The Mercury is committed to creating theatre that celebrates local stories and ensuring our work is relevant to the diverse communities that we serve. Your continued support helps us to do exactly this!
We aim to continue proving that we are a theatre dedicated to accessibility, inclusivity and diversity. In recent years, we have:
- Had an all-female creative team for Silence and worked closely alongside the local Polish community.
- Employed a cast and band for Ain’t Misbehavin’ who are all artists of colour.
- Had great success running club nights for children and young people with an autism spectrum condition.
- During our 2019 production of Oliver! we ran the #OneOfUs campaign that told diverse stories of belonging and identity within our local community. These personal stories were shared on coffee cups and takeaway boxes by a variety of local food outlets.
These projects have helped us diversify our audiences and increase our first-time attendees.
In the year 18/19, 5164 of our customers were first-time attendees. Of these first-time attendees 1151 have since reattended the following financial year.
The year of 2020 has brought challenges for the theatre but also our surrounding community, including our hardworking freelancers. In answer to this need, we have developed our new Mercury Online programme of digital activity that provides interactive theatre content for all ages directly to your screens whilst the country remains indoors.
We’re pleased to report Mercury Online programme has engaged a further 931 customers for the first time and we hope to continue to reach them once we re-open!
