Jarman at Hope Mill Theatre

Derek Jarman never stayed in one lane. Film-maker, painter, writer, gardener, activist – his work moved freely across forms, always driven by a refusal to separate art from life. Nearly three decades after his death, his influence still feels unusually present. Jarman, coming to Hope Mill Theatre this January, sets out to understand why.

Written and performed by Mark Farrelly, and directed by Sarah-Louise Young, this solo play doesn’t attempt a comprehensive biography. Instead, it traces the spirit of a life lived with urgency and conviction – from the stark shingle of Dungeness and the improbable beauty of Prospect Cottage, to the charged, creative chaos of Soho in the 1970s and 80s. It’s a journey through a cultural moment, but also an argument for risk, tenderness and defiance as ways of being.

Farrelly has form in this territory. His previous portraits of Quentin Crisp and Frankie Howerd avoided reverence in favour of clarity and bite. Here, he brings the same approach to Jarman – an artist who made taboo-breaking films (Sebastiane, Jubilee, Caravaggio), directed era-defining pop videos for the Pet Shop Boys, and produced one of cinema’s most radical final works in Blue: a single, unbroken frame of colour that refuses to look away from mortality, or from beauty.

What emerges is not myth-making, but something more bracing. Jarman appears as contradictory, funny, furious, vulnerable – someone who insisted on making work even as his health failed, and who understood creativity as a form of resistance. The reviews suggest a performance that sustains remarkable emotional energy without excess, trusting the material – and the audience – to meet it halfway.

Staged for one night only at Hope Mill, Jarman is paired with Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope earlier the same day, offering a rare chance to see two finely drawn solo performances in conversation. Taken on its own, though, Jarman stands as a sharp, concentrated reminder of what it can mean to live – and make art – without compromise.