From Celtic Folklore to Musical Rom Coms
Ten Years of Oxford University Student Theatre at The North Wall
For the last decade, The North Wall Arts Centre in North Oxford has hosted a yearly production by students from The University of Oxford. From Celtic folklore to musical romcoms and puppet dogs to supermarket invading aliens, the subject matter and style has remained broad and varied.
Alongside the chance to perform in the venue’s beautifully intimate auditorium, students can receive support and mentoring from The North Wall team. As a result, the scheme has supported many students to transition into the professional theatre sector - including acclaimed writers of prose and drama, alongside award-winning directors, actors and producers.
Applications are currently open to stage a production at the venue in Trinity Term 2026.
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Zennor by Lamorna Ash (2015)
The very first Oxford University student production at The North Wall became Zennor, a semi-devised production from then English student Lamorna Ash.
The Oxford Student previewed the show, noting the play’s background in improvisation. Before anything was written, the actor’s spent two weeks improvising with director Sammy Glover, developing character and setting before Lamorna developed the script. The later review of the production provides more sense of the plot: ‘the main story follows Jen, who, after years away, has returned home to her dying mother in Cornwall; there she finds former lover Matthew and in the strange, unsettling atmosphere of the village of Zennor, they re-open old wounds and consider whether their story together has really come to an end.’ All that alongside ‘Celtic folklore’ and ‘climate change’!
In the decade since, Lamorna Ash has developed a varied career as a writer and journalist, including a column in The New Statesman. She’s returned to the Cornish setting of Zennor: her first book, Dark, Salt, Clear: Life in a Cornish Fishing Town, won the Somerset Maugham Award in 2021. William Dalrymple proclaimed her ‘a new star of non-fiction’.
Sammy Glover has become an ever-rising theatre director, from Baby in the Mirror (Edinburgh Fringe 2025) to Dear Young Monsters (Soho Theatre, 2015). They co-created the sell-out devised show The Last Show Before We Die with fellow Oxford graduates The Hotter Project. Moreover, they’ve assisted the work of leading theatre directors Alexander Zeldin and Rebecca Frecknall.
“one of the most exciting shows to come out of Oxford this year…if you can stomach the cycle to Summertown and back”
Colin & Katya by Jack Clover (2016)
East meets west. Essex meets Ukraine. Colin meets Katya. In a world of online profiles and international relationships, can love conquer all against a backdrop of desperation and kitsch?
Jack Clover developed Colin & Katya from an entry into the freshers drama competition Cuppers. It explored the relationship between Essex-born Colin and Ukrainian Katya, which develops online before Katya travels to the UK to meet in person. Around that story blends physical theatre and a live band, with songs sung in Russian. The Cherwell described it as ‘a spectacular production’. Though the review from The Oxford Student was more hesitant, it still found the play ‘entertaining’, ‘adventurous’ and ‘artistic’.
A recording of ‘Infinity Mark’, the final song in the play.
Since graduating, Jack Clover has become a freelance writer, director and translator working in the UK and Ukraine, developing theatre Edinburgh, Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Prague and elsewhere. From the play’s cast, Georgia Bruce has become a Bruntwood Prize nominated playwright and actor, Tom Penn an actor, clown and composer and Ell Potter the co-founder of award-winning performance duo The Hotter Project.
“Now in its second year, the North Wall Theatre’s single slot for new student writing is shaping up to be one of the highlights of the year in student drama.”
Garden and Lights Over Tesco Car Park by Jack Bradfield (2017)
Then student playwright Jack Bradfield brought two plays to The North Wall in 2017. Securing the regular student slot with Garden, he also returned to the venue that Autumn after founding the company Poltergeist.
The North Wall allowed this once student production company to transition into professional work. Poltergeist, described by The Guardian as ‘one of the UK’s best young theatre companies’, have made three further plays together, alongside active freelance careers in the arts. They remain an associate company with The North Wall. Bradfield has won RTST Peter Hall Director Award. His most recent play The Habits (★★★★ The Times) was staged at The Hampstead Theatre in April 2025.
Garden
‘Garden follows Elizabeth, a phytologist (plant scientist), and a group of brilliant researchers at a top-secret laboratory, where they all have a single aim: to prove that the world is a virtual reality simulation, and that none of the other researchers exists.’ So described The Oxford Student when previewing Garden, a play inspired by the ideas of ‘simulation theory’ developed by Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom. To convey that strange feeling that we might all be in a virtual realm, many of the cast spent most of the play ‘wearing plants pots on their heads’.
