Nine awards will fund a dozen new productions, eight commissions and 200 performances, reshaping the region's theatre landscape for years to come.

Group Editor Andrew Palmer reports on a landmark funding announcement for Northern theatre

Arts Council England yesterday announced £2 million in grants for Black, Asian and ethnically diverse theatre makers across the North of England, in one of the most significant single investments in the region's theatre sector in recent years.

The money comes through the Theatre Breakthrough Fund, launched in December 2025 to redistribute public investment freed up by the closure of Eclipse Theatre Company. The fund was designed to carry forward the spirit of Eclipse's work: touring, artist development and theatre that takes risks. Applicants were asked for ideas with genuine ambition — work that pushed boundaries, forged new collaborations and built audiences in the North for high-quality new theatre.

Nine recipients have been chosen from what Arts Council England describes as an exceptional field. Between them, the awards will support an estimated twelve new productions, eight new commissions and around two hundred performances, along with new partnerships, employment and talent development across the sector.

Jen Cleary, the Arts Council's Director North and Combined Arts, called the response to the fund proof of the depth of talent in the region. "We received an exceptional response, from which we've selected nine exciting proposals and new partnerships to take forward," she said. "Not only has the fund demonstrated the rich talent and the wealth of ideas that exists across the North, it has also sparked new conversations for us, and for the artists involved, which we're keen to help develop in the future."

The largest awards go to two epic, generation-spanning works. Bradford's Kully Thiarai receives £330,000 for Smokeless Fire, which follows four generations of South Asian women from rural Northern India to the industrial cities of West Yorkshire, spanning three continents and eight decades through magical realism. "It offers up the opportunity for me to work with some of my brilliant peers and expand my own creative practice in a work that speaks to my cultural history in so many ways," Thiarai said.

Sheffield-based Roots Mbili takes £250,000 to co-produce and tour Kubulaya: Away From Home with Sheffield Theatres, a story of a Zambian family divided by a life-changing decision, woven through with Zambian folk music and questions of spirituality, money and taboo among the African diaspora. "After years of working project by project, this support marks an exciting new chapter for RMT," the company said. "It will help us co-produce this vital play with Sheffield Theatres, tour nationally, deepen our connections with Sheffield communities, and create exciting opportunities for artists to develop, collaborate and thrive."

Writer, performer and composer Testament, working with director Dermot Daly, has been awarded £232,379 for a new play with the working title Runaway, interweaving the true story of Thomas Anson — who escaped slavery in Yorkshire in 1758 — with that of a Black teenage girl in contemporary Britain. Grammy winner Corinne Bailey Rae contributes original music. The production will launch Theatre Decoded, a new Northern Black British theatre company founded by Testament and Daly with support from Alex Chisholm at Leeds Studio. "We've also seen gaps in theatre's ecology in bringing through Black artists and stories," Testament said. "Theatre Decoded will bring fresh perspectives, make connections and opportunities across the North, building on the brilliance of the Black artists and activists who have gone before us."

In the North East, a partnership between Kema Kay, Northern Roots and Live Theatre in Newcastle has secured £237,084 to create Kay's new work Bred and Roses and to build lasting infrastructure for Black-led theatre in the region, with paid opportunities, mentoring and leadership pathways built in from the start. "This investment lets us build something bigger than one production," said Kema Sikazwe, Northern Roots' artistic director. "With Northern Roots and Live Theatre, we're creating a programme that nurtures Northern Black talent, opens real opportunities for Black theatre makers, and brings audiences together to listen, learn and celebrate our voices."

Manchester's theatre and access producer Grace Ng has been awarded £274,743 to establish Horizons Collective, building co-commissioning partnerships with New Earth Theatre, The Lowry, Z-arts, Alira Arts, Something To Aim For and eight regional venues across six cities, to support British East and South East Asian artists making new work in the North. "Manchester and the North is home to a precious abundance of talent and ambition among British East Asian and South East Asian theatre makers," Ng said. "Together with longstanding, trusted partners, we can now go and establish producing contexts that will make transformative artistic experiences."

Also in Manchester, Factory International associate artist Darren Pritchard takes £216,248 for an ambitious cross-disciplinary initiative spanning theatre, dance, drag, circus, aerial performance and live music. It will tour the family show Party Underground across the North, and launch Party In The Sky and the adult celebration After Dark, both co-produced with Factory International at Aviva Studios. "I want to create bold, joyful theatre that puts QTIPOC communities, the wider POC community and our allies centre stage," Pritchard said, "while creating opportunities for artists across the North and taking our stories to new audiences."

Tameside's Hafsah Aneela Bashir has been awarded £115,000 for the national premiere of Four Dholis and a Divorce, an autobiographical work exploring marriage rituals, folk tradition, divorce and mental health within a Muslim South Asian community, paired with grassroots workshops for marginalised Black, Asian and ethnically diverse women. "This support gives us the opportunity to bring untold stories of Muslim South Asian women to the stage with ambition, joy and honesty," she said, "while creating meaningful spaces for women in our communities to be heard, celebrated and empowered."

In Lancaster, Ryan Harston receives £167,480 to create STOLEN, an immersive physical theatre production about growing up between cultures, combining hip-hop, spoken word, object manipulation and 360-degree binaural audio so audiences experience the story from multiple perspectives at once. "I've carried this story for a long time," he said, "and being given the opportunity to finally develop it at this scale is incredibly exciting."

And in Liverpool, Keith Saha will use his £286,122 award to establish Keith Saha Studios after twenty years co-leading 20 Stories High, developing two new productions and an R&D project in partnership with SICK! Productions, Factory International, Imagination Lancaster, Z-arts, Slung Low and Theatre-Rites, reaching communities in Manchester, Liverpool, Bradford and Coventry, with ambitions to tour internationally. "This investment gives me the freedom to take creative risks," Saha said, "to make work that is personal, political and joyful with an amazing bunch of collaborators."

Nine artists, nine very different stories — but a single, shared wager that the North's next great theatre voices are already here, and simply needed the money to prove it.