Key Nights

Beckis Cooper

Beckis is an actress, writer and singer and currently under commission for Jane Austen’s House and Lamport Hall. Her latest work is inspired by character comedy, a passion ignited from her very first professional acting job, when she was cast as Daisy from The Great Gatsby and other characters for immersive theatre at In The Woods and Wilderness festivals. 

She has recently toured a solo Shakespeare show , Unversed … around the country taking in places as varied as The Painted Room in Oxford, Gordon Castle in Scotland, Chawton House and The Stamford Arts Centre, with a finale at Shakespeare’s Birthplace.  

Beckis trained at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and The Drama Studio in London and has also done courses with The Globe, as well as setting up her own all-female Shakespeare company during the pandemic, taking Macbeth and Twelfth Night to the brand new Thorington theatre and London’s Tabard Theatre in Chiswick. Last year she ran workshops for teenagers called Living the Part sharing her particular love of Stanislavski and method acting and will next be seen on stage in Treasure Island up at Tolethorpe this summer. As a little girl she came to see some of her first theatre in the local area and was a lively member of Peterborough Stagecoach Theatre School. She is very proud to be returning to her roots and hugely excited to be a part of Key Nights this February. 

Joe Bolger

Joe is a writer and musician based in Peterborough. His poetry, shaped by myth, music, and the (un)natural world, explores embodiment, ecology, and grief through the lens of living with ADHD and autism. A former opera singer, he draws on classical vocal practice and immersive recording techniques to create performances where voice, text, and sound converge. As a recording engineer and producer, Joe collaborates with innovative and experimental classical artists. His label, Dwell, launches in 2026 with albums from Emergence Collective and electroacoustic composer Ben Gaunt. 

James Venters

James is a writer and director who grew up in and around the theatres on Peterborough. He co founded Kitchen Sink Productions based in Chichester whilst studying Drama Theatre and Directing at university, and has continued to home his craft having worked with Peterborough institutions such as Mask theatre and Kindred Drama. 

His work is defined by his interest in the simple yet emotional intricacies of relationships and how they change and adapt over time, specifically using naturalistic dialogue whilst telling stories through snapshots that add intrigued and weight to the characters and their challenges