Programme Revealed For The Return Of Rep Stripped Festival

Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre have announced the full performance programme for their multi-genre festival of new works, Rep Stripped Festival, which returns for its third edition from Wednesday 22 April to Saturday 25 April.

Rep Stripped Festival 2026 showcases a vibrant line-up of new work from some of Scotland's most exciting artists across theatre, music, dance and spoken word. The festival invites audiences to be among the first to experience bold new voices and original ideas at an early stage of development in an intimate, stripped-back setting.

This year's programme explores themes of feminism, family, power and social history through original work and distinctive new perspectives. For the first time, dance joins the programme, marking Scottish Dance Theatre's 40th anniversary year.

Over four days, audiences will be among the first to experience a wide range of excerpts of new works spanning theatre, music, dance and spoken word. Highlights include SCAB by Ryan Hay, a new musical exploring Dundee's infamous Timex strikes and the largely female-led industrial action that became one of the most significant labour disputes in late 20th-century Britain. The programme also features work from Dundee-based theatre duo Elfie Pickett Theatre, alongside Route, a hip-hop theatre piece that reimagines migration narratives through movement and rhythm to explore cultural identity, power and belonging.

Presented across two performance programmes, the festival brings together a diverse mix of stories and perspectives. Programme A includes Matt Anderson's comedy-drama Fans, Katya Searle's monologue A Peg or Two, Niamh O'Loughlin's dance-theatre work Woman Above Water, Alex Medland's darkly comic Juney McCloud and the Zombie Apocalypse, and Hayley Scott's musical Modern Woman, inspired by pioneering Scottish doctor Elsie Inglis.

Programme B features Elfie Pickett Theatre's spoken word piece Mither/Daughter, Eve Nicol's MASTER, Ryan Hay's SCAB, hip-hop theatre work Route by Kiki Oladapo, and Milly Sweeney's Manual/Automatic, an intimate exploration of sisterhood, trauma and the autistic experience.

Alongside a packed programme of performances, audiences can also enjoy a series of public workshops and events, which will be announced soon, offering further insight into the works and artforms presented throughout the festival.

First launched in 2019, Rep Stripped Festival has become an important platform for the development of new Scottish writing and the next generation of performance makers. The festival gives artists the opportunity to test new work in front of audiences and plays a vital role in helping projects take their next steps in development.

Previous editions of Rep Stripped Festival have hosted early stagings of No Love Songs and the award-winning A History of Paper. No Love Songs went on to be shortlisted for both the Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award and the Bright Spark Award for emerging Scottish talent, before touring across the UK and transferring to Australia.

A History of Paper achieved major critical success, winning a Fringe First, the Music Theatre Review Best Musical Award and Best Director at the Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland. The production is set to return to the Rep stage later this year in a new co-production with Pitlochry Festival Theatre, featuring Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson.

Rep Stripped Festival Creative Director, Fraser Scott, said, “In a landscape where making theatre is increasingly difficult for freelancers, supporting artists to get their work on stage and in front of audiences is more vital than ever. That's the idea behind Rep Stripped, and it's a huge honour to direct this year's festival. We wanted to programme work that feels bold and surprising, with a clear sense of future life, by artists who will benefit from the space and support the festival provides.

Rep Stripped Festival is about sharing process as well as performance. Alongside the shows, workshops and panels give audiences the chance to look behind the curtain of how work is made and to feedback to the artists developing it. It's about building relationships between artists and the audiences who will support their work.

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