An excellent book that focuses on London's long-running LIFT to ask crucial and urgent questions about what theatre and festivals can do – for art, social relations, global understanding, local expression and much more – in increasingly compromised ideological and financial conditions.'
- Jen Harvie, Queen Mary University of London, UK.

Spanning over 40 years of LIFT, this volume reveals how the festival transformed the UK's theatre scene with ground-breaking global performances and innovative curatorial practices.

Since 1981, the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT) has redefined the landscape of performance across the UK, driving social, political and artistic change through its experimental presentations which connect the global to the local. This book investigates LIFT's origins, processes and effects, and shows how the festival acted as a catalyst, reshaping the ways in which audiences engage with theatre and with each other.

Drawing on extensive archival research, interviews and first-hand observations, the book examines the interplay of political, economic and cultural forces shaping British theatre festivals since the dawn of Thatcherism. It highlights how neoliberal ideologies have eroded the independence of arts organisations and constrained festivals' potential to effect meaningful social change.

Taking an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach, each chapter explores case studies of key festivals and projects, from the trailblazing 1981 debut to the end of LIFT's organisational independence when Battersea Arts Centre took on its leadership in 2025. Throughout, the study traces LIFT's entanglements with global crises, state instrumentalization of the arts, intensifications of authoritarian populism, the rise of socially engaged practice and the ongoing efforts to decolonize British theatre. The story of how LIFT navigated these multiple, complex dynamics offers invaluable insights into the intersection of art, politics and the experience economy, and a powerful example of theatre as a site of radical resistance.