Sixth House Theatre announced as Lowry’s new Resident Company (2025–2026)

As the New Year begins, we’re easing back into work and settling into our year-long residency with Lowry. Taking time to reconnect, reflect, and gently build momentum together. 

We’ve begun devising our new work COW – Warning: May Contain Traces of Truth (working title), an epic tragicomedy inspired by the real-life BSE crisis. Through verbatim interviews, original music, puppetry, movement, and a heavy dose of dark humour, we’re exploring how fear spreads, how truth fractures, and what happens when a nation slowly realises it might have been fed lies — literally and metaphorically.

Our early sessions have been all about research, conversation and physical experimentation, testing ideas around control, contamination and spin. We’re especially interested in how the BSE crisis echoes today’s world of misinformation, political distrust, and blurred lines between fact and fiction, and why this unresolved story feels urgently alive again as we approach the 40th anniversary of the first recorded case.

Alongside this, we’re waiting to hear back from ACE, which would support the next phase of COW’s development, as well as our organisational growth as a company. 

WIP Sharing: Chasing Dragons by Samuel Tracy

Friday 13 February 2026, 2.30pm at Lowry (Studio 2) 
 
We’re also excited to be supporting and co-producing Sam Tracy’s new show Chasing Dragons, and we’d love to invite members of Lowry’s Artist Network to an early work-in-progress sharing.

Chasing Dragons follows BB, a witty and charismatic twenty-something who knows two cosmic truths: Donna Summer is the undisputed queen of disco, and kissing white boys is a thing of the past. Beginning with a chance encounter in a sweaty nightclub, we spiral into a deeply personal and fantastical journey where reality fractures and reassembles through music, memory and magic - shifting seamlessly from the mundane to the mythic.

“A truth can be buried 
 But no matter how deep 
 it will always find its way to the surface 
 But you must remember who put it there in the first place.” 

There’s much more to share as the year unfolds so follow us @sixthousetheatre and keep an eye on this space.

We’re incredibly proud to share that we recently received Arts Council England funding for our new show COW - Warning: May Contain Traces of Truth. This support enables both the R&D of the project and vital organisational development for Sixth House as a company. Securing this grant feels like a significant milestone for us as a company. Not simply because of the funding itself, but because it affirms the scale and ambition of the work. COW interrogates systems of trust, authority, and collapse - having the resources to properly develop this production allows us to ask those questions with the rigour and imagination they deserve.

We’re deeply grateful to Lowry’s Artist Development team for continuing to champion our practice and hold space for risk and experimentation.

Alongside this, Sam recently shared work-in-progress from his solo piece Chasing Dragons. Returning to the play in a WIP format was a powerful reminder that the process is alive, that stories evolve as we do. Thank you to all those who were able to attend. Holding the piece in front of an audience again allowed new textures and tensions to surface, and we’re excited about the next steps for the play.

Coming up we planning to launch SIXTH HOUSE: OPEN HOUSE. A series of open sessions for local creatives where we will be sharing insights into our process and themed workshops. We are looking forward to opening our doors and creating another space for shared learning and exchange, so watch this space. 

Spring always feels like a threshold. Not a sudden transformation, but a gradual thaw. After months of inwardness, there’s something about lighter evenings that invites expansion in the body, in the imagination, in what feels possible. Onwards into the light. 

As March draws to a close, we’ve found ourselves finally returning to the room, to each other, to the work, and to the questions that feel most urgent.

This month marks a significant period of R&D for our new project, COW – Warning: May Contain Traces of Truth. Coming back together as a company, we’ve been deep in the process of testing, unpicking, and rebuilding - asking what this piece needs to be, and how it wants to exist in the world.

Working in a multidisciplinary way continues to challenge us. It asks for patience, for rigour, and for a constant negotiation between forms, ideas, and voices in the room. There are moments where clarity feels just out of reach, where the process resists easy answers. But within that, there is something deeply beautiful, an insistence on listening and ensuring that each perspective has weight and presence in the work.

This phase of exploration culminated in our first company trip to Chester Storyhouse -  a genuinely energising experience and an important step in developing our relationship with the venue. To play with the work in a new space, with fresh eyes and to feel it land with openness and curiosity, was both affirming and encouraging. We’re excited about what this connection is and how it might grow. 

We are also looking to connect with a new collaborator for this project - please find below details: 

ROLE: TECH DESIGNER/CONSULTANT  
DATES: 20th-24th April  
RATE: £200 per day (2 days of work) 

We are seeking a collaborator to support the development of the digital and technical language of our new work. This role will sit within the rehearsal process, helping to bridge creative ideas with practical delivery as we explore the integration into live performance. 

Key Responsibilities:

• Supporting the implementation and creative use of software such as Isadora (or similar real-time media tools) within the rehearsal room
• Assisting in the integration of live camera, projection, and digital elements into the performance
• Advising on how technical ideas can be realised practically, offering solutions that align with the artistic vision of the piece
• Collaborating with the team to test, refine, and develop the show’s digital language during R&D
• Troubleshooting technical challenges and supporting the shaping of digital elements for sharings and presentation.  

We’ve just coming to the end of our second R&D week of COW - eek!

This phase has focused on experimenting with projections and integrated technology, while pushing ourselves to think more deeply about access and how we meaningfully embed it within the work. We’re very much still learning, and that feels like an important part of the process.

We’ve been exploring how projection mapping, captioning and digital media can move beyond access tools to become active, creative elements within the performance itself through testing, trial and error, and letting the technology shape the work.

