Five genre-defying, cutting-edge productions
Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) will present the third iteration of Bloom between 7 – 16 May. The festival offers a rare, intentional space for innovation, encouraging and supporting artists to make new work that experiments with form and ideas, supporting them to take risks to create bold and groundbreaking new art.
All developed at and supported by BAC, the programme features: Catherine Hoffmann employing warped music and searing text to take audiences on a visceral, absurdist ride through Breakdown Britain; a Gen Z TikToker teams up with Louise Orwin in a helter-skelter nosedive into The Almighty Algorithm; queer punk duo pink suits create an immersive performance of intimacy, pain, pleasure, and grief; part workshop, part party Stacy Makishi encourages audiences to consider community and celebrate the messy, imperfect parts we’re often told to hide; and Tasmanian puppeteers Terrapin and UK-based artist Tim Spooner bring a post-human world to life in a unique collaboration.
BAC’s Programme Producer Ella Gamble who has curated the 2026 programme said: “The UK theatre ecology is quietly losing the spaces where risk happens and mixed-bill nights, scratch platforms, and experimental festivals that once allowed unfinished, formally adventurous work to exist in public are becoming increasingly sparse across the UK. As funding pressures increase, these spaces are often first to be cut, creating a structural bottleneck that limits artistic development, narrows the pipeline of innovation, and reshapes what kinds of work get made.
These platforms tend to hold what traditional programming struggles to: short-form, in-progress, or uncategorisable work, giving artists room to test ideas, fail productively, and develop new forms in dialogue with audiences.
The impact is not just artistic but communal: fewer opportunities for connection, collaboration, and shared learning are contributing to a more isolated and less sustainable environment for artists. With Bloom, we’re hoping to gently push back against this”
Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, SW11 5TN
Booking and full details: https://bac.org.uk/whats-on-highlights/
