Night at the Museum

Writing Theatre for Alternative Spaces

October 2021 - January 2022

Not all theatre happens on a stage... This was our first foray into immersive and site-specific shows. We set a group of young writers loose to explore the Ulster Museum, and asked each of them to write a play. Here’s what happened…

This collaboration between Fighting Words NI, the Lyric Theatre and National Museums NI gave 8 young writers from across Northern Ireland (most new to scriptwriting, all ages 14 to 18) the chance to work in-depth over a number of weeks with professional dramaturgs, directors, performers and designers. Each of them wrote and developed their own immersive, site-specific play. This is a record of the resulting experiment: readings of their plays, in an adventurous performance that gave the audience a completely fresh look at the galleries and exhibits: their very own Night at the Museum. We'd do it again tomorrow, it was that brilliant.