Credit: Bill Jackson
What’s in Grace’s Satchel This Week? Well, 70 short plays and a very busy postwoman trying not to drop them all in the Suffolk countryside.
The INK Festival has announced its 10th anniversary programme, running from Thursday 16 April to Sunday 19 April 2026 across various venues in Halesworth. And when they say “across the town”, they truly mean it. Theatres, pop-up spaces, the Food Larder, a Bowling Club, a Scout Hut and even a Community Bus. I’m half expecting someone to stage Chekhov in a cupboard just to keep things interesting.
Celebrating a decade of short-form storytelling, INK has grown from a modest 15 plays in its early days into what is now the UK’s largest new short play festival, presenting 70 brand-new works over four days. That is not a gentle stroll. That is a theatrical marathon in comfortable shoes.
Leading the anniversary programme are special short playwriting commissions from Richard Curtis and Esther Freud. Curtis’s Portrait follows a famous actress commissioning an artist to paint her for her husband’s birthday. Freud’s Signs and Whispers centres on a couple returning from a magic show when an unexpected figure from their past appears on a tube platform. Short plays, yes. Short on ambition, absolutely not.
The festival’s signature format groups plays into hour-long “pods” of four pieces, performed by more than 50 professional actors and directors. Scripts are selected from over 1,000 submissions and appear as stage plays, radio plays and rehearsed readings. If you’ve ever wondered what the future of British writing looks like, it’s probably wearing sensible shoes and performing in Halesworth.
Beyond the core programme, INK 2026 is also packing in headline performances and talks. Expect appearances from Hugh Bonneville and Tony Robinson, alongside comic Alistair McGowan, Dead Ringers’ Jan Ravens and Jon Culshaw, poet Luke Wright and Di Spiers. There are readings from the BBC National Short Story Award selection, screenings from the 2025 Suffolk Short Film Festival and workshops for aspiring writers.
There is also a free schools’ day on Monday 20 April, opening the doors to hundreds of students across the region. For a festival built on short plays, its long-term impact on new writing seems anything but small.
Artistic Director Julia Sowerbutts reflects on how far the festival has come, from its tiny showcase beginnings to what she describes as the world’s biggest carnival of new short plays. Associate Director James Christopher adds that because the plays are short, you never get bored. Given there are 70 of them, I suspect that’s rather the point.
INK Festival 2026 runs from Thursday 16 April to Sunday 19 April 2026 in venues across Halesworth, Suffolk. Day Tickets start from £40, with £10 day tickets available for students aged 26 and under.
Seventy plays. Four days. One town.
Grace may need a bigger satchel.
https://www.inkfestival.org/festival2026
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