Shoreditch Town Hall’s Summer in The Ditch season returns to Shoreditch Town Hal with its biggest programme yet from 9 to 18 July 2026.

Now in its third edition, the festival has become an important launchpad for emerging artists, with former participants evolving from basement work-in-progress performances to fully commissioned shows in the venue’s main spaces.

Experience a diverse range of performances, from AI-inspired immersive disasters and punk performance art tackling medical misogyny to queer opera and butch cabaret—there’s something for everyone! Highlights include the award-winning ventriloquist and clown Lachlan Werner (WonderTwunk, Soho Theatre), acclaimed theatre maker Riss Obolensky (Healing King Herod, Soho Theatre), the internationally celebrated queer diner parody Booters, and the multi-award-winning drag king Fabio Lezonli.

The season will kick off with House of Tríus, featuring Kiki and Corí on 9th July. This event promises an evening of intriguing, risqué cabaret, featuring an all-Black, all-queer, neurodiverse cast. Additionally, award-winning ventriloquist and clown Lachlan Werner, known for his performance WonderTwunk at the Soho Theatre, will present his latest work-in-progress, Sleeper Hit. This piece is a surreal “ventriloquial hypnotherapy session” that delves into themes such as gay skeletons in closets, subconscious fears, and queer absurdity.

Kate Newman presents A Womb of One’s Own on 10th July, a passionate and humorous exploration of PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder), medical misogyny, and late-stage capitalism. Through a blend of punk performance and clowning, her work delves into the experience of living in a body that feels constantly at odds with itself.

Joining her will be Simone French and TomYumSim with their show Trainwreck, also on 10th July. This chaotic satire examines the pitfalls of AI, audience participation, and immersive culture gone awry. Drawing inspiration from the notorious Will Wonka experience in Glasgow and the global fiasco that was Fyre Festival, the show invites audiences aboard the Trainwreck Express for a wild journey filled with karaoke and algorithm-driven disasters.

Combining crowd work with cabaret, Booted Rivalry (11th July) presents the butch jock romance that audiences have been eagerly anticipating. This show celebrates local butches, studs, and masculine performers in a collaborative stage production featuring the internationally acclaimed queer diner parody Booters and multi-award-winning drag king Fabio Lezonli.

On Our Backs (WIP) (15th July) is a cabaret fever dream inspired by the radical 1980s lesbian magazine of the same name. Grace Quigley, one half of Queer Noise, will draw upon archival research and live confessions to explore themes of queer longing, desire, motherhood, and the complexities of being observed.

Award-winning clown and theatre maker Riss Obolensky, known for Healing King Herod at the Soho Theatre, returns to Shoreditch Town Hall with Stinky Little Pilgrim (WIP) (16th July). This piece offers a meditation on crisis and the experience of getting gloriously lost.

“The best thing about performing at Summer in the Ditch was the level of support that you receive from Shoreditch Town Hall. It was a really great opportunity for us to put something on its feet and having support from a venue, not just in terms of space but in terms of tech support, marketing support, support from producers and getting people through the door, really enabled our work to be seen for the first time – which was amazing!”
Previous performers from Summer in the Ditch 2024, theatre company Fag Packet.

Blending classically trained vocals with theatrical chaos reminiscent of a séance, Operotica: Lovers in Every Lifetime (17th July) promises a gothic journey through themes of reincarnation, opera, and queer love beyond death. Pteridomania (17th July) is a queer love story set against the backdrop of the 19th-century craze for fern hunting. Created by a collective of queer and gender non-conforming artists, this opera reimagines the form while unearthing hidden histories of queerness, obsession, and survival.

The festival will conclude with a performance by collaborators and sisters Tallulah and Mirabelle Haddon, presenting Open Your Mouth, It’s Snowing on 18th July. This multisensory work explores themes of risk, desire, and dehydration through expanded cinema and live image-making. Following the story of an injured mermaid as she discovers a human community, the performance delves into themes of intimacy and transformation.

Visist website for tickets and details.

Summer in The Ditch runs from 9 – 18 July, 2026, at Shoreditch Town Hall, 380 Old Street, London EC1V 9LT, United Kingdom.

Topics: queer theatre