Open Works Festival - Tickets now on sale
Building on the success of our Twisted Roots seed commissioning programme in 2025, we are delighted to be partnering with Sheffield Theatres for Open Works Festival 2026.
As part of the festival, the BESEA artists and companies we have been supporting will present work developed through the programme.Tickets are now on sale.
Monday, 28 Sep 2026
1pm
Playhouse
Jack and Gill is a moving and uplifting story of friendship and connection in a fading Humberside care home. We meet an ensemble of characterful elders who, from their armchairs, tell stories that take us around the world and around the corner. From Jack, the sheet metal worker who can trace his life’s journey from the window, from the council estates of his childhood to the rise and fall of the high street, and the looming ghost of the steelworks that shaped his community. To Gill, a feisty, jetsetting former-businesswoman who now makes other people’s gossip her business. From their overworked carer who longs for home, to her daughter who awaits her arrival. Thrown together, this diverse community begin as reluctant companions who begin to bond over unexpected common ground.
Wednesday, 30 Sep 2026
2pm
Montgomery Studio
TOFU is an immersive theatre experience set inside local kitchens and restaurants. Built from real conversations with British East and Southeast Asian people about food, family, and everyday life, Tofu is not just an ingredient, but something that holds memories, stories, and connections together.
Made by first-generation migrant artists, TOFU invites you to come sit at the table with us. Expect laughter, quiet moments, a few tears, and definitely a lot of flavour.
The performance of TOFU is approximately will be followed by a Q&A.
Tuesday, 6 Oct 2026
6:30pm
Montgomery
Essex-born clown Lumen Hirata has always felt not enough - not British enough, not Japanese enough, not Asian enough! Bear witness as Lumen attempts to connect to their Japanese roots by staging the most authentic, most culturally accurate East Asian production known to mankind - helped, of course, by their best friend and No.1 fan Isabella So. However, when the Official East Asian Cultural Committee doesn’t show up, cracks begin to form, and the perfect production Lumen has always dreamt of begins to change into something new, something transcendent, something …multiple heritage.
Watch as the show erupts, the kimonos fall apart, the rice burns, and the karaoke machine explodes - and when there is nothing left to perform, one question remains. Am I Asian enough?