Working together with artists, partners and festivals

At Lawrence Batley Theatre we have over 300 performances a year across our indoor and outdoor stages, from comedy to children’s shows, contemporary dance to new dramatic writing and of course our annual Pantomime.

A big part of our programme is working with partners and festivals in the local area, supporting the cultural ecology in Kirklees at our world-class venue.

This year so far we have been proud to host events as part of Huddersfield Literature Festival including the wonderful Celia Imrie, broadcaster legend Stewart Maconie and one of the greatest living poets of our time Linton Kwesi Johnson.

For the second year in a row we partnered with Sangam Festival, a community festival celebrating South Asian arts, culture and heritage. We hosted four events across the summer period including Qawwali in the mainhouse and transforming the courtyard at the front of the theatre into a Pothwari village with pothwari poetry or sher with traditional instruments including bells, clay water vessels and the sitar

Summer has been a busy time for us as we supported our Community Ambassadors Hardeep Sahota and Madiha Ansari to secure funding for the Prince Re:Imagined project and multicultural music and dance showcase Rasm-e-Milan both of which took place on Sun 6 August across the Courtyard and Main House spaces and were attended by over 500 people. Picture above is from Rasm-e-Milan and here's a film showing what the event felt like.

There’s even more to see in the Autumn as we host a special one-off appearance from Huddersfield Literature Festival Patron, and national treasure Lemn Sissay, accompanied by a booksigning and we host Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival for their opening event – PERSONHOOD performed by Oslo Sinfionetta and featuring live composition, film and choreography.

Our mission is to be the creative heart of Huddersfield and it’s a pleasure to be able to showcase these amazing events on our stages and celebrate the wealth of talent right here in Kirklees.