The visiting season of brilliant touring productions continues at Bath’s Ustinov Studio.
Image: Life Before You at Ustinov Studio Bath
Life Before You is a fierce and unflinching new play which lays bare the fault lines between mothers and daughters, touring to the Ustinov Studio from Thursday 12 - Saturday 14 February 2026. The production addresses women’s healthcare, class, survival, and the erasure of aging women, asking: what do we pass on, and how do we escape the lives written for us?
Gráinne leaves Ardoyne, Belfast, for England, chasing the promise of a better life for her daughter. She scrubs, she bleaches, she sacrifices— and piece by piece, she begins to disappear. Eimear grows up surrounded by privilege, stepping through doors her mother could never open. But with every step forward, she drifts further away — into another class, another name, another life.
Life Before You was developed in Bristol by writer Eva Hudson and director Roisin McCay-Hines, inspired by their shared experiences of navigating medical misogyny and understandings of class and female identity. They also share the specific context of being daughters of Northern Irish mothers who moved to England and raised their children here.
The production is proudly supporting The Menopause Charity.
Chief Executive of The Menopause Charity, Jenny Haskey said: “Life Before You highlights a vital and often under-discussed experience affecting many women. We’re delighted to support REMH Productions in bringing this important story to a wider audience and look forward to raising awareness and increasing access to trusted information to those going through the menopause.”
Audiences can enter a subterranean dreamscape as performance storyteller Ben Haggarty, and musician Jonah Brody, become guides to the dark places where Ben Haggarty reads between the lines of Greek Mythology to restore them to their terrifying and truly awesome glory. The Crick Crack Club return to Bath, this time with a new performance at the Ustinov Studio, Orpheus Dismembered, a dark, magical, and provocative production which will take to the stage for two performances on Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 February 2026.
Image: Orpheus Dismembered at Ustinov Studio Bath
Meet Dionysus - God of Wine, born once from his mother and again from Zeus; Orpheus who can only find love through separation; Eurydice and Persephone eternally bound to the land of the dead; and Aphrodite scattering the seeds of chaos through which we must wade to find sense.
Ben Haggarty is celebrated for his uncompromising, elemental channelling of Greek Mythology. Jonah Brody is a multi-instrumentalist through whom music pours into the world.
The award-winning Box Tale Soup (Casting The Runes) return to the Ustinov Studio to present a stunning new adaptation of Orwell’s dystopian classic, 1984, for a run of two sold-out performances on Friday 27 and Saturday 28 February 2026. Contact the Box Office for returns.
Known for their ingenious sets and slick storytelling, Box Tale Soup’s unique puppetry becomes a striking metaphor for Orwell’s chilling vision of power and control. The production features the voices of Sophie Aldred & Joanna Lumley, with Simon Russell Beale as the voice of Big Brother.
Tickets for all performances at the Ustinov Studio are on sale now and available on our website at theatreroyal.org.uk or at Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844.
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