INK Festival 2026: 10th Anniversary Programme Announced

The full programme of artists and plays has now been announced for INK Festival’s 10th anniversary celebration. The line-up of short plays features work from both established and emerging playwrights. From the festival’s beginnings as a showcase of just 15 plays, has grown into a nationally recognised celebration of short-form storytelling and is the world’s largest producer of short plays – vibrant, inventive and accessible. From radio plays to family events, readings and new writing workshops, the festival is vital in providing access to high-quality cultural experiences in areas where such opportunities may be limited. 

Chosen from over 1,000 script submissions, the milestone programme will stage 70 new short plays over the course of the four-day festival. Highlights include Jonathon Sims’Trick of Light,a chilling mystery by author and creator of the hugely popular horror podcast The Magnus Archives. This will play alongside critically acclaimed Tom Hartwell’s (Mind Full, The Hope Theatre;Before 30, Underbelly) comedyProofat The Cut Studio. Renowned Canadian playwright Dave Carley will present the UK debut of a play about gluttony,Sugar Daddyalongside new writing from budding playwrights Jo McNamara, Tom Draper and JP Mannion. Each pod of shows is perfectly curated in order to provide a variety of genres and subjects, packing in a range of dynamic new theatre in an hour. 

Previously announced is the INKredibles’ scheme, a running initiative over the past decade of the festival where a handful of celebrated writers are invited to submit a new piece. This year’s highlights include special short playwriting commissions from renowned writers Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Blackadder, Bridget Jones’s Diary) and Esther Freud (Hideous Kinky, The Wild, The Sea House).

Richard Curtis’sPortrait will be performed twice daily throughout the festival and follows a famous actress who commissions an artist to paint her portrait for her husband’s birthday. Esther Freud’sSigns and Whispers centres on a couple on their way home from a magic show when a stranger from their past joins them on the Tube platform. The play will be performed at The Cut Theatre throughout the festival, with Esther also taking part in book signings and readings.

The festival, as ever, will transform Halesworth into an eclectic hub for the arts, utilising unique venues across the town. Two fantastic site-specific plays will be staged on a local bus – Jonathan McCully’s tour group farceTroubled Toursand John Morris’s cost-cutting comedyThe Replacement Bus Driver.Five plays will also be performed in The Larder – a working food bank where audiences are encouraged to bring donations. In collaboration with the University of East Anglia’s MA Scriptwriters, the plays vary from Lorna Veitch’s drama about a young man in custody,36 Hours,and Darren Robinson’s airport thrillerThe Bureaucrats. The site-specific work is an incredibly unique element of the festival which highlights the synergy between the town and the festival. 

Produced in association with INK Festival and developed in close collaboration with Suffolk County Council Public Health and the Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership, Rob John’sThe Drummer Boywill play at the Rifle Hall Stage throughout the festival. The play was first staged as part of the Teen Suicide Prevention Schools’ Tour 2025 which uses live theatre to open essential conversations with young people about mental health, emotional wellbeing and the importance of seeking help. This sits alongside the festival’s youth initiatives includinga free ‘Schools’ Day’ on Monday 20th April which allows hundreds of students across the region to access new writing and theatre, the only one of its kind in the country.

Featuring puppets, music, and a host of mystical creatures. In line with the ethos of the festival being spread across the town, the show will be whimsically staged in Halesworth’s magic shop. The show will sit alongside a lovely selection of children’s events from a treasure trail, kids’ workshops and a free Sunday Funday on 19th April. 

Alongside the short play festival, the organisation will host a vibrant programme of headline events. These include talks with award-winning authors and Bridgerton’s intimacy coach, readings from stories featured in the BBC National Short Story Award, and screenings from the 2025 Suffolk Short Film Festival.

Highlights include performances from award-winning comic Alistair McGowan, Dead Ringers’ Jan Ravens and Jon Culshaw, poet Luke Wright and broadcaster Di Spiers plus talks from Hugh Bonneville and Sir Tony Robinson. The festival will also host workshops for budding writers, and free youth and community events to encourage the local Suffolk community to get involved in the festival’s activities. 

Artistic Director of INK Festival, Julia Sowerbutts, comments, in rural Suffolk, in a few weeks’ time, over four days from dawn to dark Halesworth ignites. 70 new plays, 40 actors, 10 directors, 12 venues — plus poetry, talks, workshops, youth events and celebrities that include Hugh Bonneville, Richard Curtis, Angus Deayton, Esther Freud, Luke Wright, Jan Ravens, Alistair McGowan and Sir Tony Robinson — how could I not be excited?

Main Image: INK Festival 2025, photo by Bill Jackson

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