Riversmeet focuses on high quality writing, performance and teaching which engages with contemporary issues by linking the past to the present.

In every era the attempt must be made anew to wrest tradition away from a conformism that is about to overwhelm it.
-Walter Benjamin 1940

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Productions

Several of our productions take on a contemporary issue. By exploring a parallel moment in history we hope to understand both the present and its roots in the past. All of our work confronts issues of urgent concern, from political surveillance and dissent to versions of democracy.

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Courses

The ‘slow learning’ approach to cultural products emphasises the place of process in education and gives each work and each reader the opportunity to become thoroughly acquainted without the pressure of acquiring a qualification.

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Publications

We are committed to publishing the best writing. That means that we are more interested in work we want to see in the public domain rather than work that may be commercially successful. We are always interested to hear from writers with projects that align with our values and ethos.

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What's new?

New Play: Regarding Shelley

20th-25th May 2025 by Richard Bradbury

The radical poet was constantly watched, he fought back in the only way he could through words and writing. Surveillance society isn’t new - we can learn from the past.

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New Play: The Shape of a Pocket

Riversmeet author Jan Woolf presents this biannual gathering celebrating the work of John Berger: art critic, novelist, poet, and persistent questioner of power.

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Frederick Douglass in Exeter

Learn how the 'Frederick Douglass Roadshow' brings an incredible forgotten story to life through film, drama, and community events.

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New course: Between the Acts

Learn more about Virgina Woolf's last novel, published posthumously in 1941.

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