Theatre Royal wins three accolades at Creative Bath Awards

Theatre Royal Bath is celebrating success at the 2025 Creative Bath Awards after winning in three categories, including the ultimate Ace Award for Engage Together’s recent production of The Seven Deadly Sins.

The Seven Deadly Sins, a bold cabaret-style performance in British Sign Language, was staged by local deaf and learning-disabled adults at The Egg in July 2024, who informed the writing, design and costume for the production, created with Achieve Together and Theatre Royal Bath’s Engage programme.

The Seven Deadly Sins won both the Creative Event Award and the Ace Award, which goes to the overall winner of winners and is the judges’ standout choice from all of the 2025 winners at the Creative Bath Awards.

Katherine Lazare, Head of Community Engagement at Theatre Royal Bath, said:

“We are absolutely thrilled that The Seven Deadly Sins has been recognised as the Creative Bath ‘Creative Event’ winners and the overall ‘Ace Winner of Winners’ judges’ selection. The production was a true collaboration between Theatre Royal Bath’s Engage adult participation programme, a profoundly committed team of professional creatives led by Director Sophie Cottle, the amazing staff of Achieve Together’s Educational Day Services team and a dedicated company of 12 actors. The show was a beautiful example of co-creation where the cast were part of the decision-making process from the story and characters to costume designs - telling stories, their way.”

Image - Engage Together performing The Seven Deadly Sins, Photo by Lloyd Evans

Engage Together member, Shane Long, who performed in The Seven Deadly Sins, said:

“It’s an amazing experience to be involved in producing something like this. I think it shows that deaf, blind and disabled people can create things and can be involved in art.”

More information about Engage Together and their production of The Seven Deadly Sins is available in this video: https://vimeo.com/1040354240

Engage Together is a new strand of Engage, Theatre Royal Bath’s community engagement programme, created in partnership with Achieve Together, a national organisation supporting people with learning disabilities, autism, PMLD, deafness, hearing loss and associated complex needs. 2023/2024 marked the first full delivery of this partnership with an inclusive, co-created theatre-making process led by a professional creative team, working with a cast of deaf and learning-disabled performers.

The project culminated in The Seven Deadly Sins, which emerged through weekly workshops that began in September 2023. Participants explored storytelling, performance and movement, using props, costume and visual communication methods rooted in Deaf culture. The result was an immersive show that placed deaf experience at its centre. Led by Director Sophie Cottle with support from Associate Director Rose Wardlaw, The Seven Deadly Sins was a flagship event for what access-first, co-created work can look like: rooted in care, creative ambition and joy. The Engage programme is kindly supported by The Beryl Billings Charitable Trust.

The success of The Seven Deadly Sins production has already created lasting change. Several members of the cast have joined the company of David Copperfield: A Life, Theatre Royal Bath’s large-scale Community Play, a project which runs throughout 2025 and will be staged in 2026.

In addition to the two wins chalked up by Theatre Royal’s Engage Together group, Danny Moar, Director of Theatre Royal Bath, received the Founder/Entrepreneur Award at the 2025 Creative Bath Awards.

Image - Danny Moar, Director of Theatre Royal Bath, Credit Betty Bhandari

The accolade was given in recognition of Danny’s leadership of both the Theatre Royal, which provides internationally acclaimed entertainment and creative learning, and Theatre Royal Bath Productions, the Theatre Royal’s production company, whose recent West End successes include The Score starring Brian Cox and A View From The Bridge starring Dominic West.

The Creative Bath Awards judging panel said: “Under Danny’s towering leadership this prestigious theatre achieved record financial growth, successful West End transfers, innovative children’s productions and strong community engagement.”

For further information about upcoming events at the Theatre Royal Bath in the Main House, Ustinov Studio and The Egg and the Theatre Royal’s Engage programme visit: theatreroyal.org.uk

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Notes to Editors:

For more information about the 2025 Creative Bath Awards visit: creativebathawards.org/winners

The Beryl Billings Charitable Trust:

The Engage programme is kindly supported by The Beryl Billings Charitable Trust. The late Beryl Billings, whose stage name was Margot Boyd, was born and educated in Bath and always kept a strong affection for the city. When she died in 2008 at the age of 94, she stated in her Will that she wanted to encourage local people to experience the excitement of being involved in theatre. The Beryl Billings Charitable Trust funded the Ben Hur project in 2010 and subsequently the Engage programme at the Theatre Royal Bath was established, continuing today as a dedicated programme supporting adults from all backgrounds and levels of experience to get involved in theatre.

Engage Together:

View this video to learn more about Engage Together and their production of The Seven Deadly Sins: https://vimeo.com/1040354240

For further information, contact: Emma McDermott, Publicity Manager, Theatre Royal Bath, emma.mcdermott@theatreroyal.org.uk

or

Charlie Smith, Marketing and Press Assistant, Theatre Royal Bath, charlie.smith@theatreroyal.org.uk