8pm
They’ve lost the plot, the presents, and maybe even their pants, and nobody can really remember what the hell Christmas is about. Peace on earth? Party hats? Power ballads? Chest hairs? Chestnuts? Who knows?
Join us as your holiday heartthrobs strut, stumble and strip through the falling snow in seasonal disarray in a ridiculous yet fabulously camped-out search for what Christmas is all about.
Run time: 18.30 – 19:15
Throwback: it’s summer 2020, lockdowns are looming, you’ve bought yourself a pair of roller skates to cure your boredom…
Swoop over to see the Liverpool Roller Birds dance against an amazing, animated background and find out how antivirals are designed, in a unique collaboration with the Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Systems Biology and the Department of Infection Biology and Microbiomes (University of Liverpool).
During this performance, the skaters will reveal what coronaviruses get up to inside your cells during infection and how scientists design drugs to stop them.
Run time: 19.30 – 21.00
A girl walks down a blossom-lined street, a knife clutched in her pocket. She’s on her way to confront the man she believes killed her mother… ‘Batman (aka Naomi’s Death Show)’ is a live, choose-your-own-adventure story that also happens to be true. Come along to play ‘Death Bingo’ and ‘Serial Killer Family Fortunes’ and to sit shiva – collectively mourn – for the dead, and to immerse yourself in a world of extreme art. Ultimately you get to decide the direction the performance takes: will you choose mercy or revenge?
This is a true-crime satire, grounded in performer Naomi Westerman’s own experiences of parental death. Join her to work out whether love will save us or condemn us. The performance (60 minutes) will be followed by a panel discussion (30 minutes) exploring how the science of death can help us mourn. Writer and Performer, Noami Westerman will be joined by Kendra Roger (Table 11) and Dr Georgina Robinson (University of Durham) to discuss death, technology and communal grieving.
Please note that this event will involve discussions of death (including animal death), homelessness, and references to child abuse.
7:30pm
By Sam Freeman
This is a story about passive aggressive letter writing, early morning jet washing and making a house a home. It’s about those who live, laugh and love meters from us, but who really, we barely know at all.
A couple run through the rain to catch a bus.
A man stares at a blank laptop screen in desperation.
A woman opens an envelope to find a photo inside.
A new house on a new street with new neighbours.
A roughly seventy-two minute show, read from a little black book, by a scruffy, bearded, glasses-wearing man in a red check shirt and black jeans who does not own a pressure washer. A new storytelling show** by Sam Freeman (Every Little Hope You Ever Dreamed, Every Time I Close My Eyes).
**This show has minimal references to dogs.
A Unity Theatre Fundraising Event: All of the money from this event will go to supporting the work of Unity Theatre.
7:30PM
“The Invaders’ Fear of Memories” is a theatre piece based on the life and diaries of Yosef Nachmani – a Russian Jew who migrated from Tsarist Russia to Ottoman Palestine in 1907. Nachmani became Director of the Jewish National Fund in the Galilee and subsequently played a central role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine’s indigenous people. The play offers a perspective into the origins of settler-colonialism and apartheid in modern-day Israel, exploring themes of loyalty, violence, ideology, and grief.
The Invaders’ Fear of Memories is performed by Benjamin Rivers, the great grandson of Nachmani. Over the course of the play, Rivers performs 12 characters and sings in Arabic, Hebrew, Ukrainian, and Yiddish.
The production is directed by Linda Wise, an original member of the iconic Roy Hart Theatre Company.
Since August 2023, The Invaders’ Fear of Memories has been performed to audiences across four continents.
Audience reviews:
“The Invaders’ Fear of Memories” is a jaw-dropping tour de force through history that has never been more relevant. Ben Rivers deftly slips between characters to create a collage of voice and song that is both powerful and rich with devastating truth and subtly observed nuance.
Emily Conolan, Author and refugee advocate, Australia.
“The Invaders’ Fear of Memories,” a one-man play by Ben Rivers, is both an urgently needed piece of history and an extraordinary work of art. Rivers, portraying twelve characters, brings to life his own great-grandfather’s story, first as an oppressed Jew in Tsarist Russia and then his inexorable transformation into an active participant in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland. With gorgeous, stirring songs in Ukrainian, Yiddish, Hebrew and Arabic woven throughout, “The Invaders’ Fear of Memories” confronts us with the tragic cycles of history in which we are still caught. It could not be more relevant in today’s violent world.
Jo Salas, Author and co-founder of Playback Theatre, New York.
List of team and cast
Written and performed by Benjamin Rivers
Directed by Linda Wise
7:30pm
The acclaimed series of work in progress nights at Unity continues into 2025 by popular demand with monthly instalments of never before seen work.
Over the last year Unity has established itself as the go to venue for fresh, and innovative new work with a sell out series of work in progress evenings and unmissable variety nights.
Get your tickets now to avoid dissapointment.
The Line Up
Kerynne
Laura Greenwood
Caught Red Handed
7:30pm
The acclaimed series of work in progress nights at Unity continues into 2025 by popular demand with monthly instalments of never before seen work.
