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In December 2025, The Theatres Trust, in partnership with the Wolfson Foundation, awarded the Criterion £12,000 from its “Theatre Improvement Scheme” to support the journey towards reducing our environmental impact.
Find out more about our environmental sustainability aims here
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Underdog: The Other Other Bronte
Charlotte Brontë has a confession about how one sister became an idol, and the other became known as the third sister. You know the one. No, not that one. The other, other one… Anne.
This is not a story about well-behaved women. This is a story about the power of words. It’s about sisters and sisterhood, love and jealousy, support and competition.
Sarah Gordon’s play is an irreverent retelling of the life and legend of the Brontë sisters, and the story of the sibling power dynamics that shaped their uneven rise to fame.
Reviews of the play
"The ever-enduring yet constantly contended myths surrounding the Brontë sisters are impishly upended in Sarah Gordon’s raucously funny new play... which mixes gothic tropes with family drama and astute literary criticism." Marianka Swain, London Theatre Reviews
"a portrait of the competition and mutual support that often co-exist among sisters, and of the challenges of being a female novelist in early Victorian times...jolly good fun" Paul Lewis, Theatre Reviews.
"This is a wild romp that toes the line between the sober and the surreal... before pulling on our heartstrings in the closing throes." The Arts Despatch
"‘Underdog’ is a very funny play... It has nuanced points about authorship, legacy and family... you’ll have fun, and you’ll probably want to read ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ afterwards". TimeOut.
EDI Assessment
In line with our EDI policy, we undertake an EDI impact assessment of all our artistic programming. This play deals with the issue of historical gender discrimination. For the purposes of the story narrative, specific playing gender identifications are called for. Otherwise there can be flexibility around casting with regard to ethnicity, age and disability.
Turning the Criterion Green
Turning the Criterion Green
Since 1961, the Criterion Theatre has entertained audiences from its home on Berkeley Road South, Earlsdon. For many years it has been recognised that our wonderful building needs modernising to take it into the future and to support all our users and visitors.
Thanks to an incredible gift left by Chris Murly (one of our founding members) and generous donations over many years we have been able to complete the Front of House redevelopment which officially opened in December 2025.
But that is just the start of our plans, with our sights now set on:
- Air conditioning in the auditorium and dressing rooms to remove the reliance on the Victorian heating system and improve our green credentials
- Investing in roof and wall insulation to make the building easier and cheaper to heat and cool
- Adding solar panels to our roof to generate electricity and support our net-zero challenge
- Replacement of the remaining Tungsten lights
As a volunteer-led, charitable theatre company we rely on the generosity of our volunteers, audience members and donors to continue a tradition that stretches back 70 years. If you feel you can help via a one-off donation, a regular contribution or playing the Criterion Lottery, please contact Barbara Sowerby at fundraising@criteriontheatre.co.uk to discuss how you can help or alternatively via our Just Giving page