Mike Shepherd Director & Founder of Kneehigh and Sarah Wright Puppeteer & Director of Curious School of Puppetry formed The Barns Lamledra CIC to safeguard the barns after Kneehigh Theatre closed in 2021.
We Make New Work Possible
Artists come here to experiment, rehearse and share new theatre, supported by the archive, the landscape and the Barns’ creative ethos.
We Grow Creative Confidence
We mentor emerging theatre-makers, work with schools and young people, and welcome our community into workshops, festivals and shared celebrations.
"It's difficult not to gush when talking about the Barns. It is for me the most important place of my creative life, where I have made discoveries about art and music, about storytelling and collaboration… It offers the most rare thing of space to be brave and explore your own capabilities… I was completely entranced from the first moment and it has never faded."
- Ian Ross, Multi-instrumentalist and composer.
We Keep the Kneehigh Flame Alive
The Barns safeguard and activate Kneehigh’s archive as a living resource - inspiring new stories, new learning and new connections.
"Oh, what a night. 1001 thanks to the supreme levitational crew you gathered and the giddying aura they cast over us. It was feral & freestyle, laced together by love, death, dances and a dinner to die for… You can't measure nights like this because the intangible joy would hold you down and rip your tongue out if you tried. – Pete Kirby, audience member Love, Death and Dances sharing at the Kneehigh Barns (2026)
When I first started teaching, several decades ago, in a grotty and ghettoised Nissan hut in inner city London, I quickly learnt the importance of creativity and how the conditions of creativity need to be taken seriously.
I first secured the lease of a group of tumbledown barns for Kneehigh over 30 years ago. These barns remain a unique location and a spiritual home for artists old and new as we imagine new futures." - Mike Shepherd, Kneehigh Founder
