PERFORMANCE PROGRAMME
After three years, we are thrilled to welcome you back to a packed programme of Physical Fest!
For six exciting days, we’ll be bringing together exceptional local, national and international artists to celebrate the very best in contemporary physical theatre. Expect inspiring workshops, northwest premieres, performances, and the chance to discover exciting new work from our Female Bursary Award winners and the Tmesis Training Company.
We’ve really missed the energy, creativity and sense of community that makes Physical Fest so special, and we can’t wait to share it with you once again.
A huge thank you to our funders, Arts Council England and Liverpool City Council, whose support has made this festival possible.
We look forward to welcoming you to Physical Fest!.
Elinor Randle Artistic Director- Tmesis Theatre & Physical Fest
LIVE EVENTS
PARKER DEE: UNGIRLFRIENDED| PETA LILLY- TUES 8TH SEPT- 7.30PM- UNITY THEATRE
It’s drag, it’s comedy, it’s cabaret, it’s clown. Parker Dee is a wannabe woke ‘cis-het-straight-white-man’. His girlfriend taught him how to be a sensitive guy, but when she dumped him, he found himself teetering on the edge of the Manosphere!
What’s a guy to do but write a deeply moving and fearlessly exposing cabaret show?
Watch him battle back from heartbreak with quirky takes on pop standards and killingly witty original songs – the bluesy ‘Manspreading’ and the heartrending Brel-like ballad ‘Ow, Baby’. Ungirlfriended is full of poignant moments, hilarious twists and snazzy outfits. Anyone with a heart should see it.
Peta Lily is a director, performer, theatre maker. One of the main practitioners in the early physical theatre movement, she trained with Le Coq, Gaulier, Monika Pagneux, Yoshi Oida, Sankai Juku (Butoh Dance), Mike Alfreds (Theatre Direction) and Carlo Boso (Commedia dell’Arte).
BOOK TICKETS HERE
"KURUGO ME, TOGETHER!" | IZUMI ASHIZAWA - WEDNESDAY 9H SEPTEMBER - 6.00PM - UNITY THEATRE
This is a participatory performance art. The audience is invited to make the performer “invisible” by putting on the Kurogo costume pieces.
[Definition: Kurogo]
Kurogo is a figure on the stage dressed in black in the Japanese traditional theatre genres of Bunraku puppetry and Kabuki. Kurogo signifies “invisible”/ “ non-existent”, functioning to support the on-stage characters. In both of these 400-year-old Bunraku and Kabuki, women have not been permitted to perform professionally on the stage.
Izumi Ashizawa is a Japanese performance and visual artist, born/trained in Tokyo, based in New York. Rooted in her deep study/training in Japanese culture, she specializes in transmedia performance art, particularly keen on reinterpreting male-only-permitted Japanese traditional cultural codes, and places them in a different context to give a new meaning.
“Izumi Ashizawa has created a gut-wrenching realm of discovery where commonsense is thrown aside and your latent instincts are awakened.”—DC Metro Theater Arts
Ashizawa’s direction have the same kind of ritualistic beauty that one might find in a Japanese tea ceremony”—AmericanTheatre Web
“The show conjures up an otherworldly atmosphere that makes it intoxicating.”—Washington City Paper
BOOK TICKETS HERE
FEMALE BURSARIES /TMESIS TRAINING COMPANY SHARING - WEDNESDAY 9TH SEPTEMBER - 8.00PM - UNITY THEATRE
PHYSICAL FEST FEMALE BURSARIES 2026
Join us as we showcase two brand-new works by this year’s Physical Fest Female Bursary recipients. Supporting the development of women creating innovative physical theatre, the bursary provides funding, mentoring and creative support to bring bold new ideas to the stage. We’re delighted to share these exciting new performances as part of Physical Fest 2026.
TMESIS TRAINING COMPANY 2026
The 2026 Tmesis Training Company joins forces with Tmesis Theatre to create a brand-new ensemble physical theatre production inspired by the myth of the Minotaur. Developed through an intensive training programme, this original performance showcases the creativity, skill and collaborative spirit of the next generation of physical theatre artists.