Bradfield developed the original script of Garden whilst on The Royal Court’s young writers programme, though the final performance was semi-devised alongside its actors. It was a thought-provoking, ambitious student production, celebrated by The Cherwell as ‘precisely the kind of theatre I would like to see more of in Oxford’. In its review, The Cherwell particularly praised its ‘dry-sense of humour’, structured from ‘an absurd hotchpotch of ideas…referencing everything from Don Quixote and Super Mario 64 to the time-honoured tradition of Wetherspoons pubs, all effortlessly synthesised.’
Lights Over Tesco Car Park
Basically: Robert reported lights over the Tesco car park. Then he told us an alien was coming to stay in his spare room. With the help of some historical abduction stories, a latex alien mask and a bucket of flying saucers, we're working out whether to believe him. Maybe this is a good place to believe him? A docu-comedy for the post-truth age.
The reviews for the original North Wall production from The Oxford Student and Oxford Opening Night are remarkably muted for a show which would go on to such rare success. After its student premiere, Poltergeist took the play to The National Student Drama Festival, before touring professionally to HOME Manchester, New Diorama Theatre, an Edinburgh Fringe run with The Pleasance and a return trip to The North Wall. The Stage called this now ★★★★ production ‘brilliantly inventive’. Then, icing-on-cake came by winning The Samuel French New Play Award for 2018. You can even buy the published play script!
The full recording of ‘Lights Over Tesco Car Park’, live-streamed in Lockdown with New Diorama Theatre.
“The team met through their university’s drama society and cemented their relationship at the North Wall theatre, where they have recently been made an associate company. All bar one have now graduated. The challenge, as for so many young companies, will be to find a way to keep the ties from snapping as the distance between them stretches.”
Hereafter by Chloë Lawrence-Taylor (2018)
Struggling to come to terms with the loss of her husband, Eva is plunged into a grief-stricken limbo. Her present is non-existent; her sense of self is bound to her past, to her loss, to what can never be again […] Welcomed back to work with a rather crudely disguised ultimatum, Eva becomes the human guinea pig in an experiment into VR Bereavement Therapy. As her memories disintegrate and her grief is taken for gold, life and afterlife collide.
Taking the slot in 2018, Hereafter was the debut play of Chloë Lawrence-Taylor, a near-future story imagining a virtual reality solution to grief. The Oxford Student had a mixed response, feeling the script needed to ‘probe some of its themes a bit further’. However, since her debut as a student Chloë has had four further plays performed, reaching the longlist for The Bruntwood Prize in 2022 with True Cry. Her most recent play, Personal Values was staged at The Hampstead Theatre in 2025 and published by Nick Hern Books.
“Well-executed, thoroughly thought out and sharply acted, Hereafter is worth the trek to the Land’s End that is the North Wall.”
My Mother Runs in Zig Zags by Zad El Bacha and Simran Uppal (2019)
Presented by student company Coriander in association with OxBAME Drama Society, My Mother Runs in Zig Zags presented a mix of theatre, music, dance and spoken-word.
The Poor Print: ‘At the heart of the play is an underlying yet potently permeating inquiry into how individuals cope with the burden of intergenerational trauma, of how the past continues to haunt and pervade our experiences of the present.’
Oxford Opening Night: ‘a uniquely rich and eye-opening new production…Featuring an all-BME cast and crew, the piece offers a faithful and convincing insight into the experiences of Britain’s immigrant and refugee communities, balancing both its blunt solemnity and moments of jocular lightness.’
The Cherwell: ‘The highlight of this play was undoubtedly its merging of music and contemporary dance, which showcased the diverse range of talents within the cast…an incredibly refreshing and ambitious piece of theatre.’
“asserts the maturity and immensity of Oxford drama”
Half Baked by Nina Jurkovic (May 2021)
Something strange is cooking at the Bourne Bakery.
Hazel is struggling to keep her shop afloat with the help of her unhelpful assistant, Molly. The lack of customers, however, is the least of their worries. Together, they grapple with suspicious neighbours, struggling actors, and some very dodgy plumbing, in an attempt to bake a recipe other than disaster.
Marking the return of student drama to venue after lockdown Half Baked was still rehearsed and performed within social-distancing restrictions. In an interview with The Cherwell, its writer Nina Jurkovic commented on the notable rehearsal process: ‘Rehearsing without any tables, chairs or props, while also keeping a metre apart at all times has been a slightly unconventional rehearsal process, but it’s definitely been better than zoom, and you can work wonders with a well-placed puffer jacket.’
And, as ever, there was some surprise at exploring Summertown. ‘I found it quite exciting to actually go all the way out to Summertown for the first time – got very excited by the big M&S.’
“truly a feminist triumph”
Smart Casual by Sam Woof (August 2021)
MEL has got to get a job, MARC doesn’t believe in love, WILLOW is addicted to yoga, BEN would wear a hoodie to the opera, LILY has emotional problems and JORDAN might have herpes.
