Hull Truck Theatre unveils 2027 season led by four new plays from Northern women writers

Hull Truck Theatre has announced a 2027 season built around four new productions by women writers from the North of England. The season runs from January to July, and the Hull theatre is marking ten years since the city was UK City of Culture in 2017. WhatsOnStage reported the announcement on 10 November 2026.

The season opens on 28 January with Spiders, a new play by Martha Godber, directed by Tom Saunders. It is set around Spiders, a nightclub in Hull, and follows two teenagers, Meg and Gabi. It runs in the theatre's Godber Studio until 20 February.

Next comes Breaking Mum, the debut play by Hull-based writer Hannah Scorer, directed by Mark Babych. It runs from 25 February to 20 March. An earlier version was shown at Middle Child's Fresh Ink Playwriting Festival in July 2024.

No Balls, by Lydia Marchant, follows a fictional grassroots women's football team in West Hull. The play looks at women's health, including endometriosis, a condition in which tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows outside it and can cause pain. Mark Babych and Deborah Pugh co-direct, and it runs from 4 to 26 June, just ahead of the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Marchant is a BBC screenwriter and a former member of Hull Truck Youth Theatre. Her debut play, Mumsy, appeared in 2023.

The fourth new work is Slim Club! The Musical, a community production by Maureen Lennon. It is set in a local slimming club that has gone rogue. Around 50 community performers will take part, the show is directed by Tom Saunders, and it runs from 17 to 24 July.

The season also includes a new staging of Romeo & Juliet, which runs from 7 to 24 April. It is a co-production with Octagon Theatre Bolton and Derby Theatre, directed by Iqbal Khan. The run is part of the venues' annual programme for GCSE students, and it follows Macbeth in 2026. The season also includes visiting work from other companies.

Mark Babych is the theatre's artistic director and joint chief executive. Janthi Mills-Ward is its executive director and the other joint chief executive, so the two share the top job.

For a regional theatre, a season built on new writing carries a particular kind of risk. Each new play needs an audience from the first night, and no earlier run has tested it in the same building. The four new titles sit alongside a Shakespeare that schools already book, which gives the venue a familiar name in the calendar as well as fresh work to sell.

Tickets and prices for the 2027 season were not included in the announcement.