A new movement-theatre experience from Response Theatre Company. Welcome to the party you always wished you were invited to. 'I Made You a Mixtape' throws you straight into the heart of a 90s college dorm hangout, complete with lava lamps, folding tables, plastic cups, old-school camcorders, and the greatest hits of the decade. Nine girls arrive for one last night together before their lives change forever. What starts as a carefree evening of music and dancing unfolds into a deeply human collage of friendship, nostalgia, heartbreak, and joy. With each track they play, a new world opens: improvised music videos, chaotic games, secret confessions, and the kind of laughter that makes your chest ache. Created using the Response Movement Method, a hybrid of Meisner acting and movement theatre, the performers treat the music as their scene partner and the choreography as their text, allowing the story to emerge in real time. No two performances are the same. What you witness is truthfully lived, not acted. Warm, hilarious, tender, and wildly nostalgic, 'I Made You a Mixtape' is a love letter to growing up, growing apart, and the friends who made us who we are. It’s a 90s coming-of-age party, and everyone’s invited.

In short, 14 plays that are written, cast, directed, rehearsed, scored, designed, and premiered in 48 hours. Since 1997, 14/48 has been bringing radically collaborative theatre to cities around the world. Originating in Seattle, it has grown to feature festivals in Texas, Hollywood, Leicester, Vashon Island, and Wolverhampton. The festival has remained fiercely mobile, community-driven, and joyfully chaotic. In April 2026, 14/48 comes to London for the first time at The Cockpit. Over one weekend, artists from around the city, country, and world will be invited to come and create fourteen brand-new ten-minute plays from scratch in just forty-eight hours. No scripts in advance. No rehearsals beforehand. Not even pairings. Just trust, risk, caffeine, and collaboration.

Poetry plays with theatre. With music. It plays with dance and storytelling. With found objects and film. Poetry plays with painting. Poetry plays with poetry. With time. With reality. With your head. Poetry plays with... Poetry Plays 26. A festival of interdisciplinary performance featuring or inspired by poetry.

RE:ENCHANT - Poetic Experiments For A New World Live literature every third Sunday Performers details to be announced. Curated and introduced by Nick Moss in collaboration with The Cockpit The world changes: we make new poetry to vandalise literary forms or retrieve those we need to renew. We make new poetry to hybridise new species of understanding and reframe consciousness. We make new poetry to have a good time. Readings, recitations, incantations and events from established and upstart poets, word artists, ranters, spell-casters, rappers......and you if you want.

Produced and presented by The Cockpit in collaboration with Burning Coal Theatre presents Mark O'Rowe's wild and hilarious haymaker of a play about two lowlife punks from Dublin's seedier side of town who stumble upon a friendship, salvation, and even grace.. Winner of the 1999 George Devine Award for new writing.

The Rude Mechanicals have been asked to perform a play at the Duke's wedding. Trouble is, they've forgotten to write it! Can you help??? Do you remember Pyramus & Thisbe? The romantic tragedy that Bottom & The Rude Mechanicals were asked to perform for the Duke in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM? In this interactive theatre experience, the audience put their heads together to add the finishing touches to the Rude Mechanicals’ play, helping to create a completely original version! Combining Shakespeare’s original text with fresh ideas from the audience, the play is fleshed out with music, props, puppets, rhymes, sound effects & killer dance moves, resulting in a completely fabulous and totally unique performance! Each show follows a simple narrative structure that the audience helps to develop, encouraging kids to use their imagination as they help to construct characters, write songs, create stories, invent sound effects and more. Each choice enhances their storytelling skills, exposes them to the infinite possible storylines a tale can take, and leaves them with a huge sense of pride in their comedy, musicality and creativity. And because so much of the show is led by the audience, you'll never see the same show twice! Our shows can be enjoyed by kids of all ages, and grown-ups too!

