Inua Ellams: Search Party

Inua Ellams will bring Search Party to Bristol’s Arnolfini on Sunday, April 19, 2026, as part of Lyra Bristol Poetry Festival, in a one-hour performance built around audience prompts. (arnolfini.org.uk) Arnolfini lists the event from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., and ticketing site Headfirst Bristol lists tickets at £5.50. Lyra says the 2026 festival runs from April 17 to April 26 across Bristol venues. (arnolfini.org.uk) (headfirstbristol.co.uk) (visitbristol.co.uk) The format is simple and unusual: audience members pick words, and Ellams searches his archive live to build a spontaneous set from poems, plays, essays, drafts and unfinished work. His own event page calls the show “chaotic” and says each performance changes with the room. (inuaellams.com) (calendar.umd.edu) That makes Search Party closer to a live literary improvisation than a standard author reading. The Lyra billing says it “breaks away from traditional readings,” and the show ends with an audience question-and-answer session. (blackhistorymonth.org.uk) (headfirstbristol.co.uk) Ellams arrives with a substantial body of work behind him. Arnolfini highlights Barber Shop Chronicles and The Half-God of Rainfall, while the Poetry Foundation identifies him as a Nigerian-born British poet, playwright and curator whose books have been published by Bloomsbury, Akashic and several independent presses. (arnolfini.org.uk) (poetryfoundation.org) Lyra is positioning the event inside a larger 2026 programme shaped around “wonder & wanderers,” a festival theme tied to migration and movement in Bristol and across the United Kingdom. Bristol24/7 reported that this year’s edition is Lyra’s biggest programme yet, spanning readings, workshops, slams, walking tours and stage performances. (bristol247.com) (visitwest.co.uk) The festival itself has grown into a year-round Bristol poetry organization, not just a single spring event. Lyra says it also runs the Bristol City Poet and Young City Poet schemes and presents local, national and international writers. (lyrafest.com) Search Party has also been traveling well beyond Bristol. Recent listings show versions at Lincoln Center in New York, the University of Maryland, Bangor University and Newcastle Fringe, suggesting Ellams has been touring the audience-led format across different venues and cities. (lincolncenter.org) (calendar.umd.edu) (bangor.ac.uk) (ticketsource.com) For Bristol audiences, the draw is that no fixed script appears to be the point. The event asks the crowd for a word, and Ellams turns that prompt into the performance they get that day. (inuaellams.com)