WATCH: Unity CEO, Gordon Millar tells us about the theatre's exciting Autumn 2021 lineup

The curtain’s been raised on live performances and Gordon Millar is delighted to ‘be getting people back in the theatre’.

“It’s been brilliant,” says the Unity Theatre’s CEO. “Fantastic. It’s absolutely wonderful to have it again, for the audience, for the artist, and for everyone involved.

“It’s what we do and it’s good to be back doing it, and the feedback from the audiences has been great.”

The Hope Place theatre is celebrating with a packed programme for its Autumn 2021 season, with productions from inside and outside the city. Highlights include:

– First Time with It’s A Sin’s Nathaniel Hall starring in his acclaimed autobiographical show about growing up HIV positive in a negative world

– Sessions from Pains Plough and Soho Theatre, which looks at the complexities of masculinity, depression and Therapy

and

– Who Cares, from Lung Theatre, about young people in the roles of carers and the impact of austerity, the failing of the social health system, and what happens when the child becomes the parent. “It’s all borne from people’s real-life experiences and this piece is exceptional,” says Gordon.

“There’s Christmas as well – dare I mention it?” he asks. “It’s a highlight and it was cancelled last year, so we’ve got the show back we were going to have, Outside the Igloo. It’s a lovely, beautiful piece for the under-8s. It’s about three penguins living in an igloo and, when the electricity goes down and the Gameboys and the PlayStations they are obsessed with won’t work, they go outside to fix it and find they have the same amount of fun they had inside, outside.”

There are performances from the artists supported by The Unity through its Creative Pool Programme and its Open Call crowdfunding programme – which will also be recorded for viewing online – as well as those linked to events like Homotopia and DaDaFest.

“We’ve even got folk music,” says Duncan, who is ‘thrilled’ with the varied and busy season now ahead. “Entertainment is not just about showbusiness and feel-good factor musicals, it’s about being challenged, it’s about a variety of things.

“We give people the chance to have a good laugh, to think and look at something from a different perspective, and to feel that they are represented on the stage.

“We aim to have a broad enough programme so there’s something for anybody to experience, and it’s looking really great.”