Scratch Night

Scratch Night is our quarterly platform for creatives to share, experiment, and connect. This is your chance to present work in progress or showcase completed pieces to a supportive audience and gather valuable feedback.

Whether you’re refining a play, testing a new script, or presenting your latest artistic venture, Scratch Night is your space. We invite artists across disciplines—actors, playwrights, performers, and creatives of all kinds—to step into the spotlight and share their work. 

Our Scratch Nights feature a mix of two featured artists (Headliners) and a limited number of bookable slots for those eager to present their work to an engaged and enthusiastic audience. Whether you’re just starting out or you’re a seasoned creator looking to try something new, we’d love to hear from you. 

Got something you want share? Amazing! Contact Abby to enquire about available slots for our next Scratch night at [email protected].

Not a performer/ writer/ singer/ artist? Fantastic! Scratch Night thrives on the energy and feedback of its audience. Your input and encouragement are vital to the creative process, making this a night of true collaboration and discovery. 

Join us quarterly at Shakespeare North Playhouse for an evening of experimentation, growth, and creativity. Ready to take part? Apply for a slot or simply come along to be inspired. 

Dates: 

• 25 March 2025
• 24 June 2025
• 14 October 2025
• 16 December 2025

March Scratch Headliners:

• Molly Farquhar – Hairy B*stard
  Hairy B*stard – A show about self love, self loathing – and how expensive razors are. Meet Magenta. She’s a 20-something icon, who lives in her pink filled world. She’s confident, creative, and also incredibly hairy – particularly on her face. Today she’s going out on a date- perhaps he’ll be the love of her life!! OR…perhaps he’ll just stare at her moustache.  This is a semi autobiographical play, about the writer’s struggle with Hirsutism and PCOS. With lots of interactive and comedic moments, both sad and heartwarming, this one woman show will leave the audience questioning what it truly means to be ‘normal’. The first version of the show won ‘Best Original show’ at Liverpool Fringe in 2024.
  
  About
  Winner BEST COMEDIC PERFORMER 2024 @ Liverpool Fringe
  Molly Farquhar is an actor, writer and creator originally from Hartlepool. She now lives in Liverpool, where she has created and been a part of many award winning shows and productions. She Trained at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, gaining her Masters Degree. She then went onto co-found Live a Little Theatre, which has been successful in touring around the UK with multiple shows. This is her first Solo show she has created as an individual performer. She is very proud of her working class heritage and aims to make work for the masses – she firmly believes that everyone should have access to the arts and wants to take this show to areas that don’t normally receive much theatre.

• Dogtale Theatre
  In a sad Travelodge, Kayleigh and Ben wait. They’re a young couple whose spark has gone out, and in a last ditch effort to save their relationship, Kayleigh has invited her friend Ellie to “liven things up”. Things, obviously, do not go to plan. A comedy about buried feelings and missed expectations.About: Dogtale Theatre are a brand new Merseyside theatre company, who making their debut on the scene with “Boxes: Three Stories” at the Unity Theatre. Their work focuses on new writing and new folk, telling interesting stories in exciting ways. If you’re a new creative or performer with a story to tell, get in touch and say hello!
  
  Instagram: @dogtale_theatre 
• Abbie Caskie – They’re Just Roommates
  It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single woman in possession of a carabiner, must be in want of a wife.
  They’re Just Roommates is a short play set in the flat of Benny and Dee, two unlikely friends who have been living together for a couple of months. Period drama obsessed Dee is a complete contrast to her pint drinking, heavy metal listening roommate Benny. Who somehow find themselves caught up in a romance, very similar to Dee’s favourite book, Pride and Prejudice.About
  Abbie Caskie is a queer writer, director and theatre maker from Liverpool. She has recently graduated with a 1st from John Moores University where she found a love for creating theatre that has a female or queer based narrative. She has her own theatre company, Bunny Bunny Productions, which is an all female and non-binary theatre company specialising in the history, heartbreak and humour of female-led queer stories.
  With 6 years industry experience from costume to tech, acting to directing and now teaching; Abbie is looking forward to showcasing her work in new formats to reach more audiences.
  Follow her on social media: @abbiecaskie @bunnyboilerproductions
• T4T BnB – Undercover
  A romantic comedy about a trans couple heading back to their maybe-not-so-understanding family homes, and so, together, prepare to go “undercover”.About
  The T4T BnB is a new North West based arts company ran by Misha Mond and Olive Payne, working in theatre, film productions, cinema screenings, and silly little projects under the umbrella of the “BnB”.