Critically-acclaimed arts innovators Upstart Theatre present the third annual DARE Festival in the Ditch at Shoreditch Town Hall. Three days of performance, art installations, conversation and fun. Selling out in 2016 and 2017, DARE brings together artists and audiences from across London and beyond in an explosion of new and in-development work. Inventive, unexpected, challenging and joyous, DARE Festival is a place for people to make, discover, dream and play.

Now in its third year, DARE is a festival of new and in-development theatre and performance. This year’s festival explores the theme of ‘power’ through performance, installation and conversation between artists and audiences.

The three-day festival is peppered with performances, informal discussion events and opportunities to network. The festival culminates in a party on Saturday night in the Ditch bar.

At Upstart Theatre, we believe that theatre is a tool to kick-start conversations about the world we live in. Inspired by the shared origins of theatre and democracy, we bring people together to take part in acts of shared storytelling, where the world onstage offers us new ways of thinking about the world off it. The relationship between theatre, politics and dialogue is at the heart of what we do.

In the last few years, these values have led us to push the boundaries of what’s possible in live performance – whether through the pan-European interconnected performance of Phone Home, the interactive decision-making of The Situation Room, or the unique blend of theatre, art, performance and discussion events that makes up the DARE Festival programme.

See below for the full performance schedule or visit Upstart Theatre's website for show information.

Supported using public funding by Arts Council England and by Cockayne - Grants for the Arts and The London Community Foundation