This talk will introduce the London and Berlin case studies of the European Research Council-funded project “Theatre and Gentrification in the European City”. From Ruth Glass to Loretta Lees, urban studies scholars have consistently turned to London an ‘exemplary’ city for gentrification. How do contemporary theatres in the city respond to these dynamics of urban change? The first part of this talk explores what is arguably the ambivalent relationship between theatrical institutions in the capital and gentrification, focusing on the Yard Theatre in east London as a case study, one of the ‘coolest’ theatres in the UK that claims to have built a ‘new’ type of audience in Hackney Wick. Despite staging work that critiques the displacement of local residents, the Yard has been able to leverage processes of gentrification for its own long-term survival in a period of reduced arts funding.

In the second part of the talk, Dr Clio Unger explores the entangled relationship between theatre and gentrification in post-reunification Berlin, arguing that performance is not simply a reflection of urban change but one of its active infrastructures. Her talk focuses on two constellations where theatre and activism converge: the tenant-led protest-opera Lauratibor, which transforms the street into a stage for coalition-building; and the cooperative redevelopment of the Haus der Statistik, where cultural actors intervene directly in urban planning. Together, these cases show theatre as a civic practice —rehearsing the “right to the city” by imagining urban futures beyond commodification.

Wednesday 18^th March 2026

1pm - 2:30pm

The University of Manchester (exact location tbc)