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Tomorrow night (Friday 12 December), Liverpool’s Unity Theatre and Tmesis Theatre unveil a festive highlight that’s set to charm audiences of all ages: Sleep Can Wait! Running from Friday 12 to Tuesday 23 December with various showings priced at £15–£10, this collaboration promises a theatrical experience that feels like a holiday dream come to life.
On a snowy winter’s eve, three children, buzzing with excitement and too awake to sleep, discover a magical book that whisks them away on a wondrous journey filled with myths, legends and pure imagination. This heart-warming and high-energy physical theatre production is bursting with fun, laughter and wonder — and, with minimal text and strong visual storytelling, is both family-friendly and neurodiverse-friendly, welcoming audiences who might not usually find traditional theatre accessible.
Sleep Can Wait! captures something central to Unity’s mission: theatre that’s imaginative, inclusive and rooted in the joy of shared experience. It stands as this season’s headline show - and for very good reason: it exemplifies the union of artistic excellence and genuine accessibility that Unity Theatre champions year-round.
Unity Theatre is not just another arts venue in Liverpool’s buzzing cultural scene - it’s an institution with roots stretching back to the 1930s Unity Theatre movement, a nationwide initiative that produced politically left-wing theatre for working-class audiences. Throughout the 1940s, 50s and 60s, Unity Theatre in Liverpool became known for its daring work, staging socially conscious pieces that confronted fascism, inequality and workers’ rights with an experimental and unapologetically radical spirit.
Today, Unity remains the only surviving member of that original movement, carrying forward the same radical sentiment into the 21st century. Supported as a National Portfolio Organisation by Arts Council England and Liverpool City Council, the theatre uses performance, engagement and creativity to platform underrepresented voices and spark positive change across Merseyside.
Thanks to the folk involved with Unity - radical, community-led Art is as relevant as ever - and this season, the theatre is also exploring its own radical history (with support from Heritage Lottery funding), through a programme of archival work, exhibitions, and community storytelling projects that bring historic insights into dialogue with contemporary artists and audiences.
This year’s Sleep Can Wait! is proudly supported by KIND Liverpool, a local charity with a long and compassionate history of supporting disadvantaged children and families across Liverpool and Greater Merseyside.
Since 1975, KIND - which stands for Kids In Need and Distress - has worked tirelessly to help young people overcome the effects of poverty and disadvantage. The charity does this through year-round services that include educational programmes, confidence-building activities and community support aimed at helping children reach their full potential. KIND operates entirely through donations and volunteer efforts, with no government or council funding.
At this time of year, KIND’s annual Christmas Appeal becomes a lifeline for families who would otherwise face a bleak festive season. Volunteers and staff work together to assemble hundreds - sometimes thousands - of large family-sized food hampers, toy parcels and essential items, distributing them in time for Christmas to those most in need across the region. The appeal’s mission is simple but profound: to ensure that children and families who are struggling can experience joy, dignity and community support during the holidays.
Every penny donated goes directly to the appeal’s work, helping deliver hampers packed with food and gifts that many households might otherwise be unable to afford. KIND partners with schools, community groups and local organisations to identify families in need, and each year aims to deliver over 1,000 hampers across Merseyside.
This partnership between Unity Theatre and KIND Liverpool is a natural alliance: both organisations share a belief in community-centred action, access to culture and compassion as a form of creative and social expression. As Unity audiences come together to enjoy Sleep Can Wait! this week, they are also supporting a theatre with deep roots in its city, and a charity dedicated to making Christmas brighter for families across the North West.
While Sleep Can Wait! is this season’s marquee show, Unity’s winter programme offers a dazzling variety of work - creative, political and joyous - that reflects Liverpool’s vibrant cultural ecosystem.
Unity’s celebration of queer creativity continues with two festive cabaret events that are already garnering buzz.
Unity’s Associate Company in Residence, RAWD, also presents To Be Near a Shooting Star: a playful, inclusive reimagining of the Christmas story - filled with glitter, heart and three “not-so-wise” kings. RAWD’s work creates joyful spaces where disabled artists and performers thrive, underscoring Unity’s broader commitment to inclusion.
Each of these shows reflects Unity’s signature blend of artistic excellence and community spirit - creativity that doesn’t just entertain, but invites, challenges and connects.
Unity Theatre’s influence stretches far beyond its Hope Street home. It sits at the heart of Liverpool’s thriving arts scene - alongside institutions like the Everyman & Playhouse, FACT and the Philharmonic - and contributes to a regional creative identity defined by resilience, humour and social consciousness.
In the North, where cultural communities often double as social networks and social advocates, Unity’s programmes are part of a broader storyline: one where art is not separate from life, but deeply embedded in community, history and collective aspiration. Whether through theatrical adventures like Sleep Can Wait!, partnerships with charities like KIND, or the exploration of its own radical legacy, Unity continues to shape what it means to create, belong and imagine together in the North.
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