Powered by people: Elizabeth Newman on how Sheffield is home to the ‘National Theatre of the North’

It’s a rare, but welcome, sunny day in Sheffield. Construction workers swarm the high streets, pedestrianising the centre, and there’s a pledge to build 20,000 homes in the city. Change is a foot and the South Yorkshire town is buzzing with it. The future of Sheffield is looking as bright as ever.

The crown of the city is the theatres, where I have travelled to meet artistic director Elizabeth Newman ahead of her first season, which you can read about here. At a casual lunch to introduce a year’s worth of programming, kicking off in autumn 2025, she declares: “We’re the National Theatre of the North.”

Her intent is clear: creating theatre about people, for people. And within this season we’ve got it all – women’s football teams, children learning to fly, and local Christmas cheer.

Newman is the latest addition to the Sheffield Theatres family, responsible for curating the multi-level venue housing the Crucible (with its thrust stage, Newman declares it “the best auditorium in the world”) and the Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse (“Petite, but epic”). Next door is the Lyceum (“Magic”) – which welcomes touring productions, and this week it’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Just 100 steps away, (200, if you’re as short as Newman is, she jokes), is the newly acquired Montgomery Theatre (“If you asked a child to draw a theatre, they’d draw the Monty, it’s idyllic.”) It has set its sights on producing new work for children and families from 2026.

Newman is the first woman in the 2000s to take the helm, joining the lineage that includes predecessors Robert Hastie, Daniel Evans, Michael Grandage, and more. The theatre’s first artistic director, Claire Venables (1981 to 1992), was only followed by Deborah Paige in 2000.

Another journalist asks her how it feels to be the first woman to take on the role in a while, she replies by asking what they’d like their headline to be. Instead, she discusses her own life – as a Londoner up north, the only one in her family to have a degree, her relationship with her husband who’s an environmentalist and sure they’re partly daffodils, and being a fairly new mum. She shares this information about herself, more than a woman in a job. Then, she credits the people whose shoulders she’s standing on and recommends everyone read Women Who Run With Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés.

Recently named home to the Women’s Prize for Playwriting, Newman is determined to produce each winning play in Sheffield. The first is Consumed, a multi-generational drama by Karis Kelly.

Women are also the focus of a new play, The Ladies Football Club. The relatively unknown story native to Sheffield has been adapted by Tim Firth, and Newman will direct. It’s with a heavy heart that she informs us that it’s the piece that the chair of the board, Julie Kenny, who sadly passed away last week, was most excited for.

Kenny’s attitude, we’re told, was “Just get on with it!”, so they do.

Life fizzes around the Crucible Kitchen. We’re surrounded by groups of people enjoying coffee mornings, toddlers exploring, staff chatting, and students reading. What’s most surprising is that it’s a Monday. And there’s no matinee.

The large concrete building might be intimidating for some theatre novices – but Newman wants to encourage residents and tourists that it’s a “place for people to use the loo and have a brew,” and “if they happen to see a poster for something they’d like to see, then we can help them with that, too!”

She’s got a real love for people – admitting to striking up conversations when on the bus, and having a chinwag at the supermarket checkouts. The season announcement is handed out as newspapers, the mission statement boldly reading: “Powered by our city and its people. Ours is a place for everyone. We are Sheffield Theatres.”

It’s refreshing. Newman grew up watching the snooker on television with her dad (who was excited by her move). And when asked about casting big names in shows, Newman comments “Well, if it works for the work, why not?” Upon hearing that at a previous opening at the theatre, the press were served roast potatoes at the interval, she laughs: “We’re going to have to reinstate that.”

Newman talks enthusiastically about her colleagues past and present. Relocating to Sheffield from Pitlochry was a choice for the growth of her family. “I feel at home here,” she says, getting out her phone to show photos of her favourite local walking spots – not so different from the picturesque Scottish town. She loves the communities in Sheffield, pledging to try and get more people watching theatre by taking theatre to the streets. She loves that the communities in Sheffield are all patriotic to the city, and most of all she loves that they’re so patriotic that they have their own Christmas carols – which she’ll be incorporating into the festive offering.

“I think there’s at least one thing for everyone in this season,” she says, whether that’s Debris Stevenson’s My Brother’s A Genius, a deep-dive into siblings and neurodivergence, with a grime soundtrack, or a new reimagining of Dancing at Lughnasa, or a Yoruba Macbeth adaptation, Crown of Blood.

At the box office, they’re selling Standing at the Sky’s Edge merchandise (including Henderson’s Relish). The award-winning new musical from Chris Bush is one of the city’s most recent, and finest, exports. Also topping the list would be mega-musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, and Life of Pi. The secret to theatrical success? Newman decides is familiarity – whether it’s the story, a theme, or music, that locks audiences in. It’s why Summer Holiday seemed the greatest choice for the warm months – and it was the artistic director’s parting gift to Bolton’s Octagon Theatre in 2017.

The best seat to nestle into and enjoy these productions is the most far right seat of Row B, Newman shares. She’s tried out a lot of them now, and it’s her favourite. Sheffield Theatres wants to bridge the connection with audiences, both on stage and off.