Smart Casual was initially meant to debut in 2020; when it eventually reached The North Wall its writer had graduated. The first musical to be part of The North Wall’s ArtsLab Student Residency, both music and text were written by History student Sam Woof, forming GOYA Theatre alongside Mrinmoyee Roy and Lowri Spear.
After its Oxford run, the musical was rewritten, retitled Sex With Friends (and Other Tiny Catastrophes) and accepted onto the Pleasance programme at the Edinburgh Fringe. In a wild August, GOYA took three productions to the festival, adding Don’t Shoot the Albatross and Don’t Say Macbeth to their programme. They were awarded The Musical Theatre Review’s ‘Special Award’, whilst Sam Woof was named one of ‘The Fringe Five’ by The Stage, a title awarded to the most impactful artists of the festival. In 2024, they returned with two new productions: Actually, Love and Four Felons and a Funeral, which then toured to The North Wall and The Birmingham Hippodrome.
The full recording of ‘Smart Casual’, streamed by TORCH.
Lions vs Panthers by Sam Spencer (2022)
Brixton 1972, and the Godwin children are making moves. Neets wants to get out of school. Reggie wants to move in with his girlfriend. Suzanne wants to stop her siblings from getting into trouble. And their mum, Hortense, wants everything to be just how it used to. The Godwins navigate growing up and getting out against a background of Panthers and partying, hairdos and horseplay, and the pigeon apocalypse…
The selected production at The North Wall in 2022 was set at the height of the British Black Power movement. Its writer Sam Spencer and director Deborah Acheampong described ‘a play about pigeons and partying, life and liberation, trolleys and tampons, mothers and Mangrove, growing up and getting out.’ Spencer’s previous plays at Oxford included Quartet at The Burton Taylor, set in the run up to the 2019 UK General Election.
After a difficult production process, Lions vs Panthers was unfortunately cancelled a few weeks before its scheduled performance.
Bark Bark by Gabe Winsor (2023)
★★★★ "Ingenious contemporary folk horror tale" - The Scotsman
A dog with a bird-killing problem. Two people stitching their relationship together. A house filled with taxidermy animals. When a young couple responds to a dog-sitting advert expecting a free holiday, they stumble into an unexpected tradition.
From then student production company Buzzcut came Bark Bark, a blend of live cinema, music, foley sound and puppetry by Gabe Winsor. Told from the perspective of a dog, it uses a pet’s point of view to explore the secrets of a house and their owners’ relationship. As The Isis described in its review of the original North Wall run, ‘we catch the world in snippets: garbled voices through telephones, conversations hushed behind window panes and arguments which are aborted when you walk into the room.’ Daily Info was particularly impressed by the ‘spellbinding’ soundtrack of original and semi-improvised music from Faye James.
Buzzcutt are the latest student company to use The North Wall’s student slot to transition into professional work. A sell-out Edinburgh Fringe run at Summerhall followed in August 2024, alongside rave reviews and nominations for New Diorama's Untapped award and the Pleasance's Charlie Hartill Award. In November 2025, the production sets off on a multi-date tour of the South East, supported by The House Theatre Network and Arts Council England. Quite something indeed!
The original North Wall production.
The trailer for the 2025 tour
Needle in a Haystack by Eliza Hogermeer and Adrienne Knight (2024)
This comedic rom-com for the stage delves into the joys, conflicts and close-knit community of rural life in Fernwood. Set against the backdrop of newcomers, friends, enemies, music and love, the score blends folk, pop and classic musical theatre. Immerse yourself in this feel-good journey, featuring actor-musicians and a semi-immersive experience.
A comedic, queer rom-com musical from Orchard Productions. The Oxford Student called it ‘a heart-warming and gloriously cheesy musical that is worth every penny (and the admittedly off-putting trek up to Summertown).’ After ten years, the (very short!) journey to Summertown still gets a mention. Though, as the review mentions, it is only ‘a 10-minute bus from the Magdalen Street Tesco’!
Crush by Hannah Eggleton (2025)
When Ms Evans announces a joint production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at St Margaret’s School for Girls, everyone’s excited. But when Annie notices a strange relationship between Ms Evans and her classmate Mary, things begin to unravel.
And ten years later, we’re up to date! The most recent student production at The North Wall went back to school, exploring queer love, jealousy and friendship within the classroom.
The Oxford Student was particularly gushing about the script by post-graduate student Hannah Eggleton: ‘brilliant, spirited, and thoroughly entertaining. The first half is delightfully silly – full of schoolroom clichés, teenage gossip and one-liners that can only be described as comedy gold. […] It’s immersive and theatrical in all the right ways.’ In a last minute cast change, Eggleton and Assistant Director Alex Rawnsley also had to take up acting roles, completing a ‘stellar cast’.
“one of the most professional, impressive pieces of student theatre I have seen here at Oxford.”