Unity Theatre gives audiences and participants opportunities to engage with live performances that excite, entertain and inspire.
The theatre spaces are intimate, allowing visitors to experience the exhilaration of live performance, up close. Unity Theatre has been behaving radically onstage since the 1930’s and to this day, the theatre serves as a counterpoint to the mainstream, championing equality for diverse audiences and artists. The Unity is ideally located at 1 Hope Place, just off Hope Street in central Liverpool, and following a £850,000 capital redevelopment in 2017, accommodates two theatres, rehearsal space, conference facilities, meeting spaces, a bar and lecture rooms. Unity Theatre is a National Portfolio organisation, funded and supported by Arts Council England and Liverpool City Council.
The Unity name is one of the last reminders of a national theatre movement that played an important role in the theatrical and political life of the country. Merseyside Left Theatre was formed in the 1930s and became Merseyside Unity Theatre in 1944. From the start the company was radical and experimental, however, unlike many Unity Theatres, the Merseyside group staged classics alongside contemporary left wing theatre. The Unity Theatre movement, along with many theatre clubs, started to disappear with the abolition of licensing in the 1960s as mainstream theatres met the demand for radical theatre. Merseyside Unity Theatre survived into the early 1980s with one of the last initiatives to develop the current Unity Theatre on Hope Place, to convert the former synagogue from a photographic studio to a theatre.
Merseyside Unity Theatre ended in the mid 1980s. The theatre was already well established under Hope Place Community Association management and it continued to expand as a base for professional touring theatre, later becoming Unity theatre. Linking both organisations was Graham Frood who joined Merseyside Left Theatre in the 1930s. Graham continued his involvement with unity until his death in 2003. Their programme is innovative, and they invite acclaimed and emerging artists to explore the personal, social and political.They do much more than entertain; they develop theatre-makers at every stage of their careers and love introducing audiences to exciting new artists, making work which sets trends, breaks boundaries, and champions the community.
We are delighted to announce cardholders can get amazing 241 offers at Unity Theatre for Independent Liverpool Members as well as 10% off at the bar!
Beyond Belief by Tmesis Theatre
Friday 28 September, 7:30pm
Quote Independent when booking online, via the phone or in person at the box office
Info: https://www.unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk/whats-on/beyond-belief.html
When did you stop Dancing
by What a Little Bird Told Me
5 & 6 October, 6pm
Quote Independent when booking online, via the phone or in person at the box office
Info: https://www.unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk/whats-on/when-did-you-stop-dancing.html
All you Need is LSD
Told by and Idiot, written by Leo Butler
Tue 16 October, 7:30pm
Quote Independent when booking online, via the phone or in person at the box office
Info: https://www.unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk/whats-on/all-you-need-is-lsd.html
A Hundred Different Words for Love
by James Rowland
Thurs 1 Nov, 8pm
Quote Independent when booking online, via the phone or in person at the box office
Info: https://www.unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk/whats-on/hundred-different-words.html