The Solomon Gundy Band fuses jazz, electronica, and Afro-diasporic rhythms, creating a vibrant and haunting sound that combines virtuosity with working-class grit. Their music is as flavourful as the Jamaican dish they are named after. Solomon Gundy is a spicy Jamaican pickled Herring paste usually served with crackers as an appetizer or hors d’oeuvre. The term is originally from the French word "salmigondis", which refers to a disparate assembly of things, ideas, or people forming an incoherent whole. Led by visionary trumpeter and UK jazz catalyst Sean Corby and co-composed with UK Latin jazz heavyweight Jonny Enright, their music channels the spirit of influential artists such as Miles Davis, Kahil El’Zabar, Rob Mazurek, Papo Vazquez, Donald Byrd, and Roots Radics. Produced by Loose Tubes/Freak Power maverick Ashley Slater and two-time Grammy and Juno nominated electronic artist/producer Carmen Rizzo, their debut album, 'Hancestry,' features a guest appearance from UK jazz legend Courtney Pine and showcases a remarkable array of generational talent. With tracks that include the words of community activist Ismahil Blaigrove and author James Baldwin, along with dedications to Leon Forrest and Zora Neale Hurston, this album presents conscious sound system jazz for the 21st century.

After a major success at Voila! Festival 2025 and several sold-out performances at London theatres, Pascol comes to the Cockpit stage for one night only. On 28 April, Pascol presents an intimate vocal performance that invites you to bring your stories and experience how they are transformed live through voice, movement, and collective improvisation. Pascol is an experimental vocal project that creates a shared performance space between artists and audience. Led by founder Sasha Gefen — a musician, composer, and music therapist — six vocal performers transform personal stories into improvised soundscapes using only voice and physical expression. Each performance begins with an open invitation: audience members may choose to share a story or memory, or remain present as listeners and witnesses. In response, the ensemble listens, moves, and sings together, composing music in real time. There is no script and no instruments — every moment is created live and will never be repeated. The result is a unique musical reflection shaped by the emotions in the room. Layered harmonies and evolving textures become a sound mirror for the audience’s memories — sincere, fleeting, and deeply human. Combining improvisation, storytelling, and emotional presence, Pascol offers an unforgettable experience in any form of participation — whether you choose to speak or simply listen — where individual stories become a collective act of connection.

Produced and presented by Byline Times Written and abridged by David Edgar Directed by Umar Butt First staged in 1976, David Edgar’s Destiny quickly established itself as one of the most important political plays of its generation. Hailed by critics for its forensic examination of British fascism and praised for its scale and ambition, the play won major awards and went on to be adapted into a landmark television drama, bringing its urgent themes to an even wider audience. Fifty years on, Destiny feels disturbingly prescient. Tracing the social, economic and political forces that enable the far right to take root, the play exposes how racism, nationalism and opportunism intertwine. It has powerful lessons for today’s climate of resurgent authoritarianism and right-wing populism. This special event presents an abridged reading of Destiny, performed by a high-profile cast, followed by a panel discussion exploring how the play’s depiction of the rise of the far right then and offering vital insights for confronting it now. The panel will feature David Edgar himself - one of Britain’s most distinguished playwrights, whose work spans theatre, television and political commentary. Edgar is also co-author of The Little Black Book of the Populist Right: What it is, why it’s on the march and how to stop it, a new edition of which will be available to purchase at this event. Presented by Bylines Times, in collaboration with Bylines Network, this revival offers a rare opportunity to revisit a seminal work of political theatre, and to ask what it can teach us about the world we face today.

Join the team behind the independent investigative news outlet Byline Times for an entertaining evening of challenging discussion to help us understand the unprecedented times we are living in – and why they are happening – with those with an inside track. Guests for May's event include: Clive Lewis MP. More details to come - watch this space...

THE ANGRY BRIGADE By James Graham Directed by Oli Hurst Produced by HER & UP 'ERE Productions Set in 1970s Britain during a period of Tory cuts, high unemployment, and increasing inequality, focusing on the hunt for the anarchist group "The Angry Brigade" by a special police squad. The play contrasts the contrasting perspectives of the establishment and the young urban guerrillas, exploring themes of political engagement, rebellion, and the human cost of pursuing a radical vision for a fairer world. It's been 50 years since The Angry Brigade were active - has anything really changed in that time?