Fresh Ink: Keynote Speech with Lydia Marchant

Films about hometowns like mine normally end with the character ‘getting out.’ So I did. And then I came back.       

Hull playwright, Lydia Marchant explores the new writing landscape in Hull and beyond, celebrates how her hometown has shaped her own writing and asks what more can be done to help ‘regional writers’ thrive.

About Lydia Marchant

Lydia Marchant is a Hull-born writer for stage, screen and audio. Her debut play Mumsy was produced by Hull Truck Theatre in 2023. She is currently under commission at Hull Truck, developing No Balls, about women’s health and Sunday league football. 

She was part of the BBC’s Writers Academy 2019/2020 and has since written for Holby City and Casualty and regularly writes for EastEnders. She co-wrote Never Too Late for Channel 5’s Play for Today with Simon Warne and is a writer on Series 19 of Waterloo Road. 

She has written multiple episodes of Spotlight award-winning podcast British Scandal, presented by Matt Forde and Alice Levine. 

Lydia is the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Hull and runs Introduction to Playwriting at Hull Truck Theatre and the No Dress Code Young Writers Group for Middle Child. She is a Core 2 mentor for the Writing Squad. 

Free (Booking Required)

A limited number of tickets will be reserved to book on the day from our festival box office, by the venue.

For more information about the venue and wider festival, including a visitor FAQ, see the Fresh Ink website.