After a successful, extended tour of 2022’s Stretch and Think, Justin Moorhouse is back on the road with brand-new show The Greatest Performance of My Life.
Join Justin as he discusses everything from pantomimes to dreams, how to behave in hospitals, small talk, realising his Mum is a northern version of Columbo, and how being a smart-mouthed kid saved him from a life of continually being beaten up. It’s funny and interesting, and perhaps a little bit heart-warming, too.
Get ready for a glorious night of standup comedy in our Cockpit that’s here to prove one undeniable truth: women are in fact hilarious.
Featuring a stellar lineup of the funniest female and non-binary comedians from across the North West and beyond.
Kay Nicholson is an incredibly dynamic and witty comedian making waves on the UK comedy circuit. Known for her sharp observational humour and down-to-earth style, Kay delivers performances that resonate with audiences from all walks of life. Her relatable storytelling, coupled with her infectious energy, makes her a favourite at clubs and festivals alike.
Kay’s natural stage presence and quick wit have earned her spots at some of the country’s most prestigious comedy venues, including regular appearances at Hot Water Comedy Club. A rising star with a fresh perspective, Kay Nicholson continues to charm and entertain with her unique comedic voice. She is currently starring in the UK tour of Andrea Dunbar’s hit comedy Rita, Sue and Bob Too.
“One of the best new acts I’ve ever seen” – Jamie Hutchinson
“The up & coming queen of scouse comedy” – Skiddle
OPEN: Katie Tracey
Kate Tracey is a rising star in the UK comedy scene, known for her sharp wit and engaging stage presence. She made her stand-up debut over a decade ago at Hot Water Comedy Club in Liverpool, one of the biggest comedy venues in the country, and has since evolved into a seasoned performer, now headlining shows at the very place where her journey began. Kate’s comedy is a clever blend of relatable anecdotes and bold humour, delivered with a natural confidence that keeps audiences hooked. Her growth from a first-time performer to a headline act is a testament to her talent, making her a must-see comedian on the circuit.
MIDDLE: Anna Thomas
Winner of the BBC New Comedian of the Year, 2021 Nominated for the Sean Lock Award on Channel 4, 2023
“She has the appealing air of not quite being of this world. But whatever planet she’s from, they know funny” – Chortle
Anna Thomas is an award-winning comedian, originally hailing from Carmarthenshire, South Wales.
She wrote and starred in ‘Lady Bigfoot’, a short film that premiered on BBC One Wales, and is available on the BBC iPlayer.
As heard and seen on ‘What Just Happened’ on BBC Radio Wales and BBC One Wales, ‘The Machynlleth Comedy Festival Showcase’ on BBC Radio Wales and BBC 4Xtra.
“Welsh starlet, Anna is the breakthrough act of the moment and highly touted for a successful career in comedy. Comparisons with fellow Welsh comic, Rhod Gilbert don’t end with their accents; Anna’s delightfully grumpy and gruff delivery leaves audiences belly laughing”– Punch Drunk Comedy
“A dotty oddball with a giddy energy… tumble of daft ideas that sweeps everyone up with her daffy charm” – Chortle
“Anna Thomas is a Welsh delight on stage” – Skiddle
HEADLINER: Rachel Fairburn
Now based in London, and star of Live at the Apollo and Comedy Central Live, Rachel has been described by Rolling Stone as ‘very much the Rock ‘n’ Roll star of British comedy’. She has been a finalist of several prestigious competitions including Funny Women, City Life Comedian of the Year, the NATYS and English Comedian of the Year.
Rachel has been a staple of the Edinburgh Fringe since 2014, with 6 critically acclaimed solo shows under her belt and featured in the ‘40 jokes of the fringe’ by the Daily Telegraph in 2018 and ‘Best Jokes from Edinburgh Fringe 2022’ in The Times. She also featured on Chortle’s ‘One to Watch’ list in 2020 and picked up the 2019 online content award from Joe.co.uk.
She has appeared on BBC Presents: Stand Up For Live Comedy and BBC’s Funny Festival Live. Her TV credit’s include Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled, Richard Osman’s House of Games and Russell Howard Hour Life Lessons.
Rachel is also a popular podcaster, co-hosting and co-writing the worldwide smash hit podcast All Killa No Filla. With a huge international following of over a quarter of a million listeners and growing, she has taken the podcast on several sell-out UK tours and a tour of the USA. She also features in Global Original’s Ghoul Guide with Rachel Fairburn and Glad Rags with Paul McCaffrey & Rachel Fairburn.
