What was that about? A theatre-going group for “not really theatre people”: opening up theatre criticism in Bristol and beyond
7 Aug 2026
Bristol Old Vic recently partnered with Emergent Value – a research project led by Dr Astrid Breel at Bath Spa University. The project, funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council, looks at how to capture the value of arts experiences beyond traditional feedback, particularly the less easily measured value, and the more unpredictable ways through which audiences find and make meaning.
Since summer 2025 Emergent Value has been working with four teams of artists to commission a series of original playful experiences that wrap around live performances, providing accessible ways for audiences to reflect on what they have just seen. Importantly, these artists were tasked with making something participant centred; something that focusses in on the experience of the audience member. The reflections gathered will be useful to artists, venues and producers - but can audience reflection be meaningful for the audience member themselves? And what can taking part in an evaluation process add to the experience of seeing a theatre show?
In late 2025, a process led by artist and producer Sarah Warden began. Sarah was curious to see how offering audiences ways into a writing practice could empower individuals, and at the same time challenge power imbalances and broaden how meaning is created understood, valued and shared in theatre. And further, could a truly intentional invitation to come, ruminate, discuss and write about theatre help to shake up whose voices we prioritise in the industry, and offer ways in for folks who otherwise might avoid the experience entirely?
Sarah devised a project in partnership with Bristol Old Vic – inviting six individuals who were self-confessed non-theatre-goers, to see two shows and attend three writing workshops between January – March 2026. Sarah led a recruitment process that took on the challenge of working with a theatre to find people who don’t go to the theatre! Flyers were printed, emails and personal messages sent, listings sites employed, and alerts sent to local press with the recruitment open for several months to curate a diverse group of people with a keen interest in doing something a little different.
After a couple of months, the group was finalised and were off to see Frantic Assembly’s Lost Atoms by Anna Jordan – a piece exploring the intricacies and complexities of shared memory.
Perhaps I didn’t need the packet of sweets and pint I had bought at the theatre bar. I wondered where I was going to put said beer, and how I was supposed to stow my elbows for the evening without encroaching on my neighbours’ equally limited space. I clamped my upper arms into my body and drank my pint T-Rex style.
Extract from Writers Group participant’s final review of Lost Atoms
In their first writing session, led by writer and theatre maker Eliza Cass, a box of Roses was cracked open and the group began talking about their different experiences of seeing Lost Atoms; – alone and furiously making notes, or with old friends with, or wedged in between rows of secondary students electrified by each twist and turn in the story. They launched into free writes, list drills, POV exercises and outrageously detailed descriptions of the bus journey to the theatre. And finally, they looked at examples of other kinds of reviews before launching into their first freewheeling attempt.
We also don’t know each other and we’re all from different walks of life and you’ve got different lived experiences, and then coming together to talk about how we perceive what we’ve seen, you get different points of view, different perspectives, and then you’re, ‘Oh, I hadn’t thought of that!
Writing Group Participant – feedback discussion
Next up, the group saw Small Town Boy, Brenda Callis’ drag-theatre show – a raucous and tender exploration of grief, community, and growing up queer in a rural town. The show invited audiences to sing, dance, cry, shout, up to the rafters in the Weston Studio - offering a delightfully different audience experience to the previous show.
I think both of these plays were plays that would stay with me because they both have that real visceral effect on me in different ways, and actually it was both grief – both of the things that stayed with me was the grief.
Writers Group participant, feedback discussion
In the workshop that followed, the group looked at what it means to explore our identities and positionalities as writers; what’s it like to take centre stage in one’s talking and one’s writing? And how can playing with form open new avenues for expression?
Repeating free writing exercises, they wrote reviews of the play in different formats; What if we wrote our review as a drag show, with a heightened focus on direct address to a reader, word play, song breaks, dance breaks and more? And what about as an Amazon review – short, to the point, or decidedly not at all to the point!
In the final workshop they revisited material generated over the last two workshops and worked through different methods for developing and editing the writing into something that would feel comfortable to share. They spent time with specific ideas, drawing them out and pulling out the things that were most surprising when read back.
Rather than offering traditional flashbacks, the play reverses the device, giving us fleeting glimpses of the future where hindsight exists. The writing explores individual truths versus collective memory, reminding us that memory is negotiable not stable fact. Lost atoms of detail shift, fade, and leave us questioning what was truly shared? What lingers with me after viewing this play was not corniness, but the uneasy recognition that love’s smallest particles — the overlooked gestures, the unspoken words — are often the very things that fracture us in the end.
Extract from Writers Group participant’s final review of Lost Atoms
Watching this project unfold was a real joy – particularly the way in which it seemed to offer something tangible to participants and excitingly seemed to lessen the sense of obligation that can accompany a routine request for feedback.
I’ve found [the workshops] really useful for having the time to think a bit more deeply about what we’ve seen and some of the writing exercises I’ve just found really interesting and definitely things that I want to try and use again in future by myself.
Writing Group Participant – feedback discussion
The group was light, fun, and encouraging for when and how folks wanted to share about their experience. Here’s a final reflection from project-lead Sarah:
The project focused on language, the very thing that can create barriers, breaking those down and making space for voices not usually centred in art criticism. Rather than asking people what they think, we tried to help them discover it, offering tools and techniques to do so. We welcomed all the extra life stuff - the rain on route, the noisy sweet wrappers from the bloke in front, the sore backs and the dark rooms – making space for lived experiences and stories to reveal new perspectives on how audiences receive and value artwork.
Sarah Warden
Bristol Old Vic was very happy to support the project through tickets and space for the workshops. Dylan Tozer, Communication, Marketing & Sales Director said: “Research like Emergent Value’s is hugely valuable to us because it helps reveal the often-invisible barriers that can make live theatre feel out of reach, unfamiliar or simply not a priority. Hearing participants reflect on everything from the language we use in our marketing, to the memories that stay with them after a visit gives us practical insight into how we can make our future communications clearer, more welcoming and more responsive to audiences’ real experiences.”
The final stages of this project are now underway but Emergent Value is looking to develop a number of similar pilot projects in the future. For further information and to connect with research team, please visit https://astridbreel.com/emergent-value