BOOK TICKETS HERE
CLOWN DOUBLE BILL | MARIE CHOU-FLEUR - THURSDAY 10TH SEPT- 7.30PM- UNITY THEATRE
ALL OF US | JAMIE WOOD/ DAN LEES
Two ordinary clowns look out at the horizon, both with different goals. The sun shines on their behinds as metaphors nip their ankles. Will they stride fearlessly towards the unknown or sheepishly head back to shore? Perhaps rivalry will ruin everything?
★★★★ ‘Clowns of the highest order’ A Younger Theatre ★★★★ ‘A vital dose of joy’ Fest Magazine.
MARIE CHOU-FLEUR
Meet Marie Chou‑Fleur: a gloriously absurd, big‑hearted guide to being human. Part clown, part confidant, she arrives with joy, foolish wisdom and an unshakeable belief in you. Speaking straight from the heart, Marie celebrates who we are, who we might become, and the stories we tell ourselves along the way. Funny, stupid and deeply heartfelt, this playful show invites you to laugh, dream bigger, and feel truly seen — leaving with a lighter spirit, a fuller heart, and the sense that maybe, just maybe, everything is possible.
BOOK TICKETS HERE
DEMONOLOGY: TMESIS THEATRE & LIZZIE NUNNERY - FRI 11TH SEPT- 7.30PM- UNITY THEATRE
Work in progress performance
We are in a remote village in 1590. And also in a folk tale. Gelly needs a love spell. Euphemia needs her child. Agnes needs only freedom from men. But a wind is blowing. King James’s ship is hit by a storm, and he blames witchcraft. Soon witches are everywhere: in dreams and thoughts and prison cells and court rooms. Gelly, Euphemia and Agnes find themselves caught in a whirlwind of fantasy and fear, and their only hope is to take control of the story.
A powerful new exploration of the stories we inherit and the ones we tell, combining Tmesis’ trademark blend of striking physicality, original songs and evocative text by writer Lizzie Nunnery.
BOOK TICKETS HERE
UPON A STALE SUN- ZOE MCWHINNEY SATURDAY 12TH SEPTEMBER - 6.30PM - UNITY THEATRE
A VV story, in three acts. (15 minutes)
I : THE HORSEFLY
The flow of one shot cinema (pretty much), this is the beginning like when you open the book and start reading the words – except visually
II : THE CITY
The story of the four towers.
III : THE CAFE
Someone was sitting in the cafe. There’s a zenith television flickering up under the ceiling corner. And then, the ending.
Zoë McWhinney, have recently won the internationally renowned festival Clin d’ Oeil’s Sign Slam championships in Reims, and as a British Sign Language (BSL) poet, was shortlisted in the nationally prestigious Forward Poetry Prize 2026
The brainchild between Mime and Sign Language, Visual Vernacular (a.k.a. VV) is a kinetic, cinematic storytelling performance involving everything from the knee, waist and up. VV needs only a small area of the stage to perform great silent visual epics, akin to sign language.
BOOK TICKETS HERE
PESSADILLA- PIERGIORGIO MILANO SATURDAY 12TH SEPTEMBER - 7.30PM - UNITY THEATRE
A Tragicomic history of a burn out
Nominated as Best Belgium contemporary circus show 2017
PESADILLA (Spanish for nightmare) is a visually breathtaking fusion of dance, circus and physical theatre that follows an ordinary man trapped inside his own dreams, desperately fighting to stay awake.
Funny, tender and profoundly moving, the story unfolds through the unlikely relationship between a lonely man and his imaginary alter ego: a giant panda.
With grotesque humour and striking visuals, it reflects on the pressures of contemporary life, our growing isolation, technological overload, relentless urban pace, and the quiet unravelling of a society on the brink of hysteria.
Dreamlike, exhilarating and deeply human, this unforgettable production invites audiences to ask: do our truest selves emerge with our eyes open… or closed?
Press quotes:
A really unique show, an absolute must see! Marine Girard – La Provence
Circus marries the dance-theatre to build a show that is attractive, funny and touching. Christian Jade- RTBF
BIO
Piergiorgio Milano is an Italian-Belgium internationally recognized choreographer. His background embraces circus, dance, theater and martial arts. He proposes a very strong physical language that combines virtuosity in movement with a clear theatrical esthetics. His works always run on the borders between arts, categories and discipline; trying to force those borders he finds strength into the creative process. His performances are always a radical combination between circus dance and theater
BOOK TICKETS HERE
PERFORMANCE VENUES
Unity Theatre, 1 Hope Place, Liverpool, L1 9BG