Liverpool’s Stealing Sheep team up with She Drew the Gun, Meduulla, Ellaments (Big Joanie) and more to unleash GLO: Girl Life Online: an arthouse touring show diving into the virtual subconscious of culture through a girlhood lens. Questioning how reality is shaped by the internet and how girlhood is formed under its influence, the project explores dopamine living, distraction, obey-culture vs IRL experience, and nostalgia for free-party freedom.
Working as multi-instrumentalists with analog synths, Stealing Sheep deliver a high-energy live experience for fans of Talking Heads and Confidence Man. Styled with costume designer Ellie Coolegreen, the show channels cosmic fighter-girl chic, inflatable humour, oversized silhouettes and frazzled, capitalist playboy Gen-Z couture. Guerrilla girls energy for the algorithm age: chaotic, conscious, fun club energy.
Down in Laurel Canyon is a 7-piece band reimagining iconic 60s – 70s California hits, bringing the timeless music of Neil Young, Carole King, Fleetwood Mac, and more to life.
Join the Novello Orchestra for Disney in Concert: The Sound of Magic, a symphonic celebration of Disney music, animation and memories – a century in the making!
Your favourite characters and music from across the Walt Disney Animation Studios catalogue come to life on the concert hall stage and screen to create a cinematic concert experience like never before. Performed by a live symphony orchestra, beloved songs and scores are combined into exciting new medleys and suites, creating an unexpected and thrilling journey of music and animation that only Disney can deliver.
This newly-imagined concert takes you on a magic carpet ride through the most memorable song, score and movie moments of The Walt Disney Company, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Moana, Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin, The Jungle Book, Frozen, The Lion King, Fantasia, Encanto, Beauty and the Beast and more.
Leap Dance Festival returns for 2026 with a programme showcasing the work of local artists, community groups and young people. Ths year, they’re bringing back some of their most popular events, including Dancing at the Palm House, our Schools and Youth platforms and Dancing in the Streets.
See below for the full programme of events.
YOU & US | Cathy Waller Dance – The Capstone Theatre, Fri 24 April, 7.30pm
An emotionally powerful contemporary dance work exploring invisible disability, identity and belonging, set to an original soundtrack by MOBO-winning composer Lewis Wright.
Youth Dance Showcase – The Arts Centre, City of Liverpool College, Sat 25 April, 6pm
A celebratory evening showcasing dance performances by talented young people from schools and youth groups across the North West.
Dancing at the Palm House – Sefton Park Palm House, Sun 26 April, 12.30pm
A free afternoon of performances and participatory workshops featuring community dance groups in the stunning surroundings of Liverpool’s iconic Palm House.
Schools Dance Platform: Dancing Through the Decades – Liverpool Lighthouse, Tue 28 April, 7pm
Students from regional schools and colleges perform dance pieces inspired by music and styles spanning the last 100 years.
Liverpool Dance Prize – Unity Theatre, Thu 30 April, 7.30pm
Four emerging choreographers present new work in competition for a £1000 development grant, spotlighting the next generation of dance talent.
Queer Moves – Unity Theatre, Fri 1 May, 7.30pm
A vibrant evening of contemporary dance by LGBTQIA+ artists from Liverpool, including newly commissioned works supported by Culture Liverpool.
Windows of Displacement | Toussaint To Move – Unity Theatre, Sat 2 May, 7.30pm
A compelling autobiographical solo blending dance, song and spoken word to explore migration, identity and ancestral memory.
Dancing in the Streets – Liverpool ONE, Mon 4 May, 12pm – 4pm
A free outdoor programme of performances and pop-up dance activity bringing a wide range of styles to Liverpool city centre.
Interplay | Phoenix Dance Theatre – Liverpool Playhouse, Fri 8 May, 7.30pm
An exciting mixed bill featuring internationally acclaimed choreographers exploring collaboration, contrast and creative exchange through contemporary dance.
Shakespeare North Takeover – Shakespeare North Playhouse, Sat 9 May, 12pm – 6pm
A full day of dance activity including free taster sessions, new works-in-progress, and a creative life drawing session inspired by live performers.
