THE LEMON 2026 FESTIVAL — Open Call

Calling experimenters, extremists, outliers and alternative theatre makers.

LEMON is a new festival for work that doesn't fit the usual boxes: physical theatre, comedy theatre, clowning, conceptual theatre, and anything pushing the form at its edges. We want the avant-garde of London, the UK and beyond on our stage at Playhouse East, 258 Kingsland Road.

What we're looking for

One-act shows around the one-hour mark. Anything from 40 to 90 minutes works; an hour is the sweet spot. Primarily complete shows, plus a small works-in-progress strand.

Shows with easy get-ins and get-outs will have a head start on the schedule, but please don't let that stop you applying: there will be room for work that asks more of us as a theatre.

The submission is deliberately short. If we want more, we'll ask for it. Acceptance replies go out 7 to 14 days after the deadline.

The show

Show title *

Company or collective (optional)

Genre *

Tell us about the show *

Main contact

Name *

Email *

Phone *

Supporting material (optional)

Trailers, full recordings, photos, decks, reviews — anything that helps us see the show. Paste links below (Vimeo, YouTube, Google Drive, WeTransfer all work). Direct file upload is coming with the fuller festival information in mid-August.

I understand that Playhouse East has received my submission, and that emailing repeatedly to check it arrived may annoy the humans reading it and could, in extreme cases, mysteriously nullify it. *

A note on replies: we are gathering full festival information now and will release more details in mid-August. Until then we won't be replying to individual emails about LEMON. Every submission gets an acceptance reply 7 to 14 days after the 31 August deadline. Promise.