Sunderland: Our Home
Hear New Stories
Sunderland is an amazing place - home to hundreds of thousands of people, and every one of them different.
Different opinions, ideas, origins and backgrounds. Different stories to tell.
But difference can be challenging, and hearing only the same old story can be dangerous – it can spark anger, resentment, division.
But our differences are what make us brilliant, and they should be celebrated. And that same old story should be challenged
So, join us at Sunderland: Our Home – a vibrant programme of eye-opening events made with and by the people of Sunderland, designed to open the door to everyone – whoever they are.
So come and meet your fellow Mackems.
Hear new stories.
Share your own
And be part of a more united Sunderland
Upcoming Events
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Dear Sunderland
By Unfolding Theatre
26th March, 6.30pm-8.30pm
Pop Recs, Sunderland
Tickets: £5 (£3 concsessions)
If you could write a letter to Sunderland, what would you say?
A performance combining spoken word with music.
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3:1 Seconds
By Southpaw Company
27th & 28th March, Various Times
Southpaw Studio, Sheepfold Stables, Sunderland
Tickets: Free (optional donation)
A virtual reality experience exploring the 2024 riots, and what it means to belong.
Events Programme
Dear Sunderland
By Unfolding Theatre
Thursday 26th March, 6.30pm - 8.30pm
Pop Recs, 172-175 High St W, Sunniside, Sunderland SR1 1UP
If you could write a letter to Sunderland, what would you say?
Dear Sunderland is a powerful live performance bringing together spoken word and music to share stories from across the city. From children to elders, lifelong residents to new arrivals, this event celebrates the voices, memories and experiences that shape Sunderland today.
Expect surprising connections, differences of opinion, moments of pure joy and flashes of deep frustration (and yes, that includes the football). Above all, expect honesty, humour and heart.
Created with and inspired by people from across the city, Dear Sunderland is a celebration of community in all its complexity – the stories we carry, the places we love, and the conversations that bring us closer together.
Come along, listen in, and see Sunderland through someone else’s eyes.
Created by Unfolding Theatre, commissioned by The Cultural Spring.
Created by Unfolding Theatre · Directed by Annie Rigby · Written by Ray Hopkins, Annie Rigby & Midge Ryall · Music by Ray Hopkins & A Band Like This · Story Collectors: Ray Hopkins, Joy Omotade & James Williams · Produced by Midge Ryall.
With enormous thanks to everyone who wrote letters at CFO Sunderland, Sunderland MIND, Sunderland Student Union, A Band Like This, Creative Sparks Culture Start Group in Sulgrave, Winnibell Family Hub, Friends of the Drop-In at Space 4 in Houghton-le-Spring and everyone who sent a letter online.
Photo credit: Mark Savage
3:1 Seconds
By Southpaw Company
Friday 27th March & Saturday 28th March, various times
Southpaw Studio, Sheepfold Stables, Easington Street, Southwick, Sunderland, SR5 1BA
Performance lasts between 45 minutes and 1 hour
3.1 Seconds is a mixed reality performance experience that merges live performance with immersive digital environments for up to 20 audience members per show.
Developed through in-depth community consultation, the work presents four contrasting perspectives on the events surrounding the Sunderland riots — before, during, and after — drawn from eyewitness accounts and lived experience across different sections of the city.
Using archive images from the period leading up to and following the riots, Southpaw’s digital team reconstructs fragments of the city into a three-dimensional world that both the audience and live performers move through together. These layered environments shift and collide as the perspectives unfold, allowing audiences to explore how the same events are experienced differently depending on who you are and where you stand.
At its heart, 3.1 Seconds asks what it means to belong — and how quickly we make judgments about one another — before revealing how understanding, responsibility, and care can begin to repair what has been damaged.