Big Burlesque Cabaret – Shakespeare North Playhouse, Sat 9 May, 8pm
The festival finale brings an 18+ evening of burlesque, cabaret and aerial performance celebrating bold, inclusive and high-energy live entertainment.
A life (drawing) less ordinary is a creative social for people to come together and create drawings, paintings, sculpture and more, inspired by contemporary dance. There will be dancers and musicians performing live in the Gallery space at Shakespeare North Playhouse.
Bring your own materials and sketch / snap / jot down your interpretations of the movements, as performers travel around the space.
Usually £12, we are offering this class for FREE during Leap Dance Festival 2026 as part of our take over of Shakespeare North Playhouse! Please book a place so we have an idea of numbers. This event takes places in Shakespeare North’s Gallery.
Find out more about Leap 2026: leapfestival.co.uk
Enter a world of raucous entertainment as we close this year’s festival with an evening of burlesque, cabaret and aerial performances, in Shakespeare North’s breathtaking Cockpit Stage.
Featuring: The Classic Tease Serving British Sleaze Cadbury Parfait, Ooh La La Cabaret’s Paul Curran, boylesque artist Joss La Porta, circus performer Velma Von Bon Bon and The Stiletto Prince Rajan Das.
This is an inclusive, LGBTQIA+ event, and everyone is welcome (18+). This event takes place in Shakespeare North Playhouse’s Cockpit Theatre
Produced by Chaos Arts CIC for Leap Dance Festival
Three new dance works in development, created for Leap 2026, exploring identity, intimacy and liberation. This event takes place in Shakespeare North Playhouse’s Studio.
Taciturn | Women Holding Things
In the rhythm of everyday life, their hands gather the things that keep the world moving. They carry the quiet responsibility of nurturing and sustaining the spaces where life unfolds. Within them rests a living archive of memories, joys, griefs and hopes. In their care, love becomes both weight and strength, something held gently yet carried forward.
C(P)LAY | Price of Silence
What happens to the body when adapting and complying become the only way to maintain stability within a relationship?
Price of Silence examines the subtle and often invisible pressures that exist within unequal relationships. In many situations from intimate partnerships to wider social structures, stability is maintained through constant adjustment, and this adaptation is rarely shared equally.
Olena Hrabchak | Canvas of Becoming
Canvas of Becoming is a symbolic exploration of personal growth and self-liberation. The dancer’s white costume represents openness and possibility. What begins as beauty evolves into visual and physical burden.
Produced by Chaos Arts CIC for Leap Dance Festival. Find out more about Leap 2026: leapfestival.co.uk
Roy Claire Potter has worked with a team of fellow artists, radio astronomers, amateur radio operators, musicians and creative consultants to research and develop ‘COMMS FAIL’, a multicomponent artwork that will unfold throughout 2026.
Several iterations including, a performance, a live radio broadcast, an album with booklet, and a sculptural installation explore the grammar of communicative resilience and remote connection by amplifying autistic perspectives.
On Saturday 2nd May at the Bluecoat, a staged performance written for three voices with music composed by Carmel Smickersgill, will invite a live audience to help produce a radio broadcast for a remote audience. There will be gentle interaction with ushers and performers to pick your preferred spot to enjoy the action, and to contribute by making sounds or being quiet, moving props, or being a witness..
The performance and simultaneous radio broadcast lasts for 1 hour and begins with ushers welcoming guests into a large, dimmed performance space. Live audio description of the audience settling in and actors setting up their space will be audible in the room at first, before transferring to headsets. Throughout the performance soft white spotlights occasionally turn red, acting as a cue for the live audience to interact with sound-making props to herald listeners elsewhere.
COMMS FAIL is mixed live for broadcast on Resonance FM online and 104.4 FM in Central London Research and development has been generously supported by Art Explora, Paris, and informed by consultancy from Erik Chancy (LB1KJ) of Norsk Radio Relæ Liga, Philippe Zarka, CNRS Research Director at Paris Observatory, and by the work of Professor Philippa Browning at Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester.
Later in 2026, a live album documenting the performance will be released on Cafe OTO’s digital record label TAKUROKU along with a booklet published under their new imprint OTOHON, containing the script and the visual scores that informed the music. All proceeds will go to National Autistic Society, UK.
This project is an Unlimited UK Partner Award 2025 commission with Liverpool Biennial made possible thanks to funding from Arts Council England.