Nice Pair
NICE PAIR is a festival of double acts presenting some of the UK’s most daring new theatre shows.
Hackney Showroom are looking for 4 exceptional double acts to make brand new shows for NICE PAIR, a two week festival taking place at Hackney Showroom at the Lyric – our new residency at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith’s Studio in March 2027.
We are an artist led company, working as collaborators on all of our shows. We’re looking for ideas with some flesh on their bones – enough to get us excited, but with plenty of room to work with us on a journey of experimentation and discovery.
Who is it for?
We’re looking for double acts with a bit of experience and who have made a show or two already. You could also be solo artists who’ve made work separately and are teaming up for the first time. We are particularly interested in hearing from working class legends and council house divas. (Your show doesn’t have to be about free school meals or mould, they can be about whatever you like.) You might have trained in theatre, or you might not. You might have found your way in through nightlife, community work, activism or somewhere else entirely. If you’ve got an idea you can’t stop thinking about, we want to hear from you.
What makes a Hackney Showroom show?
Here’s some things that characterise our shows. We’re looking for pitches that resonate with some or all of these.
STORY. A Hackney Showroom show is narrative-led. The form might be innovative but there’s a story at its heart with a beginning, middle and end.
LIVENESS. We know we’re in a theatre. As storytellers, our performers are knowing players, darting across the fourth wall and back. We’re in community for this night and what we do together is a shared experience.
INNOVATION. We like to make shows that cross genres and innovate the form of theatre.
NICHE/MASS APPEAL. We take niche subjects and ideas and give them mass appeal. We’re after your heart and soul, not your intellect.
TAKING A STAND. We want to fire up audiences about what matters to you. The show may be irreverent, but you’ll leave hungry for change.
What you’ll get
Selected artists will be matched with a director (either Sam Curtis Lindsay or Jo McInnes) with support from a dramaturg (Nina Lyndon) to develop your idea and bring it to the stage.
We’ll provide the production and creative team with a shared set and lighting design across the festival.
Fee: £3,000 per individual artist for 4 weeks of your time. This covers:
- 5 preparation and meeting days ahead of rehearsals
- 2 weeks of rehearsal
- 1 week performing your show as part of a double bill at Hackney Showroom at the Lyric
Timeline
Applications open: 27 October
Online Q&A with Nina Lyndon & Sam Curtis Lindsay: 5 November 10am–11am (this will also be made available afterwards)
Deadline: 29 November, 5pm
Shortlist interviews: 9 & 10 December at Hackney Showroom
Decisions: w/c 14 December
Schedule
Shows 1 & 2
Rehearsals: 22–26 February & 1–5 March
Shows: 8–13 March
Shows 3 & 4
Rehearsals: 1–5 March & 8–12 March
Shows: 15–20 March
How to apply
Fill in these forms: Entry & Monitoring
