About Us
Radical Theatrical Healthcare
BRASH provides radical theatrical healthcare and education, serving those left behind by mainstream institutions. We take a holistic approach to health, encompassing the mental, physical, spiritual, and communal. We use theatre practice as a mode of healthcare. We aim to make people seen, heard and validated, sometimes for the first time. We use our work to challenge social stigmas. We equip participants and audiences with the tools to regain ownership over their own bodies and experiences.
We do this by:
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Making, telling, and holding stories
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Bringing people together
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Making ground-breaking theatre shows and digital work
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Hosting co-creative health journeys, workshops, and ceremonies
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Partnering with health organisations to cultivate connections and referrals for those who need it.
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Developing innovative research to create an integrated co-creative theatre-making & healthcare practice.
A lot of our work focuses on the health of young women and non-binary people living in the North East of England, because this is a core demographic that has been left behind by mainstream healthcare and education.
See our Shows page for all our past work.
Our Story
BRASH is the brainchild of Artistic Director Bethan Kitchen, who founded the company in 2017. Since then, we have reached over 4000 audience members with our work, and have co-created with over 1500 participants. We have had work commissioned by Northern Stage, English Touring Theatre, Live Theatre, and Streetwise Young People's Project, and have toured work nationally to theatres including Park Theatre London, Northern Stage, and Live Theatre. We have been NORTH Artists, and have won prestigious awards including Live Theatre's Bursary Programme. We have continuously been supported by Arts Council England to produce our important work. The company's historical focus on empowering young audiences in sex and relationship health identified critical gaps in education and healthcare that last long beyond youth into adulthood.
In 2024, BRASH relaunched to address these gaps, and serve a broader demographic of audience. Since its inception, BRASH has earned an established, trusted, and powerful voice in representing and empowering those who experience social stigma. Through consultation with our audiences and participants, we have uncovered that our work functions as an alternative mode of healthcare, through its ability to equip participants to process, gain agency over, and react healthily to their own experiences and bodies. We are now committed to expand, deepen, and centralise this arm of our work so that it reaches more people in more impactful ways.
Meet The Team
Bethan is an award-winning Writer and Director from Newcastle upon Tyne. She is the Writer/Director of all BRASH's previous productions, and has developed an inclusive co-creation methodology for working with those left behind by mainstream institutions. She has also spent two years as Young People and Communities Producer for Northern Stage, and has over a decade of experience as a Creative Facilitator across theatre-based projects. Beyond BRASH, she has written short films that have gone on to win the NE Youth Projects with Pride Award. She has also been Writer in Residence for RIFT Theatre London and as part of Soho Theatre's Writer's Lab.
Chloe is a freelance theatre producer in the North East. She is currently the Place to Play Producer for Theatre Hullabaloo, Associate Producer for Joss Arnott Dance and Alphabetti Theatre, and offers producing support to other independent artists. She has worked extensively with Alphabetti Theatre. Most recently she produced Tiny Fragments of Beautiful Light (2023), Beyond Caring (2023), and the tour of Fat Chance (2024). She produced the show GAZE (2021) at Northern Stage, she was the Associate Producer for Greyscale Theatre Company, and supported gobscure Theatre Company on their preview tour of joey as Associate Producer.