We’ve been supported by a brilliant group of collaborators this week including Emily Bold, Mark Morreau, Ciaran Stewart, Isabel Chan, Stan Hodgson, Meghan Doyle and Caroline Ryan.  
This phase will culminate in a small, informal sharing for d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences - an important opportunity to open up the work and invite feedback at this stage.

We’d also love to welcome anyone else interested in accessible performance, new technology in theatre, or being part of the development of this work. The sharing details are:

Friday 24 April, 1:30 - 3:30pm

Aldridge Studio Theatre, Lowry  

There’ll be time afterwards to stay and chat together. Please RSVP to sixthhousetheatre@gmail.com to reserve your free place.  

We’re also excited to be launching our new logo, designed by Vasileios Mamoutis.  

May saw us back in the Studio for our 3rd round of R&D supported by Lowry & Arts Council England. After April's discoveries with Performance & Access Tech, we were keen to dig into the narrative of COW, embracing and exploring both the human and animal stories through movement, text, and song. A couple of exciting break-through moments have given us the idea for a strong new framing device, and introduced a number of new characters that will be joining protagonists Andrew & Ho Yan on their journey.

We love devising, and it's a joy when things seem to just drop out of the air fully formed...and a great reminder that even if something doesn't make the final cut, it can be vital in leading you to a new pathway that you never thought about. 

We're very grateful to all at Lowry for their continued support, and for the wealth of insight and feedback from industry peers that came to our end of week sharing. And we  can't wait to share our plans for the next stage of COW's journey planned for the late summer.....announcement coming soon! 

As summer begins to arrive, there’s a growing sense of possibility in the air.

Over the past month, we completed our third week of R&D for COW – Warning: May Contain Traces of Truth (or BRITISH BEEF, depending on the day and who you ask). After encountering a number of creative challenges during our second week in the room, we returned with a renewed commitment to making with joy. The result was some of the strongest work we’ve generated on the project so far.

We were delighted to share excerpts from the development process with an invited audience that included freelancers and colleagues from Factory International, Leeds Playhouse, Ramps on the Moon, Barbican and imitating the dog. Having so many brilliant artists and organisations in the room was both energising and affirming, and the conversations that followed have left us excited for the next phase of the project.

We’re also thrilled to officially announce that Sixth House is one of the winning companies selected for Barbican OpenLab 2026 programme. Over the coming year we’ll be developing our practice/work through the programme whilst receiving mentorship from Tim Bell at Complicité. OpenLab has long championed bold interdisciplinary work, and we’re incredibly excited to be joining a cohort of artists committed to pushing the boundaries of form, technology and storytelling.

Summer feels different to spring. Where spring is about emergence, summer offers space to expand. To test ideas further. To take creative risks. To stay curious. As the days stretch longer, we’re looking forward to continuing to develop ambitious new work, deepening partnerships, and creating opportunities for artists and audiences to gather together. 

See you in the sunshine. 

As July comes to a close, we’ve found ourselves looking inwards in order to look forward. This month we took time away from the rehearsal room for one of our biggest company structure meetings to date. A huge thank you to HOME Arches for generously providing the space for us to gather, reflect and imagine what the next chapter of Sixth House could look like. 

From that conversation came some exciting news. We’re delighted to share that Chloe Wade and Samuel Tracy will now be stepping into new roles as Co-Artistic Directors of Sixth House.

As our company continues to grow, it feels important that our structure grows alongside it. These new roles allow us to share leadership more intentionally, strengthen our long-term vision, and ensure that the artistic, strategic and day-to-day work of the company is supported with greater clarity. Whilst titles may have changed, our commitment remains the same: to build ambitious, collaborative work where every company member has a voice. 

We’ve always believed that the strongest ideas emerge through collaboration, and we’re continuing to learn that clear communication, trust and honesty aren’t just values - they’re essential creative tools.

Outside of company business, if you have any little ones to entertain over the summer holidays, be sure to check out the new Wild Things exhibition at Lowry. Keep your eyes peeled and you may just spot a familiar Sixth House face leading some interactive storytelling sessions over the coming month…

July has reminded us that growth isn’t always about making more. Sometimes it’s about making stronger foundations. Taking the time to listen. To organise. To care for the people behind the work. We’re excited for everything that comes next and can’t wait to share more with you soon.

September has been a big one for Sixth House. This month, we took our work to London for our Barbican OpenLab residency - a huge milestone for the company and an opportunity we’re incredibly proud to have been part of.

For a week, we took over the PIT at the Barbican Centre, giving ourselves time and space to experiment, play and push our practice further. We explored projection, movement, lighting sound and creative captioning, asking how digital and visual languages can become an integral part of storytelling rather than simply sitting alongside it.

A huge part of this process has been our mentorship with Tim Bell from Complicité, whose guidance has been integral to the process. Tim’s generous insight, challenge and encouragement have helped us interrogate our ideas, sharpen our theatrical language and push the work into new territory. Having his perspective alongside us throughout the process has been invaluable, and we’re incredibly grateful for the time, care and expertise he has brought to the project.

We’re incredibly grateful to the Barbican OpenLab team for trusting us with this opportunity, and so proud of our company for taking our work from Greater Manchester into one of the UK’s leading cultural spaces. The week has opened up exciting new possibilities for British Beef (The show formally known as COW) and we’re taking those discoveries into the next stage of development. Stay tuned for updates

September has reminded us why experimentation matters: why having the space to ask “what if?” can be just as valuable as knowing what comes next. We’re heading into the next chapter with full hearts, full notebooks and a lot of new ideas.

Thank you, Barbican.

Until next month, Sixth House.