Liverpool’s thriving combined arts venue – Unity Theatre – has announced its brand new Autumn / Winter 2025 season, featuring a varied programme of high-quality theatre, arts, music and performance. Serving as a counterpoint the mainstream, Unity exist to champion diverse arts and platform underrepresented voices – and this season’s programme does just that.
This week’s offerings include tomorrow evening a play that’s a must see for those who loved “Gentleman Jack” on the television! Set in the restrictive Victorian era, The Story of Jessie Gavin brings to life the true tale of a passionate, rule-defying romance between two extraordinary women. Jessie Gavin, an artist from the Wirral, escapes the expectations of her upbringing and finds freedom in London and Paris, where she falls in love with pioneering architect Eileen Gray.
Together, they move in artistic circles with figures like Oscar Wilde and Picasso, embracing creativity, defiance, and desire. Dubbed “Oxton’s First Gentleman Jack,” Jessie is a forgotten voice reclaimed in this vibrant 45-minute production written by Pauline Fleming. Audiences will also be welcomed with a brief pre-show performance to set the tone and immerse them in the Victorian world these women inhabited.
Over the last year Unity has established itself as the go to venue for fresh, and innovative new work with a sell out series of work in progress evenings and unmissable variety nights. The first of these is on Thursday and those seeing how far their work in progress has got from the drawing board to actually treading the boards include: Kerynne, Laura Greenwood, Caught Red Handed & Liam O’Brien.
“The Invaders’ Fear of Memories” is a theatre piece based on the life and diaries of Yosef Nachmani – a Russian Jew who migrated from Tsarist Russia to Ottoman Palestine in 1907. Nachmani became Director of the Jewish National Fund in the Galilee and subsequently played a central role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine’s indigenous people. The play offers a perspective into the origins of settler-colonialism and apartheid in modern-day Israel, exploring themes of loyalty, violence, ideology, and grief.
The Invaders’ Fear of Memories is performed by Benjamin Rivers, the great grandson of Nachmani. Over the course of the play, Rivers performs 12 characters and sings in Arabic, Hebrew, Ukrainian, and Yiddish. The production is directed by Linda Wise, an original member of the iconic Roy Hart Theatre Company. Since August 2023, The Invaders’ Fear of Memories has been performed to audiences across four continents. This comes to the Unity Theatre on Friday 19th September
For tickets and full information on the full autumn/winter programme, please check out their website.
