Scratch Nights X Climate Hope

Stranded in the heart of the desert, Buck and Duke are desperately searching for a hidden well to quench their thirst. But in this interactive Western, the audience holds the power: every heads or tails decision shapes their next move. As the story unfolds, deeper existential questions emerge  and the consequences of each choice may be far greater than anyone expects.

About the Artists and Company

Bitterroot is a theatre collective founded by Chris Richards (he/him) and Jake Rayner Blair (he/they). Their first piece, If it's to Break, was an atmospheric exploration of the attempt to find self-acceptance through struggles with mental health. After taking the piece on an ACE funded tour, Bitterroot’s attention has been focused on developing the well for the past 2 years. Together they co-write, co-direct and perform in their productions, with Chris composing their sound design and Jake as their lead producer.

Jake has also co-founded the theatre collective Carnifolk, an immersive fantasy theatre group that runs events in Manchester, Bristol and London. Chris helps run Carnifolk in Manchester with Jake and have performed together as a duo at festivals such as Glastonbury and Boomtown. 

Performers: Chris Richards and Jake Rayner Blair

Dancer and Puppeteer: Ellie Begley

Producer: Jake Rayner Blair

Assistant Producer: Jess Edwards

Sound design: Jake Mehew, Chris Richards 

Connect

Instagram: @bitterroot_theatre

Under stadium lights that exist only in memory, a lone goalkeeper faces a match between Hope United and Despair F.C. Every choice – to save, to concede – could change the game. In this match, the crisis is both global and personal: climate on the brink, masculinity under pressure, a mind at full stretch. Blending football’s drama with poetic storytelling, The Keeper is about what we guard, what we release, and the courage to keep playing when you can’t save everything.

Created and Produced by Life’s a Pitch Projects

About the Artists and Company

Life’s a Pitch Projects was founded by Alistair Charles Wilkinson to embed long-term, artist-led cultural infrastructure into football. We work across clubs, cultural spaces, fan networks and grassroots organisations to co-create inclusive, heritage-led programmes that amplify underrepresented voices, reclaim marginalised histories, and reimagine football as a dynamic site of cultural participation.

Alistair Charles Wilkinson is a Creative Director working at the intersection of football, art, and social practice. With fifteen years’ experience across live performance, sport, heritage, screen, gaming and immersive environments, he creates bold, participatory work that blends the drama of the pitch with the imagination of the stage.

Through his company Life’s a Pitch Projects, Alistair collaborates with clubs, players, fans and communities at every level of the game, generating co-created artistic and social responses to football. In 2025 he was awarded Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice Grant for Rewriting the Playbook, a year-long exploration into new methodologies for football-inspired art...

Creative Development Associate – Lilly Driscoll 
Creative Lead and Performer – Alistair Charles Wilkinson

Connect

Instagram:  
@allstarwilkinsn 
@lifesapitchprojects 
@lil_driscoll 
@olispencerphotography

Website: www.alistairwilkinson.com

Image credit: Olivia Spencer Photography

In 2021 an animal was found in Brazil that had the combined DNA of a pampas fox and a domestic dog. The animal died in captivity. No other creature with the same DNA has (to our knowledge) been found by humans.

Multi-disciplinary artist Lizzy Margereson uses sound, image, live performance and touch to delve into a sensory imagining of this story. Exploring radical empathy, wildness and the liminality of existence beyond prescribed categorisation.

About the Artist and Collaborator

Lizzy Margereson is a multidisciplinary artist and facilitator. In her work she uses live performance to explore epic, mythical and intangible spaces existent within the everyday human experience. She has training in physical theatre & clowning (Ecole International Jacques Lecoq, Jonathon Young). She creates performances that span storytelling, drag, cabaret, clown and live art that are audience/participant centred and are propelled by the unexpected.

Hannah Mook is a contemporary performance maker from the deepest darkest depths of Yorkshire. Her work has included residencies and performances with The Royal Exchange Manchester, Vaults London, Lancaster Arts, Stage at Leeds, The Hopbarn, and various basements and fields. Mook studied Theatre and Performance Practice at Lancaster Uni (BAhons) and Uni of Lincoln (MA) and is part of Paper People Theatre. 
 
Connect

Instagram: @lizzyisaclown / @mookfluke 
Website: https://emargereson.wixsite.com/lizmargereson / https://paperpeopletheatre.co.uk  

LAND/e/SCAPES: Cycle 1 is an exploration of the ecological ways of knowing that are held in human-land relationships. It is a multimedia dance show that imagines encounters with human and the more-than-human world.

About the Artist and Collaborators

chris brown is a movement director, and performance artist exploring the intersections of dance, theatre, technology, and ecology. His practice is rooted in somatic enquiry and site-responsive choreography, often exploring how bodies are shaped by and can respond to the non-human world. 

Joe Powell-Main is a freelance dancer and choreographer on wheels and crutches. Joe aims to challenge perceptions, start conversations and open up opportunities for him and other differently abled dancers.

Connect

Instagram: @christopher.p.brown / @jpowellmain_

Image credit: Kyia Kulczycki Binnall