About us

Magnetic North Theatre Company was formed in 2014 as somewhere for people of marginalised backgrounds (specifically people navigating the world in queer, mentally ill and disabled bodies) to tell stories that are often ignored in favour of those less complicated and more familiar. Our devising practice takes our experiences and makes them accessible to a wider audience, while retaining all the beauty of our divergence from the norm.

We’ve made 1-2 new works every year including the award-winning Cassandra and The Boy Doll, highly acclaimed #metoo response Medusa, and the audience-sourced verbatim piece Letters I Never Sent. We are a powerful little group that specialises in blending classic texts with contemporary themes, and performing in non-traditional venues. Our style is conversational and accessible, with a focus on creating ‘art without artifice’. We have a particular interest in building the play’s world into a niche space using digital media and/or pieces of art installation: in our 2019 season of Puck, one character existed only in projection, and our 2018 offering at Melt included a bespoke crucifix-shaped stage that appeared to sit on a mountain of paper cranes.

Our very particular style of heavy, niche themes explored in a carefully articulated performance space is a product of our core team: artistic director Artemis Green and production manager Tiff Lane. Both belonging to marginalised communities ourselves, we believe that if we’re telling stories about vulnerable people, we owe those stories authenticity and a loving touch. Our bodies and lives as queer people, as people with disabilities and experience of poverty are othered by spaces and narratives that don’t have room for us. When we do get the chance to speak for ourselves, it would be a crime to waste it. For us, a diverse cast and team isn’t a gimmick or a token gesture; it’s who we are, the stories we tell, and the lens through which we view the world.