Tinderbox Theatre Company are based in Belfast.

We collaborate with artists, participants and audiences to create new and ambitious theatre experiences. We create work that tells the stories of contemporary society in the North of Ireland and elsewhere.

We work in a non-hierarchical, horizontal structure across our organisation. All ideas are equal, and everyone is free to express themselves and contribute creatively. 

Our work is a celebration of playfulness, imagination and empowerment. We prioritise process and collaboration; providing a space for artists and participants to share and unite. We use multi-artistic forms to fuel and grow theatre form.

The company has existed since 1988, and during this time we have received immense recognition for our productions and creative training programmes. Our mission at Tinderbox is to ignite a creative spark in everyone.

  • Production: We devise live performances to challenge, provoke and inspire. We champion collaboration, inclusion and Innovation.  

  • Process: We work with the artistic process, acknowledging the unique creativity of each artist and participant.

  • Play School: We deliver contemporary training in theatre making and devising. 

  • Play for Social Change: We collaborate with artists, communities and audiences. 

  • We create a living space for artists, communities and audiences to connect and share stories with each other. 

  • Through theatre, we fight for equality, inclusion and accessibility in society. 


  • Tinderbox are transformative, playful, spontaneous and truthful. Our processes and productions are collaborative, disruptive and igniting. 

Core Funders

Press Quotes

  • Rhino is a bold, dazzling to the eye translation to the stuttering, glitch-ridden world of 8-bit computer games, liberally laced with trademark Jacques Lecoq physicality” “Nothing like Rhino has been seen on a Northern Irish stage before. It is a triumph for all concerned

    British Theatre Guide

  • Woods’ writing writhes with a Beckettian lyricism and blacker-than-black laughs. Director Patrick J O’Reilly’s production provides a perfect platform for it

    The Scotsman ****

  • Patrick J O’Reilly’s staging has a painterly beauty

    Lyn Gardner

  • Ubu the King – “Tinderbox go for broke in this wickedly playful, no-holds barred new version of the play which kicked opened the door into the Theatre of the Absurd”.

    The Stage ****