23 Sep – 16 Oct 2025

Otherhood

Old Bird Theatre

A story of radical love and found family.

Event Details
Date 23 Sep – 16 Oct 2025
Times Various times
Location Venues across Bradford District
Ages 14 years and upwards
Access
  • BSL interpreted
  • Audio described
  • Touch tour

A grieving widow and a queer millennial discover the power of finding family in unexpected places. This poignant and funny new play explores the heartaches and joys of aging child-free.

About the project

Join Old Bird Theatre for an immersive theatre experience and soundscape mixed with real life stories. Otherhood switches between the here and now and an audio storytelling realm where we travel in time to an imagined fantastical Bradford.

Children or no children, we all matter, and we all leave a meaningful mark.

Otherhood will be showing at various venues across Bradford this Autumn.

  • Tuesday 23 September – Beacon at Lister Park 7:30pm
  • Friday 26 September – Thornton Community Centre 7:30pm
  • Saturday 27 September – Caroline Street Social Club 7:30pm
  • Friday 3 October – Keighley Creative 7:30pm
  • Saturday 4 October – Mind the Gap 7:30pm
  • Thursday 16 October – Bradford Arts Centre 7.30pm

About the artist

Writer Emma Adams and Director Deborah Pakkar-Hull set up Old Bird in January 2025 to create disobedient, playful and relevant work inspired by their home city of Bradford and the people within it, to surprise, delight, inspire and connect.

Deborah is a Bradford-based Director, Theatre Maker and Researcher, specialising in small-scale, collaborative touring work. She was previously the Artistic Director of Theatre Company Blah Blah Blah, The Birmingham Play House and the York Mystery Plays and has recently worked with Libellule Theatre and Victoria Firth and Company.

Emma is a queer, neurodiverse playwright and screenwriter from Bradford. She’s written plays to be performed in houses, libraries, swimming pools and graveyards (and on stages too). Emma has worked with Leeds Playhouse, Opera North, Red Ladder, Slung Low, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Theatre 503, Freedom Studios, Ovalhouse, Paines Plough, Theatre Company Blah Blah Blah, Bradford City of Culture 2025 programme launch, Longboat Pictures, Shiny Button,  ITV and CBBC.

Audio Description

Listen to an audio described flyer for Otherhood below – you can read the full transcription here.

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Arist-Led Project Awards

This project is supported by the Bradford 2025 Artist-led Project Awards programme.

Find out more about this programme and the projects we’ve supported below.

Writing for wellbeing workshops

Writing for Wellbeing workshops will be running alongside this show. Find out more here or email Old Bird for more information: [email protected]

Access

Join our access scheme to view access tickets or contact our Ticketing team for more information.
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BSL Interpreted - 23 September

The performance of Otherhood at The Beacon on 23 Tuesday 23 September will have BSL (British Sign Language) interpretation.

Embedded Audio Description

This event will have embedded audio description in English.

Touch Tour - 4 October

The performance of Otherhood at Mind The Gap on Saturday 4 October will include a touch tour, from 6pm-6.30pm.

Tickets →

23 Sep, 7.30pm The Beacon at Lister Park (BSL Interpreted)
26 Sep, 7.30pm Thornton Community Centre
27 Sep, 7.30pm Caroline St Social Club
3 Oct, 7.30pm Keighley Creative
4 Oct, 7.30pm Mind the Gap (with Touch Tour)
16 Oct, 7.30pm Bradford Arts Centre

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