Deafinitely Theatre Will Launch UK Tour of Mike Bartlett’s BULL

To celebrate Sign Language Week, Deafinitely Theatre has announced the UK tour of Bull by Mike Bartlett in a co-production with Birmingham Rep and Park Theatre. Directed by Deafinitely Theatre's Artistic Director Paula Garfield MBE, the play will tour Birmingham Rep, HOME Manchester and Park Theatre this Autumn. The play explores how people will do anything to survive when the stakes are high; with this production presented in Deafinitely Theatre's renowned bilingual style, combining British Sign Language, spoken English and creative captions.

The UK tour of Bull will open at Birmingham Rep from 12 to 19 September, it will then tour to HOME Manchester from 24 to 26 September and conclude at Park Theatre from 30 September to 24 October.

Paula Garfield, Artistic Director of Deafinitely Theatre said “Following the success of our Off West End Award-winning production of Contractions by Mike Bartlett, I am thrilled to be returning to his writing with Bull. Bartlett's work exposes the pressure and cruelty that can exist in everyday life. Bull feels especially relevant today as job security becomes more uncertain. The play shows how fear can change people's behaviour; it is about how ambition, self-protection and silence can turn people into opponents. We are delighted to be co-producing this bold and gripping production with Birmingham Rep and Park Theatre, and I look forward to bringing this powerful story to audiences in 2026.”

Artistic Director of Birmingham Rep, Joe Murphy also said, “We're delighted to be collaborating once again with Deafinitely Theatre on this bold new production of Bull. Our previous partnerships on The Promise and BARRIER(S) demonstrated the power of deaf-led storytelling to challenge and inspire audiences and we're proud to continue building on that relationship. This production promises to be a sharp, urgent and compelling addition to our programme.”

Artistic Director of Park Theatre Jez Bond added, “Park Theatre is committed to telling accessible, real-to-life stories that resonate with the world around us and the communities we serve. Deafinitely Theatre's bold, Deaf-led approach brings an extraordinary new perspective to Mike Bartlett's brilliant play, and we are absolutely thrilled to be working with them to bring it to the London stage. Our partnership with Deafinitely Theatre is an important continuation of our ongoing mission to be an exciting centre for Deaf and hearing audiences alike to experience world class theatre in Finsbury Park.”

Bull is a strained and unsettling examination of workplace bullying, power and survival. As pressure builds, alliances shift and cruelty surfaces, exposing a system where fear thrives and empathy disappears.

Sharp, darkly funny and deeply uncomfortable, Bull lays bare the human cost of a working culture shaped by competition, hierarchy and silence. How far will people go to protect themselves?

This is Deafinitely Theatre's second adaptation of a play by Mike Bartlett, following the Off West End Award-winning, critically acclaimed and sold-out production of Contractions in 2017. Bull is presented in the company's distinctive bilingual style, combining British Sign Language, spoken English and creative captions and is directed by Deafinitely's award-winning Artistic Director Paula Garfield MBE.

Mike Bartlett's plays include Juniper Blood (Donmar Warehouse), Unicorn (Garrick Theatre), Scandaltown (Lyric Hammersmith Theatre), The 47th (The Old Vic), c*ck(Ambassadors' Theatre, Royal Court Theatre), Mrs Delgado (Arts at the Old Fire Station, Theatre Royal Bath, Oxford Playhouse), Albion, Game (Almeida Theatre), Snowflake (Arts at the Old Fire Station, Kiln Theatre), Wild (Hampstead Theatre), King Charles III - Olivier Award for Best New Play (Almeida Theatre, Wyndham's Theatre, Music Box Theatre, New York), An Intervention (Paines Plough, Watford Palace Theatre), Bull (Sheffield Theatres, Off Broadway, Young Vic), Medea (Headlong, Glasgow Citizens, Watford Palace Theatre, Warwick Arts Centre), Chariots of Fire (Hampstead Theatre, Gielgud Theatre), 13 (National Theatre), Decade (Headlong), Earthquakes in London (Headlong, National Theatre), Love, Love, Love (Paines Plough, Plymouth Theatre Royal, Royal Court Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, New York, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre), Contractions (Royal Court Theatre, Sheffield Theatres), My Child (Royal Court Theatre), Artefacts (Bush Theatre, Nabokov). Bartlett has previously been Writer In Residence at the National Theatre and is currently an Associate Playwright at the Royal Court Theatre. His television credits include Life, Doctor Foster, King Charles III, Sticks and Stones, Trauma and Press.

Paula Garfield directs. For Deafinitely Theatre she has also directed The Promise, Something Else, Can Bears Ski? Everyday, 4.48 Psychosis, Horrible Histories – Dreadful Deaf, Contractions – which won the Off West End Award for Best Production, Two Chairs, Motherland, Children of a Greater God, Playing God, Double Sentence and Gold Dust. She also devised and directed The Boy and the Statue for Deafinitely at the Tricycle Theatre and on a London schools' tour. Garfield has directed two productions at Shakespeare's Globe – Love Labour's Lost, for the Globe to Globe Festival as part of Deafinitely's 10th anniversary, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Her other directing work includes Tanika's Journey (Southwark Playhouse) and Grounded (Park Theatre).

An actor, director and field creative leader, she has worked on a variety of television, film and theatre projects over the past twenty years. In 2002, she established Deafinitely Theatre with Steven Webb and Kate Furby after becoming frustrated at the barriers that deaf actors and directors face across the arts and media industry. She has produced and directed many plays and worked extensively in TV, including Channel Four's Learn Sign Language, Four Fingers and a Thumb, BBC's Hands Up and Casualty, plus appearances in every series of the BBC's deaf drama, Switch.

Tour Dates

The Rep, Birmingham - 12 - 19 September at 7pm
2pm matinees on Thursday 17 and Saturday 19 September
Press Night: 15 September at 7pm
Box office: 0121 236 4455 / www.birmingham-rep.co.uk

HOME, Manchester- 24 - 26 September at 7:45pm
Box office: 0161 200 1500 / www.homemcr.org

Park Theatre, London - 30 September - 24 October at 7:45pm
3:15pm matinees on Thursdays and Saturdays
Press Night: 1 October at 7pm
Box office: 020 7870 6876 / www.parktheatre.co.uk