Offbeat, the annual theatre festival is back! Brought to the city by Oxford Playhouse, the Old Fire Station and New Theatre Oxford, the festival is a celebration of new Oxford voices, supporting emerging talent and local artists with a platform for new work. It’s a place to see something new and exciting, a blind date of sorts with a show you could fall in love with. And – lucky you – it’s right on your doorstep.

Offbeat 2024 will run from Monday 9 to Sunday 15 September and is a jam-packed week of theatre, dance, spoken word, comedy, poetry, music and creative workshops. With shows at all partnering venues, as well as outdoors, and a whole host of workshops to join on Gloucester Green, there are lots of ways to get involved and join the fun!

Now in its 8^th year, Offbeat began as a partnership between The Playhouse and the Old Fire Station with New Theatre Oxford coming on board in 2022. This year, there’s a bumper crop of exciting performances, late-night open mic events, interactive arts and crafts activities and family-friendly events.

Monday 9 September

The festival opens with a performance by some community artists from KEEN Oxford showcasing their original songs.

Tuesday 10 September

Learn about musical facilitation, and celebrate the weird, wonderful and downright hilarious in Live & Peculiar, enjoy a modern interpretation of Electra Untitled a story of women who provoke change in times of hostility, then follow it up with a late-night listening party in collaboration with Oxford Contemporary Music.

Wednesday 11 September

On Wednesday, you can see an exploration of knife crime and social exclusion in Motherhood, put real life to one side as a Terminator rebuilt with Windows 95 returns to the past to discover what it means to be human in I’ll be Back, or come along to the Old Fire Station Cafe for fresh new comedy material at a late-night comedy scratch night.

Thursday 12 September

Thursday brings an exploration of EU migration, the complexities of Catholic families, and the courage of coming out in Have you met Stan?, a captivating and comedic piece of magical realism about the things we lose and how we grieve them in Deluge, and macabre nursery stories told with captivating illustrations in Mildish Urges for Childish Dirges.

Friday 13 September

On Friday, join Offbeat as it takes over Gloucester Green for a fun-filled day of free arts and crafts activities for all the family. Later you can see a woman's surreal journey unfold as she receives daily aerial deliveries in Pigeons in Transit, join in with an interactive theatre game in She Vanishes in the Air or drop into a scratch poetry slam night at the Old Fire Station Cafe.

Saturday 14 September

The Offbeat stalls will be back again on Saturday on Gloucester Green for lots of arts and crafts fun, younger audiences will love The Witch Without a Wand, a BSL witchy mystical mayhem of an adventure, or you could head back to St. Giles Fair in 1892 where Alice falls from the carousel in The Untold Story of Alice Breakspear.

The Playhouse Playmaker Showcase will present six script-in-hand extracts from plays for the very first time, and you can also see a screening of Troika Theatre’s Recollections, a documentary celebrating the incontrovertible power theatre has to bring people together.

Follow as Hattie, a woman in her 20s, tries to navigate her life, her relationships and job with her reality of living with chronic pain in Unaligned, or enjoy an exciting dance event featuring three different performances, Anthology of Touches, a dance duet exploring memories and lived experience of touching and being touched, Don't Tell Me What Bharatanatyam Is, an experimental performance that will challenge your perceptions of Indian classical dance, and Renegade Master, a vibrant celebration of Queerness woven with a critique on privilege and societal politics. Then finish your night with Offbeat Sonics, the festival’s electronica night.

Sunday 15 September

The final day of the festival kicks off with a chance to learn an international folk song with the Starling Session’s Sunday Morning Song, head out to Gloucester Green to see The Trap, a madcap open-air slapstick performance for all the family, or visit the BT Studio later in the afternoon for Cancer B*tch! an exploration of managing a cancer diagnosis in your twenties.

Explore a unique window into a forgotten city with Rawz as he weaves a tapestry of poems, songs and stories from his experiences of the Leys and the city's university, see multi-award-winning theatre maker Maya Hallpike’s debut solo show HEAD, then head over to the Old Fire Station Theatre for a glorious rendition of global folk music with the Starling Sessions, before the OFS Cafe opens up to all to celebrate the weekend, with the festival closing party.

Tickets for Burton Taylor Studio shows are available from the Oxford Playhouse Box Office on 01865 305305 or online at www.oxfordplayhouse.com

Tickets for all Old Fire Station and New Theatre Oxford shows are available from the Old Fire Station Ticket Office on 01865 263990 or online at www.oldfirestation.org.uk