How can creativity change the way we think about addiction and recovery? What happens when people in recovery tell their stories through art, performance and co-creation?

Join us for a book launch with Dr Zoe Zontou, Associate Professor of Drama at Liverpool Hope University, with a performance by artist WilL Dickie to set the scene. His performance will move between spoken word, movement and the personal-political terrain of inheritance, privilege and addiction. Alongside, with his trademark bite and radical wit, David Hoyle will host and weave through the day’s conversations, injecting insight, responsive mischief, as well as interruption where needed. To close he’ll deliver a full-throttle finale, promising provocation, pleasure and a little chaos.

‘A patron saint of queer creative expression, David Hoyle is as deserving of national treasure status as Paddington Bear is. He’s also wickedly funny’ – British Vogue.

Drawing on two decades of collaborative research with people who have lived experience of recovery, Zoe will share what she has learned from creative partnerships that shaped this groundbreaking book. At its heart are the voices, creativity and lived experience of people in recovery, whose ideas inform its central themes.

Through examples from the Addiction Recovery Arts Network, Fallen Angels Dance Theatre, Portraits of Recovery, the Pink Flamingos Project, small performance adventures, Will Dickie’s White Sun and other pioneering work, Zoe will show how creative practice can challenge stigma, amplify lived experience and foster connection, hope and belonging.

Chaired by Nathan Powell, Creative Director of Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse Theatres, this panel brings together author Dr Zoe Zontou, Portraits of Recovery founding director Mark Prest, artist Will Dickie and Dr Eleni Theodoropoulou of the University of Liverpool.

Join us afterwards for refreshments, chat and something social.

For artists, researchers, recovery communities, health and social care practitioners, and anyone invested in culture as a force for change, this is an invitation to understand recovery not as fixed, but as a creative, collective practice for reimagining how we live.

Recoverist Month, through exhibitions, performances and creative events, places the arts at the centre of conversations on substance use and recovery. Held every September to mark International Recovery Month, this annual programme brings artists, communities and audiences together across venues around the UK, making a vibrant contribution to the contemporary cultural landscape.

About the author and contributors:

Dr Zoe Zontou (Liverpool Hope University) – researcher and theatre practitioner with twenty years’ experience in socially engaged performance, specialising in addiction recovery. Zoe’s work combines creative practice and academic research to challenge stigma and reshape recovery narratives. She has led projects in the UK and Greece and is currently collaborating with Liverpool’s Everyman and Playhouse Theatres to build a creative hub amplifying the artistic voices of people in recovery.

Mark Prest – founding director of Portraits of Recovery, is a pioneering arts organisation working with socially engaged arts practice to support people in recovery from substance use. His work champions cultural inclusion, lived experience and creative agency, forging partnerships across contemporary art, health, and community settings to reshape narratives on addiction and wellbeing.

Nathan Powell – Creative Director of Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse Theatres, where his first production in the role was Takeaway, which premiered in April 2025. Formerly Artistic Director of the National Student Drama Festival, he has championed emerging talent and partnerships, with work including 20 Stories High and New Step Theatre. Recent directing credits include Alice in Wonderland, The Mountaintop, Sucker Punch and A Play for the Living in the Time of Extinction.

David Hoyle – is the original performance avalanche — all-singing, all-raging, and a bona-fide legend of live art, theatre and cabaret. From radical alternative stages to Channel 4 as The Divine David, he has spent four decades queering culture through political commentary, comedy, experimental fashion and visual art. Recent work includes a Mugler collaboration and Aviva Studios’ retrospective Please Feel Free to Ignore My Work.

‘Terrorising terrestrial TV with his anti-drag persona, a raucous mix of political commentary, comedy and experimental fashion choices’ – Dazed

Dr Eleni Theodoropoulou (University of Liverpool) – sociologist of health and illness specialising in drug and alcohol use, recovery, mental health, and creative empirical methods. Committed to interdisciplinary collaboration, her current project explores how participatory filmmaking can reshape understandings of recovery. Previously, they examined care practices in drug services in Liverpool and Athens, critiquing neoliberal recovery models through feminist and Deleuzo‑Guattarian approaches.

Will Dickie – performance artist whose work blends autobiographical storytelling, physical theatre, and participatory practice. His performances explore memory, masculinity, and personal transformation, often inviting audiences into intimate, reflective encounters. Dickie’s interdisciplinary approach spans solo work, community projects, and collaborations that foreground vulnerability, presence, and embodied experience.