8 May 2026
Welcome to Friday Feature – our top picks of weekend events (and beyond) that showcase the very best in rural and small-scale touring.
This week we focus on Americana in Lancashire, The Light House beaming in Scotland and a wartime epic in the South East.
Many of these shows are on rural tours – so check out your local scheme to see if they are appearing at a village hall near you. If you are interested in having your show featured drop deets to Dickie: press@nrtd.org.uk
NRTF spotlights hip happenings along B-road Britain
‘The Light House’ – Alys Williams
“Man overboard! Call control! Blow the whistle!”
One year ago Alys Williams performed the Light House at the NRTF conference and she is currently on tour with this amazing production.
Hightlights put on the show across Northumberland and Cumbria last week and now Alys takes her wondrous work further north with dates across Scotland including ARC Stockton Arts Centre (tonight 8 May) , Eastgate Theatre Peebles 12 May 2026 at 7pm and Lemon Tree Aberdeen 14 May at 7pm
Love is a complicated business. It gets even more complicated when the person you love doesn’t want to be alive. Tender, funny and defiantly hopeful, The Light House is a real life story of falling in love and staying in love, even when the lights go out and you’re lost in the dark. It’s a love letter to life.
Join the emergency response as we dance in the kitchen, sing in the streets and try to turn the lights back on. It gets lonely, muddling through these days and nights. So why don’t we do it together?
With puppetry, clowning and gently embedded audience participation, The Light House is Alys’ highly acclaimed debut play supported by an exciting, female-led creative team.
‘Behind Enemy Lines’ – Louise Jordan
Songwriter and storyteller Louise Jordan uncovers the lives of inspiring secret agents of WW2. Extraordinary women whose courage, daring, ingenuity and sacrifice defeated Nazi terror.
Behind Enemy Lines is a solo performance of live music, original songs, storytelling, soundscape, acting and choreography. Join Louise Jordan as she honours the inspirational lives of some of history’s lesser known women.
Louise also performed at last year’s NRTF conference – a real talent that you cannot afford to miss. Applause presents Behind Enemy Lines at Stedham Memorial Hall tonight (8 May) and Empire Hall Graffham on 16 May.
Diyet & The Love Soldiers
Diyet & The Love Soldiers’ music reaches across the width of Americana music with a focus on lyrical stories taking the listener on a journey to Diyet’s roots in the Kluane region of Canada’s Yukon Territory.
Each song is rooted in her life in Kluane and her experience as an indigenous woman living a life of walking in two worlds. Inspired by vast landscapes, clashing and embracing environments, Diyet’s heartfelt lyrics paint a picture of wildness, truth, hope, reconciliation, history and the community that surrounds her.
Spot-On Lancashire presents Diyet & The Love Soldiers at Burnley Mechanics this Saturday (9 May) and Thornton Library on Sunday 10 May.
The Mystery of the Pirate Lagoon – Ragged Edge Productions
The Mystery of the Pirate Lagoon – A comic radio play presented live on stage.
What is the mystery of the Pirate Lagoon? Join the crew of The Prospero on an adventure to find out. Will we find the treasure? Can we escape from the evil Captain Starkers?
This daft and entertaining show gives you the chance to release your inner pirate, make the sound effects and take part in scenes in a special edition of the play.
Noson Allan Night Out Wales presents this rip-roaring sea adventure across two evenings – Neuadd Dyfi on Saturday 9 May and at CARAD Studio Theatre on Sunday 10 May.