Accidental Theatre

How Theatres Trust's support helped a theatre secure a permanent home

Founded in 2012, Accidental Theatre is an artist-led independent theatre in Belfast that works with emerging local theatre-makers and community groups to produce socially engaged live performances across theatre, comedy, and music.

Situated in the heart of the city between two of Belfast’s busiest roads, the theatre’s prime location draws in a diverse audience base and plays an important role in facilitating arts engagement in Belfast.

Though a prominent part of city’s streetscape now, this was not always the case for Accidental.

Originally, Accidental began life as a pop-up theatre putting on work and performances across Belfast. As the success of the company grew so too did the theatre’s ambitions, and in 2017 Accidental set its sights on converting an abandoned three-storey bank building in the city centre into a 100-capacity fringe theatre.

We were pleased to endorse the change of use application to convert the unused building into a theatre, helping Accidental secure a permanent home.

We continued to give our support to the theatre as it grappled with the challenges of transforming a historic building into a modern theatre space fit for modern artists and audiences and were delighted to award Accidental a grant in 2019 through our UK Theatres Small Grants Scheme to make the existing first-floor toilets wheelchair accessible.

Earlier this year we supported the theatre with a further grant, this time from our Small Grants Programme supported by The Linbury Trust, to fix its leaky roof. The funding will go towards a scheme of works to help stabilise the roof to make it safe for audiences, artists, and staff, helping to secure the future of the theatre.

This case study was produced as part of our Fifty@50 campaign to mark our 50th anniversary in 2026. 

Photo credit: Courtesy of Accidental Theatre