Over the last year Unity has established itself as the go to venue for fresh, and innovative new work with a sell out series of work in progress evenings and unmissable variety nights.
Get your tickets now to avoid dissapointment.
The Line Up
The Fabulous Pheasant Theatre Company
Tara Morony
Gobby Girls Scouse Sketch
Melissa Hale
Jen & Mike
7:30pm
Mr Blackpool is a seaside rave at the end of the world. A brand new theatrical installation from award-winning theatre maker Harry Clayton-Wright embedding the history of ‘end of the pier’ entertainment, cabaret, variety, drag and dance music. Exploring the past and future of this iconic seaside town through a contemporary performance lens, come prepared to dance, sweat and escape into this tongue-in-cheek extravaganza.
Created and performed in collaboration with Oliver Gregory, aka Miss Titty Kaka, an international showgirl sensation who started their performance career at Blackpool drag institution Funny Girls when they were 18 years old. Also featuring Aish Bell Docherty and Sam Bell Docherty on the decks and on stage. A married dancing duo from Blackpool whose work has been seen on stage and screen.
Material (developed and created in a recent research and development process at ACCA in October 2024), will be performed and tested for the first time with an audience in an exciting evening of presentation and conversation, including a post performance Q&A with the artists.
Commissioned and presented by Marlborough Productions and Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts. Research and development commissioned by Marlborough Productions, Homotopia, Shoreditch Town Hall and Cambridge Junction with support from The Old Electric and using public funding by Arts Council England
7:30pm
In a time defined by division – what might happen if we allow ourselves space to dream? How do the stories we tell to & about ourselves shape the world around us? How might the voices of our queer ancestors forge our future?
Having cut her teeth across the UK cabaret circuit developing a unique performance style that blends spectacle with deep vulnerability, these are the questions at the heart of Dross’ solo theatrical debut. It’s a show about radical empathy, deep listening & re-membering ourselves.
Weaving a thread that is equal parts biography and fantasy – AN EVENING WITH DROSS is a kaleidoscopic multimedia patchwork that seamlessly blends film, physical theatre and lip-sync – ‘elevating the craft of Drag into a place of collective hallucination’.
Dross’ physical performance is the locus of this work, acting as a conduit for forgotten and familiar voices from queer activism & cultural history. Here, the Drag Queen is repositioned as a living archive; a way-finder in a constellation of contradictions.
Audiences have called it a ‘masterclass in the art of lip-sync’, a ‘queer séance’, an ‘intelligent and thoughtful reflection on LGBTQ+ identity and community’ & ‘beautiful, smart and hilarious in waves.’
The project was developed with the kind support of FACT Studio/Labs & Homotopia QueerCore artist development programme. First scratched as part of the Homotopia QueerCore showcase at the Everyman Theatre, & then at QUARRY, Liverpool in August 2023. Since then, working iterations/excerpts of the show have been presented at Shakespeare North Playhouse, Preston Fringe, & at None of the Above Cabaret: In Conversation with Travis Alabanza.
The completed work has been presented as part of Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival, The Arts Centre, Edge Hill University & at The Divine, London. We are looking to tour the work nationally from Autumn 2025 into 2026.
DROSS is a neurodiverse, queer performance maker, activist, producer and scholar, living and working in the Liverpool City Region. She was Director & Co-Producer for EAT ME (Liverpool’s radical queer performance collective & production house) from 2019 to 2024. Most recently she starred in Katarzyna Perlak’s art film The Land Beneath Sleeps Lightly presented for Liverpool Biennial 2025.
She has produced, hosted and presented work in an array of queer performance contexts nationally – including galleries, clubs, festivals & theatres. In 2023 she hosted the Liverpool Eurovision Finale party at Pier Head for 20,000 revellers. She has recently produced the sixth month drag and queer performance artist development/incubator project Pink Pony Club, for emerging queer performance makers in Liverpool nightlife.
Her contemporaries (many of which also EAT ME alumni) include Sharon le Grand, Lasana Shabazz, Dan Chan, Midgitte Bardot, Franz Genau & Auntie Climax.
She is interested in horror, camp, magic & liberation. She is an interdisciplinary magpie, with wanton disregard for genre & form.
CREATIVE TEAM:
Devised and performed by Dross
Dramaturgy: Alice Holland
Script Advisor: Brendan Curtis
Musical Elements: Emily Meghan Lansley & Alex Germains
Animation Elements: Laura Spark
Costuming: Lizzie Biscuits
Show Manager(s) Danielle Scharpf & Evyn Seaton-Mooney
6-8pm
Join writer Claire Beerjeraz for an inspiring creative writing workshop exploring the themes of home and belonging. Claire will guide participants through a series of prompts that they used in the development of their show Rooted, offering a hands-on opportunity to write, reflect, and create.
You’ll also gain insight into Claire’s creative process, with a chance to see how these writing exercises helped shape Rooted and their wider theatre practice. Whether you’re a seasoned writer or just starting out, this workshop invites you to connect with your own stories and discover new ways of telling them.