We are the professional theatre company in residence at the Connaught Theatre supported by Worthing Theatres since 2013.

Conn Artists was founded by Ross Muir, Laura Kimber and Matthew Pike out of a passionate desire to keep regional theatre burning bright and alive. The aim was to give opportunities to like-minded artists to come together and create exciting theatre work which would tour.

Our name playfully refers to the Connaught Theatre Worthing, which as local artists in the area, we are delighted to be associated with; using its history as a source of inspiration as well as being able to make a positive contribution to its current theatre programme.

We create live theatre that really engages its audiences; good stories that resonate with timeless, universal themes about the human condition which are relevant and have a genuine social impact for today’s society; often a reimagining or adaptation of a classic or neglected work with an emphasis on literature and the poetic. The company has an ensemble playing style with the use of live music
performed by a cast of multi-skilled actor-singer-musicians and physically expressive artists.

After four successful productions initially at the Connaught Theatre and Studio including the UK premiere of Courage by John Pielmeier and an Arts Council England funded revival of Neil Simon’s The Good Doctor we incorporated into a limited company in 2015.

In 2017, we mounted our first regional tour of Hilaire Belloc’s book The Four Men adapted for the stage by local writer Ann Feloy and directed by former Artistic Director of the Connaught Theatre, Nick Young. Supported by and working in partnership with the South Downs National Park Authority and Worthing Museum, the show was a huge hit with regional audiences receiving 5 star and 4 star
reviews in The Argus, The Stage, The Sussex Newspaper and Theatre South East.

In 2019, we mounted a regional tour of George Eliot’s Silas Marner adapted by Geoffrey Beevers. Supported by Arts Council England and The George Elliot Fellowship in the writer’s bicentenary year the production was highly praised as the company’s best work to date by the reviewer from Theatre South East and gained 5 star and 4 star reviews from The Argus, Remote Goat and The Stage. Integral to this tour was the engagement with GCSE students, the homeless and refugees through workshops and outreach sessions.