PROVOCATIONS is where
FIO tests the ground.
Every September, we bring artists, ideas and audiences together in Cardiff to wrestle with what theatre could be.
New work is put on its feet,
tested live and shared while it's still becoming.
No polished answers required.
PROVOCATIONS gives artists space to take risks,
play with form and make pertinent, embodied
theatre about the world we're living in now.
Audiences are part of that process too:
come, watch, question, disagree and
tell us what the work provokes in you.
Some provocations will go on to
become fully produced FIO shows.
Others will continue their lives elsewhere.
All of them get a stage, an audience and
the chance to see what happens next.
Every September. Cardiff.
Get it in the calendar.
PROVOCATIONS 2026
Spoken word artist Samatar Elmi revisits King Lear as a family therapy session led by Cordelia exposing the wounds of patriarchy and misogyny and what we have come to accept.
After Cordelia
With great Moroccan music and arguments over the lack of breakfast on the table, performer and maker Rahim El Habachi writes about growing up with a divorced mother in Morocco. Directed by Nerida Bradley.
Saint Khadija
M(other)hood
A Young Somali writer from Butetown talking about the taboo subject of infertility in young women that feels like a curse.
Known fighting director Kevin McCurdy investigates Patrick Hamilton’s classic play, Gaslight - the text that originates the expression ‘Gaslighting’, and the rife normalisation of chemical submission.
Gaslight
MDSF (Magama Does Sci-Fi)
Traditional Zimbabwean storyteller Magama inspired by Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles investigate the colonisation of Mars.
Greek tragedy set in a petrol station for 2 actors, a guitarist, a chorus of motorists and the severed head of Medusa found in a Tesco bag. A punk post apocalyptic feminist tragedy between Cumbrian roundabout and the A4 road to Cardiff written by Nia Gandhi.
Medusa
Here is what the audience thought.
PROVOCATIONS I.
17th September 2026 at Chapter Arts.
PROVOCATIONS II.
24th September 2026 at Chapter Arts.