Martha Godber’s Spiders leads Hull Truck Theatre’s 2027 season of new writing

Hull Truck Theatre has put its 2027 programme on sale, and the home-produced strand runs from late January to the end of July. Five productions make up that core: three new plays by women writers from the city and region, a community musical, and a Shakespeare staged with two partner theatres. The year marks a decade since Hull’s spell as UK City of Culture in 2017.

Artistic director and joint CEO Mark Babych said: “This new season builds on the legacy of this UK City of Culture project, with a programme rooted in new writing and regional identity.” Executive director and joint CEO Janthi Mills-Ward added: “Hull Truck Theatre’s commitment to local talent and creative ambition underpins our contribution to the wider theatre sector, placing regional perspectives at the heart of a national conversation.”

Spiders

Spiders opens the season in the studio, from 28 January to 20 February 2027. Demand has already pushed the run out. Martha Godber sets her new play in and around Spiders, the Hull nightclub, and tells a story of youth, nerve and the friendships that get people through. Hull Truck’s associate director Tom Saunders directs.

For Godber, a premiere in her own city is a homecoming: “It really feels like a full circle, pinch me moment.” Saunders said: “The response has already been hugely encouraging.”

Breaking Mum

Next, from 25 February to 20 March 2027, comes Breaking Mum, the debut play by Hull writer Hannah Scorer. It is a comedy-drama about motherhood, friendship and the families people choose. At its centre is Rex, a single parent keeping a full-time job, the school run and the screen-time rules in the air at once. Scorer said the play is about “parenting, the domestic load, failure, female friendship, and finding your village in a world that makes it really hard”.

Spiders and Breaking Mum both sit in the theatre’s Drama Deal, which takes 25% off the total when two or more of the selected shows are booked together.

Romeo & Juliet

Shakespeare follows from 7 to 24 April 2027. Iqbal Khan directs a new Romeo & Juliet, the latest piece in Hull Truck’s partnership with Octagon Theatre Bolton and Derby Theatre. The staging is aimed at GCSE students as much as at the regular audience, and puts the cost of a feud that will not end alongside the young love.

No Balls

Lydia Marchant, a BBC screenwriter who came up through Hull Truck Youth Theatre, is back at Hull Truck with No Balls, on Stage 1 from 4-26 June 2027. Her new comedy-drama follows a grassroots women’s Sunday League team, with friendship and women’s health running through it. Mark Babych and Deborah Pugh direct. Marchant last worked with the theatre on Mumsy in 2023, and said: “The play’s been shaped by conversations with female players across the region and I can’t wait to put it in front of a local audience.”

Slim Club! The Musical

The home-produced run closes in the summer holidays with Slim Club! The Musical, from 17-24 July 2027. Maureen Lennon, who wrote Guts! The Musical and Mary and the Hyenas for Hull Truck, has written a new musical about a local slimming club that goes rogue. It is a community production with a community cast, and details of workshops and auditions will follow in the coming months. Tom Saunders directs. Lennon said: “Hull is full of incredible people, and I hope Slimclub! can reflect some of their passion, humour, courage and grit.”

Visiting productions

Touring drama fills the gaps. Northern Broadsides bring their Crime and Punishment on 4-8 May, and The John Godber Company revives One Punch, about two lifelong friends on a night out in Hull, from 27 April - 1 May. For younger audiences, the puppetry show The Singing Mermaid, adapted from the book by Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks, plays on 13-14 February.

Tickets for the whole season are on sale now, and every Hull Truck production includes access performances.

For more information, visit the official website.