Introducing our February 2026 Scratch Night Artists
Published February 4, 2026
Exeter Phoenix is once again joining forces with Exeter Northcott for our next Scratch Night. This night is a crucial step for the artists and an unforgettable, left-field experience for the audience. Expect an eclectic, entertaining mash-up of fresh work-in-progress performances.
Ahead of their performances on Mon 23 Feb, we are pleased to present the selected artists for our February Scratch Night in partnership with Exeter Northcott!
Tactile
by Molly Gooch
Age guidance: 14+ | Content warning: grief, depression, strong language
Tactile is a new contemporary play exploring how physical possessions connect us to reality in an increasingly digital world. The piece emerged from a simple question:
“What will be left when I die?”
The play follows three siblings, Saf, Chris and Jem, as they reunite to sort through their late mother’s belongings. What begins as a practical task becomes a deeply emotional excavation of memory, love and loss. Through humour, tenderness and confrontation, Tactile examines how grief reshapes the bonds between us and how the things we hold both physical and emotional connect us across generations.
At its core, Tactile explores society’s ‘return to the analogue’ as coined on social media, in a culture that is becoming ever more digitised. It examines what “real” connection means at a time when so much of our communication and memory storage happens online. By focusing on the intimate and the material, the piece offers audiences a space to reflect on the value of touch, presence and the things we inherit from one another and the lessons they can teach.
Roach Girl
by Eleanor Hope-Jones and Kate Rowsell
Age guidance: 15+
Ro grew up believing that decency, effort, and fairness were rewarded with social mobility. Until one night she loses her career to corrupt redundancies, her fiancé to an AI chat bot, and her flat to a cockroach invasion...
Inspired by urban antihero films such as Taxi Driver and Joker, this piece flips the lens to examine how one woman absorbs and responds to systemic failure. As Ro’s moral framework collapses, a once-principled woman evolves into something tougher and stranger.
Eleanor's Instagram | Kate's Instagram
Image credit: George Devereux
Don't Even
by Lucy Bell
Age guidance: 14+ | Content warning: Mention of death in a car accident, gambling addiction, strong language
Don't Even is the story of Maeve, Joan and Luke. Maeve is a gardener who likes a flutter, married to a vicar who hates gambling. He is seriously ill and Maeve places a bet, hoping to finance his treatment.
When Maeve wins a million pounds she has a problem: she placed the bet using a church bank card and needs Joan, the judgy church treasurer, to validate her claim.
When the betting firm tries to dodge paying out on a technicality, Maeve and Joan become uneasy allies in pursuit of their claim…whilst keeping the whole thing secret from Luke.
Inspired by the real-life David Goliath story of a Southwest gardener who took Paddy power to court, Don't Even is a macabre and surreal new script about turning the tables, and the sh*t that goes down when women step into their power.
The Underworld Revue
by Rob Harrison
Age guidance: 7+ (no explicit language or content. Occasional metaphorical reference to sexual and mental health topics)
Recall the last time you felt truly alive. At the weekend, when you finally finished that half marathon you were telling everyone about? Last night, getting laid for the first time in a year? Or 25 years, 241 days, 5 hours and 47 minutes ago, before you tied the knot with Mark?
Musician and storyteller, Rob Harrison, asks you to join him in feeling quite the opposite: truly dead. So dead that you’ve entered Hades’ realm itself. Uhuh, the Greeks got it right. There’s quite a few of you here all at once, so the king has asked his mythological buddies to prepare you some light entertainment in the form of story and song, all to help pass the time. An Underworld Revue, of sorts…
Submerge into a dark world, and be set on a path to find the light. Focusing on a unique and exciting sound-centred approach to storytelling, Rob Harrison’s work opens the audience to “new points of compositional departure” and shares his “open-minded, curious, and constructive style.”
Now, Sit back, relax, don’t think about how you died, and enjoy The Underworld Revue.
Image credit: Jessica Collett
Wish For Bold Wisdom
by Esme Lovell
Age guidance: All Ages
This movement theatre show will demonstrate vulnerable aspects of the self in women and a female platonic intergenerational relationship. This performance is abstract and literal with visceral, textured movement and music. We layer spoken word, dance, and physical theatre with live cello and recorded music.
We express how different generations of women create, react, relate, share, and learn from each other. This work is connecting to the modern day loss of a pathway for many elder women, leading to a gap in the potential for the younger generation to grow from learning lived wisdom. As a 22-year-old, I yearn for a societal shift that creates space where intergenerational women can integrate and provide for each other.
This performance confronts ageism, sexism, and women's internal struggles that are not seen, not understood and often overlooked. We can make space and bring light to these topics relatable for all ages.
Credits:
Creator and performer - Esme Lovell | Instagram
Devising performer - Elizabeth Thomas
Composer and musician - Noelle Plusnin
Join us on Mon 23 Feb, 7pm for Scratch Night in collaboration with Exeter Northcott and sample the delights of these bold, fresh, new work in progress performances!
Katy Danbury (Exeter Phoenix Performance Programmer & Scratch Night producer) and Sam Parker (Northcott’s artist development producer) will be co-hosting a pre-Scratch gathering in the Workshop space at Exeter Phoenix from 6pm, inviting people to feedback on our current Scratch offer, suggest ideas on what you have seen work well elsewhere, and any other suggestions or thoughts you might have about the general artist development offer in Exeter. Free to attend, no need to book.