Coming up
- National Theatre Live: The Playboy of the Western World Thu 11 Jun
- Essex Book Festival: The Writers Room Sat 13 Jun
- KAYFABE Fri 19 Jun
- Open Day Sat 20 Jun
Samuel wins national Fringe Theatre Award
Wed 20 May 2026
Our Assistant Technical Manager has been recognised on the national stage after winning a prestigious Fringe Theatre Award for his lighting design work on the acclaimed production Two Come Home.
Samuel Button-Bell is an Essex alumnus and received the Lighting Award at the Fringe Theatre Awards, which celebrate excellence and innovation across the UK’s independent and fringe theatre sector. The awards recognise outstanding productions and creative talent working in venues and festivals across the country.
Samuel was honoured for his work as lighting technician and designer on Two Come Home, a darkly comic and emotionally charged production which premiered at the Lakeside Theatre before going on to successful UK tours. The production brought together a creative team largely made up of University of Essex staff and alumni, highlighting the strong creative community surrounding the University and the Lakeside Theatre.
Theatre, activism and power: Marina Cusí on how Essex encourages creativity
Mon 2 Mar 2026
Essex graduate Marina Cusí is returning to campus with a bold and uncompromising new play that cements her reputation as an exciting voice in contemporary theatre.
A writer unafraid to tackle urgent political questions, Marina brings Sub Titles Over to the Lakeside Theatre this March – a sharp, thought-provoking drama exploring censorship, identity and what happens when language itself becomes a battleground.
Performed in Catalan with English subtitles, this one-woman play blends dark humour with political urgency as it follows the day of the 2017 Catalan independence referendum. Through layered storytelling and bold theatrical choices, the play examines who gets to speak, who is heard, and who decides the limits of expression.
For Marina, the themes of censorship and free speech feel particularly resonant in today’s climate. “We are living in a time where speech is constantly being debated, monitored and challenged. Theatre is one of the few spaces where we can still explore difficult ideas together in a room.” The play does not offer easy answers, but instead invites audiences to wrestle with complexity – to question power structures, cultural translation and the cost of self-censorship. In an era of polarised debate and online outrage, for Marina Sub Titles Over feels both timely and necessary.
Marina, who now lives in Wivenhoe, credits her time at Essex as instrumental in shaping her career in theatre. Studying at Essex provided not only formal training but also the creative freedom to experiment and find her voice. “Essex encouraged boldness,” she reflects. “It was a space where I felt supported to take risks and develop my ideas.”
Now an established playwright, Marina is the founder and Creative Director of Mad, Who? a campus-based theatre company setup with the help of Essex’s Startups team. Her advice to aspiring writers is simple but honest: keep writing and don’t wait for permission. “The industry can feel closed, but the most important thing is to keep making work,” she says. She also encourages young theatre-makers to find their community, seek out constructive feedback and embrace resilience in the face of rejection.
Marina says that Sub Titles Over promises an evening of bold, intelligent theatre that she hopes will spark conversation long after the curtain falls as it offers audiences the chance to experience a compelling new voice tackling one of the defining issues of our time.
Marina sat down with Essex PhD candidate, playwright, and aspiring clown, Alice K. Stephens, to discuss the upcoming play and how her time at Essex has helped her become the theatre-maker she is today.
Sub Titles Over plays at the Lakeside Theatre, Thursday 05 March, 7pm.
Bringing Trans stories to life with REAL BOY
Thu 5 Feb 2026
REAL BOY, the trans play, written by Finn Evans and Ramonah N. J. Gibson, is the Lakeside Theatre’s latest ‘Homegrown’ production to find its feet on their stage after first seeing audiences in Norwich in 2022 and 2023. For one night only on 27 February, the original actor of the ‘Real Boy’ – Jesse Smith – brings his tragic story to Colchester in their directorial debut.
REAL BOY moved Norwich’s trans and queer community with its youthful desperation to embrace who you are and the hurt from a society that fights against it. In this tragic adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio, when our trans teen meets a tough classmate who’ll teach him ‘how to be a boy’, he steamrolls into a confident and masculine new self – but in every corner of his life lies disapproval, from school bullies to ‘gender exploratory’ therapists. Colchester’s audience will see fights and nightmares among the comedy and tragedy.
Jesse Smith, who is directing this new take on the play, said “It’s heart-warming of Lakeside Theatre to give a trans story not just a voice but a whole body – the stage, the tech, and the support to bring it all together and find its audience. Providing this opportunity to members of Essex’s trans community to both tell an authentic trans story and see it is an immense privilege, and one I wish I’d had when I was a young transmasc too. There is tragedy but not before so much joy.”
REAL BOY headlines the line-up for the Lakeside Theatre’s LGBTQ+ History Month season, where LGBTQ+ voices are championed through compelling storytelling, comedy and performance.
Tickets for the performance on 27 February are on sale now via the Lakeside Theatre website. Early booking is strongly advised.
Welcome home to the Lakeside Theatre this spring
Thu 18 Dec 2025
Welcome home to the Lakeside Theatre this spring
If you thought autumn was busy at the Lakeside Theatre, just wait for the Spring line-up!
Our Theatre Manager, Hanna Jones, previews the shows and events coming to the Lakeside from January to April 2026. Expect plenty of student drama, experimental alumni and beautiful touring productions, as well as a return of the popular scratch nights and free workshops too.
Box Office closing for the Christmas break
Tue 16 Dec 2025
We’re closing our Box Office for the Christmas break!
The Lakeside Theatre team will be taking a much earned break over the Christmas period and as such, will not be monitoring emails or calls between 19 December 2025 and 4 January 2026. We will do our absolute best to respond to all enquiries received during this period in the week commencing Monday 5 January 2026.
Lakeside Theatre Welcomes Back Two Come Home
Fri 21 Nov 2025
Lakeside Theatre Welcomes Back Two Come Home – A Powerful Return to Its Origins
The Lakeside Theatre is proud to announce the return of Two Come Home, the critically acclaimed play by Joe Eason, for a one-night only performance on 23 January, returning to the very stage it made its world premiere.
Work with us
Mon 18 Aug 2025
We do not currently have any vacancies.
Alumni on tour this summer
Mon 11 Aug 2025
August is a quiet month for the Lakeside Theatre, but it’s also festival month! While we are quiet, we’ve got word of Lakeside Theatre alumni shows which are must-see this summer… and beyond!
What Nifemi loves about Homegrown theatre at Essex
Fri 11 Apr 2025
The Students Union’s VP Welfare 2023-25 Nifemi Wilson-Adu tells us why she loves Homegrown and why you should get involved!
You can submit an application to our Homegrown programme to put on a show on one of our stages if you are a University of Essex student, alumni or staff member. Find out more and submit an application!
Homegrown theatre, where you take centre stage
Thu 10 Apr 2025
Homegrown theatre, where you take centre stage
The Lakeside Theatre, at the heart of our Colchester Campus, is a performing arts theatre dedicated to putting University of Essex students and alumni centre stage.
We believe that theatre is for everyone. You don’t have to be studying drama to be a performer, actor, director, producer or technician!
In this blog post our theatre team dive a little deeper into how the Lakeside Theatre champions and develops theatre makers at Essex through our Homegrown programme.