 Sept | 1pm
Set in a fading Humberside care home, a tender, funny, and honest exploration of aging, community, and the ties that bind us.
Brown Nose | By Noor Sobka — Montgomery | Wed 30 Sept | 6pm
British-Libyan Sabreen’s future mother-in-law is basically a Disney villain! A feral, hilarious reclamation of Aladdin—sassy, shape-shifting genie included.
A Sound is Still a Sound | By CJ Simon — Montgomery Studio | Thu 1 Oct | 1pm
The club is packed. Tyrell should be behind the bar, but he’s abandoned his post to chase after someone he thinks is his ex...
Double Bill: Run Away With & Cottagecore —Montgomery | Mon 5 Oct | 7pm
Run Away With (By Erin Revell): A dark comedy asking whether Sam and Ali are putting off starting a family due to politics—or something far more personal.
Cottagecore (By Simon Marshall): A queer folk drama set in rural Cornwall exploring shapeshifting within relationships, isolation, and domestic haunts.
Blame it on the Pop | By Melissa Parker — Playhouse | Thu 8 Oct | 1pm
A darkly funny play set between 2009 and the present day in small-town Yorkshire, exploring female friendship, teenage drama, and the fallout of growing up in the noughties.
Scratch nights
Scratch Night 1: Playhouse | Tue 29 Sept | 7pm
Scratch Night 2: Playhouse | Mon 5 Oct | 7pm
Workshops
Character Through Movement (Roots Mbili Theatre) | Montgomery Studio | Mon 28 Sept | 11am
Explore how body mechanics shape speech and behavior, using movement exercises to build rich fictional characters and monologues.
The Street is Theatre! Workshop | Montgomery Studio | Tue 29 Sept | 11am
Honoring Sheffield’s rich history of collective voice, explore how public spaces become dynamic stages for resistance, storytelling, and imagination.
Listening to Landscapes (The Bare Project) | Montgomery | Wed 30 Sept | 11am
Use field recordings of nature as creative triggers to devise performance, write stories, and reflect on our relationship with surrounding environments.
Text, Rules, Improvisation and Performance (Forced Entertainment) | Montgomery Studio | Fri 2 Oct | 11am
Led by Tim Etchells—a practical masterclass using games, rules, and experiments to explore new approaches to text and stage performance.
BBC Writers Session (Esther Jackson-Burton) | Montgomery Studio | Mon 5 Oct | 11.30am
Learn directly from a BBC Writers Development Producer about submitting scripts, pitch tips, and available talent schemes.
Verbatim Bootcamp (LUNG) | Montgomery Studio | Tue 6 Oct | 11am
A practical intro to verbatim theatre. Learn how real testimony and interview transcripts are edited, shaped, and brought to life on stage.
Art and Activism (Stand & Be Counted Theatre) | Montgomery Studio | Thu 8 Oct | 11am
Explore creative arts as a catalyst for social change and test different forms of artistic protest to make a difference in the world.
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