Photography: Matt Crockett

No Apologies

2 December-12 December

A radical mis-remembering of Nirvana’s iconic 1993 MTV Unplugged concert.

Marlborough Productions present

Description

After a critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Festival in 2025 (winning the Bragi Award for creativity and artistic excellence and a Besties Award for new writing) this brilliantly witty and emotionally powerful show embarks on a major world tour.

Urgent and politically sharp, No Apologies is a spectacular collision between theatre and grunge, autobiography and alternate history, weaving together threads of pop culture with mythology and ritual, fuelled by the experience of coming-of-age in the nineties.

Production warnings: Contains haze and smoke, flashing lights and loud noises/music.

Content warnings: Contains distressing themes including non-graphic mentions of suicide, violence, drug addiction, transphobia and homophobia. A freesheet with support services will be available from the artist’s website.

Access

All performances are captioned.

Although there is no audio described through-description available, audio described introductory notes are available here.

Reviews

★★★★★
“A genre-defying, intermedia performance blending live music, movement, poetry, and pyrotechnics. It’s raw, political, emotional and unforgettable.”
The Nerd Party

★★★★★
“A magnificently furious spectacle that deserves to be seen and celebrated. Our #1 pick of the fringe. Unplugged, raw and unstoppable.”
To Do List

“This is precisely the kind of fearless, formally inventive, emotionally devastating theatre the medium needs.”
The Theatre Times

“This ruddy gorgeous show is a call to live your life on your own terms and to the very full, and whether you are trans or not, that’s a lifesaver in every way.”
Lyn Gardner, The Stage

“It’s clever and moving and really f*cking cool.”
Time Out

Watch the trailer

Writer & Performer Emma Frankland
Director Harry Clayton-Wright
Sound Designer & Original Music Composition Keir Cooper
Lighting Designer Simon Booth
Dramaturgy David Sheppeard
Captions Subira Joy
Costume & Curtain Design & Construction Philip J Shaw
Photographer Matt Crockett
Audio Description Laura Edmans
Flyer & Logo Design Charlie Wood

Produced by Marlborough Productions and Emma Frankland

Supported by Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, The Old Electric, Northumbria University and Arts Council England.

Emma is an award-winning writer, theatre maker and performer, whose work is often playfully destructive & gloriously irreverent. 

Over the past two decades, Emma’s status has been established as a prominent and innovative theatre artist, whose work has often focussed on issues around gender identity and politically motivated performances. 

Her collection of five solo performances are published by Methuen – None of Us is Yet a Robot – Five Performances on Gender Identity and the Politics of Transition and in 2023 she co-adapted John Lyly’s classic play Galatea which was performed as part of Brighton Festival and is published by Bloomsbury. 

Her work has been performed internationally in Indonesia, Brazil, Turtle Island and across the UK and Europe. In 2019 she created We Dig which physically demolished the iconic OvalHouse Theatre with a cast of trans femmes from around the world.

She is an Associate Artist with Marlborough Productions and has written several episodes for Channel 4’s iconic continuing drama Hollyoaks.

“This is a body of work that is not only about trans identities and gender fluidity but in which these things become catalysts for an expansive exploration of the kind of lives we want to lead and the kind of world we want to live in. This is vital and extraordinary work” – Andy Field, Forest Fringe

Performances

Tickets: £18 / £14 concessions
Recommended age: 16+
Duration: 1 hours 10 minutes
Wed 02 Dec 8:00pm
Preview - Pay What You Feel
Thu 03 Dec 8:00pm
Preview
Fri 04 Dec 8:00pm
Sat 05 Dec 8:00pm
Tue 08 Dec 8:00pm
Wed 09 Dec 8:00pm
Thu 10 Dec 8:00pm
Fri 11 Dec 8:00pm
Sat 12 Dec 8:00pm