Durham Drama Festival is back for 2026 with a week-long celebration of the best new plays and musicals from across the University scene.

In the Mount Oswald Hub, we are welcoming three new productions:

Oranges and Lemons  

“Do you believe in ghosts?”

“No, but I believe in being haunted.”

A group of people in their mid-20s return to their hometown after their old headmistress has passed away. As the play unfolds, we learn of their personal histories, the threads that sew these particular few together. Things that never were or could have been, times you could never go back to.

Mythweaver  

Desperate to regain the affections of her distant ex-lover Atthis, the poetess Sappho makes a late-night bid for help to the goddess Aphrodite. However, Aphrodite foresees a new love, the wealthy heiress Eirana, entering Sappho’s life, putting her at a crossroads between regret and infatuation. Supported by her mother Kleis and with an ever antagonistic relationship with her goddess guide, Sappho sets on a journey of love, loss, and poetry.

The Hope That Kills You  

Ollie Mackintosh is many things: Arsenal’s trailblazing winger, iconic England goal-scorer and the north-east's golden boy.

Ollie Mackintosh is also gay—But nobody knows that. At least nobody knew that until a photo of Ollie kissing his boyfriend is leaked online. With control wrenched from his grasp, his agent breathing down his neck and his boyfriend away on tour, Ollie is left contending with what his life and his career could look like in the face of such all-encompassing change.

£10 Standard

£9 Concession

£8 Performing Arts Members

This show is taking place at the Mount Oswald Hub, The Drive, Durham.

The performances will last approximately 3 hours total (approx 50 minutes per play, with an interval after each performance).