What Have the Romans Done for Us?
What Have the Romans Done for Us?
Byker, Shieldfield, Battlefield and Ouseburn, Newcastle
July 6th, 2025
*Project Development & Producing
Created especially for the Ouseburn Festival, What Have the Romans Done for Us? is a family-friendly, multi-site street theatre performance.
Building Culture were invited to guest-produce an element of the 2025 Ouseburn Festival, and worked with associate producer Lindsay Nicholson, to develop and deliver the piece.
For one day only these surprise sites will be activated on the hour 1pm, 2pm & 3pm – Sunday July 6th. All ages welcome.
Produced by Building Culture for the Ouseburn Festival. Developed and delivered by associate producer, Lindsay Nicholson.
What Have the Romans Done for Us? is a tongue-in-cheek, street theatre romp through time – and your neighbourhood!
This summer at Ouseburn Festival, join a band of storytelling locals from Byker, Battlefield and Shieldfield as they resurrect the ruins of Hadrian’s Wall with laughter, questions, and a few grumpy Roman gods.
With a community cast and site-specific surprises we invite you to explore with us what it means to live in the shadow (or glory?) of a fallen empire – in 2025.
Expect myths, music, mischief – and maybe even a toga or two.
Event info
What to Expect on the day
On Sunday 6 July, we’ll be bringing the Ouseburn to life with three pop-up performance sites in:
- Battlefield
- Shieldfield
- Byker
Each location will feature a unique performance created with local community casts. You’ll be able to see all three by moving between sites – each show will be repeated three times during the day.
Performance times
All performances will run on the hour at:
1:00pm
2:00pm
3:00pm
What’s Happening at Each Site?
Battlefield
An intimate, unplugged performance of and poetry and traditional east African music.
Music by Rapasa Nyatrapasa Otieno
Poetry by ‘The Unexpected Poet’ David Roe & Andrew Mears.
Shieldfield
A special performance by the Shieldfield Youth Programme. Partnered with Dwellbeing Shieldfield and Newbridge Project. Come and learn all about this community and expect some singing! This lot are anything but ordinary…
Byker
Help the Goddess of Wisdom make plans for the future of Byker with her strange aunties in this fun, fiery piece of site specific performance.
Performed by Hedley Sugar Wells, Holly Irving & Rosa Stourac McCreery.
Watch out for Romans!
As you travel through the Ouseburn between sites, keep an eye out for our roaming Romans!
They’ll be popping up to help you find your way – and may even have a surprise or two up their sleeves…
Where are the sites?
The sites are embedded within the communities we are working with and can be a little tricky to find. Take to study the map and keep an eye out for festival volunteers in Hi-Vis vest to help you find your way.
Look for the drama masks on the official Ouseburn Festival maps which you can pick up during the festival, or take a look at our Google Map below and here.
