Political gig theatre Blaze FM to tour

Following a run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe last year, political gig theatre show Blaze FM is set to tour 17 September to 8 October to Lowry, Bristol Old Vic and Belgrade Theatre, the first time London-based production company and arts charity The Big House have taken a show on tour.

Set in a rundown Hackney council flat where a pirate radio station blasts the airwaves with new music and uncensored political perspectives, Grime MC Jammz and James Meteyard’s play fuses Grime, Garage, and Drill into a story of survival and subculture. Focusing on how music unites and builds communities, and provides a voice for free expression, the show follows the Blaze crew as they battle to keep their station alive, led by father-figure Hughbert. Produced by The Big House, who work with care-affected young people, it weaves together themes of state overreach and the censorship of Black culture. Against the backdrop of 7/7, the Windrush scandal and the censorship of Drill music, Blaze FM asks questions about freedom of speech: not just what is allowed, but who is allowed to say it, and who decides.

Blaze FM is directed by artistic director of The Big House Maggie Norris. After playing Edinburgh Festival Fringe at the Pleasance in 2025 (Theatre Weekly Best Director Award winner), it now tours to Lowry, Bristol Old Vic and Belgrade Theatre, The Big House’s first regional tour.

Jammz said, “Grime culture is very much about doing it yourself, building community and being the voice for the community which you build and the community that you represent. On a microcosm, Blaze FM about a family/community that run a pirate radio station and how that's eventually pulled apart by society and different socioeconomic pressures. On the macrocosm, it's about society as a whole, about freedom of speech, who is allowed to say what and how that gets policed depending on who says it.”

Blaze FM tours from 17 Sept - 8 October, full dates and tickets at thebighouse.uk.com