UNRULY
written and performed by Vici Wreford-Sinnott at WOW Festival
18 October 2025
Gritty and Glorious Theatre Platform
About WOW
There’s no denying it – the world feels heavy right now and the news feels relentless. Rights are being rolled back across the globe, and the UN says gender equality is still 134 years away. It’s easy to feel hopeless – but WOW - Women of the World believes there’s still much to celebrate.
Fresh from its Edinburgh Fringe run, join Jude Kelly for powerful stories and bold conversations as The WOW Show goes on tour as part of the first WOW North East Festival to take a fresh look at feminism today with special guests and local heroes at every performance.
There’ll be big ideas, local heroes and tales of incredible people you may never have heard of before, but who you’ll now never forget. It’ll be an interactive evening of crowdsourced ideas and actions, as together we discuss, rage and celebrate YOUR burning issues and ideas on everything from money to sex, housing to public transport, and bringing up boys to ageing.
For 15 years, WOW has brought millions together across six continents to celebrate women, girls, and non-binary people and inspire action – always with humour, energy, and passion.
Grab your friends and family – it's an evening for everyone.
Tickets to WOW are free and you can book a day pass here WOW North East Festival Day Pass | The WOW Foundation
The WOW Show is presented by S&DR200 and WOW - Women of the World, in association with esk.
S&DR200 events are delivered by Darlington Borough Council, Durham County Council and Stockton-on Tees Borough Council, with support from North East Combined Authority
There’s no denying it – the world feels heavy right now and the news feels relentless. Rights are being rolled back across the globe, and the UN says gender equality is still 134 years away. It’s easy to feel hopeless – but WOW - Women of the World believes there’s still much to celebrate.
Fresh from its Edinburgh Fringe run, join Jude Kelly for powerful stories and bold conversations as The WOW Show goes on tour as part of the first WOW North East Festival to take a fresh look at feminism today with special guests and local heroes at every performance.
There’ll be big ideas, local heroes and tales of incredible people you may never have heard of before, but who you’ll now never forget. It’ll be an interactive evening of crowdsourced ideas and actions, as together we discuss, rage and celebrate YOUR burning issues and ideas on everything from money to sex, housing to public transport, and bringing up boys to ageing.
For 15 years, WOW has brought millions together across six continents to celebrate women, girls, and non-binary people and inspire action – always with humour, energy, and passion.
Grab your friends and family – it's an evening for everyone.
Tickets to WOW are free and you can book a day pass here WOW North East Festival Day Pass | The WOW Foundation
The WOW Show is presented by S&DR200 and WOW - Women of the World, in association with esk.
S&DR200 events are delivered by Darlington Borough Council, Durham County Council and Stockton-on Tees Borough Council, with support from North East Combined Authority
About UNRULY
Marina and Suze, a force of post-punk, police-agitating, bollocks-shouting duo were changing the world through the disability rights movement. Best friends from childhood, the pair had a loyal, fiery relationship, but now Marina has lost Suze forever, and the revolution has to stop for a while. Marina reflects on their riotous journey, embodying their world, as she summons a lineage of powerful disabled heroines.
In order to say goodbye to Suze properly, Marina questions whether it has all been worth it. Acknowledging the personal cost of campaigning, and feeling like she has to query her own role, she carefully unpacks her life and slowly removes the layers of women she was expected to be by others.
Unruly is written and performed by Vici Wreford-Sinnott in a raw stripped back, no set, no tech extract for WOW Festival. Bex Bowsher directs this rare piece of disabled women-led theatre with an impassioned call to action. We invite you to celebrate these hidden radicals while considering whether doing nothing to oppose brutal injustice is ever really an option.
Unruly is a powerful, urgent show about refusing to be invisible in hostile environments and the power of friendship and community to get us through.
Composer and Live Musician on Tour - Beccy Owen
Dramaturg and Director - Bex Bowsher
Set Designer - Lu Herbert
Funded by Arts Council England, ARC Stockton and Little Cog
About Vici Wreford-Sinnott
Vici Wreford-Sinnott is a leading figure in the UK Disability Arts Movement, campaigning for the cultural equity of disabled people for over thirty years. A disabled writer, director, performer and activist, Vici founded one of the first women's theatre companies in the North East in 1994, cirque des femmes. She went on to hold CEO positions nationally and regionally in the Republic of Ireland and the UK in ADI (Arts and Disability Ireland) and ARCADEA, both development organisations supporting disabled artists and promoting equality in art and culture. She directed two of the first pieces of original disabled-led theatre in the Republic. Vici is the founding artistic director of internationally acclaimed North East based Little Cog which is a disabled-led production company. Vici is a disabled theatre and TV writer and director, and in 2021 she was commissioned by the BBC to write and make her short film Hen Night, which was inspired by the book Crippled by Dr Frances Ryan. It is one of the first pieces of broadcast television drama by a disabled women-led team in the UK, and has been seen by over 500,000 people worldwide. Vici's theatre work tours nationally and she is regularly invited to deliver disability equality advice to arts sectors internationally based on the development of an innovative model of disabled-led practice in mainstream settings, Cultural Shift in collaboration with ARC Stockton. She is a published playwright - Siege and Funny Peculiar (Salamander books) and with the love of neither god nor state (Methuen). Vici is a PhD practice-based candidate researching Radical Acts of Representation: Creating Disabled Women-Led Practice in Theatre and Television. Vici is founding Festival Director of Our Stomping Grounds (25-27 November 2025), and is under commission for plays World's On Fire (ARC Stockton) and Useless F*cker (Live Theatre, Newcastle). She recently returned to performance in the national tour of her play UNRULY, authentically telling a story of older disabled women activists. She is a recipient of the North East Art and Culture Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts.
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