new writing

Feature | Rehearsing Working Class Hero

by Diana Miranda

Written and co-performed by Bulgarian migrant Theo Hristov, Working Class Hero is an absurdist satire that takes us on a high-speed romp through the British class system via two actors with different backgrounds: a white, privately-educated Posh Actor frustrated by being pigeonholed, and his friend, a migrant Working Class Actor, who writes a script based on lived experience as a vehicle for himself. When Posh Actor lands the role instead, the shift cracks open the tensions beneath their friendship and the British casting ecosystem. Working Class Hero has taken the floor at Baron’s Court Theatre this month as part of VOILÁ Festival 2025. As a multilingual festival that showcases migrant-led productions, VOILÁ Fest seems like an ideal home for Working Class Hero and the questions it raises about the British theatre industry.

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Motor Home Marilyn, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

by Laura Kressly

When Denise was a teenager in Southend, she was desperate to become a Hollywood star and willing to do anything to achieve it. Now, decades later, she’s living in a caravan and working as a Marilyn Monroe impersonator in Las Vegas, far removed from the life she dreamed of. Soap star Michelle Collins embraces the quirky and troubled Denise but the concept’s execution – an extended monologue to a pet snake – is contrived and dramaturgically flat.

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Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Lost Lear, Consumed, and The Beautiful Future is Coming at the Traverse Theatre

by Laura Kressly

As the population ages and continues to be threatened by underfunding and lack of adequate resources, quality care for elderly people is under threat. The acclaimed Irish play Lost Lear by Dan Colley challenges this by providing a narrative of hope. Safely tucked away in a care home, Joy (Venetia Bowe) re-lives the best moments of her life over and over again. Her care team have recreated the rehearsal process for her acclaimed turn in King Lear, which keeps her calm and content as dementia ravages her brain. Joy’s experience is both tragically beautiful and inspirational – may we all have this depth of experience as our minds slip below the horizon.

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This Bitter Earth, Soho Theatre

by Zahid Fayyaz

This summer production is Billy Porter’s directorial debut, starring Omari Douglas and Alexander Lincoln. Harrison David River’s two-hander follows the story of Jessie and Neil and their tragic love story in the turbulent period of 2012-2017. The play cuts between different parts of the couple’s relationship, from the highs and lows, with a background consisting of the end of Obama’s presidency and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

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Saria Callas, Camden People’s Theatre

by Anne-Charlotte Gerbaud

In Saria Callas, Seemia Theatre and Sara Amini deliver a powerful solo show that explores identity, memory, and freedom. This multimedia production traces the journey of Saria, who fled Iran to escape a life of restriction, only to realise that her decision may also have paved the way for her child to live freely in ways she couldn’t have imagined.

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All the Worst Parts, Baron’s Court Theatre

CW: mentions of rape, sexual assault and addiction

by Anne-Charlotte Gerbaud

Recovery is rarely linear, and All the Worst Parts captures it as raw, painful, and unresolved. Created by Eden Theatre, this four-part play follows a young woman navigating the aftermath of sexual violence. What emerges is a layered and often unsettling portrait of trauma, intimacy, and the damage done
when no one listens.

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Salty Brine: These Are The Contents Of My Head (The Annie Lennox Show), Soho Theatre

by Zahid Fayyaz

The New York cabaret star returns to London after the previous success of their Smiths/Frankenstein tribute show, with this personal and sensitive show focusing on Annie Lennox, Judy Garland, as well as Kate Chopin’s groundbreaking feminist novel The Awakening. As part of his Living Record Collection project, all these elements are mixed up with autobiographical elements of his own life, in a stunning 90-minute long cabaret show of real power and sensitivity.

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Playfight, Soho Theatre

by Zahid Fayyaz

A massive hit at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, this new play by Julia Grogan has now come to London for a three-week engagement. It is a three-hander, following the lives of three school friends, Lucy, Zainab and Keira, over a 10 year period during their adolescence and young adulthood. Beginning from just before their GCSEs, the last scene takes place post-university. The story is staged around a striking pink ladder in the middle of the stage that signifies an ancient tree the characters climb and gather around.

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Shafeeq Shajahan: The Bollywood Guide To Revenge, Soho Theatre

by Zahid Fayyaz

Cabaret star Shafeeq Shajahan has returned with a retooled and expanded version of his show from last year at the same venue. Heavily referencing and influenced by the 1970’s Bollywood film Satyam Shivam Sundaram, he works together with collaborator and composer Vasilis Konstantinides who is also a wonderful cellist. The show is a look at Shajahan’s background growing up as a queer man, the difficulties his faith and religious community presented, and its role in adding to his scars.

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Plied and Prejudice, The Vaults

by Zahid Fayyaz

A hit in Australia, this rowdy and ‘immersive’ adaptation of Pride and Prejudice has now made its way to London, playing in the atmospheric tunnels under Waterloo station. Performed by five actors doing all the parts, this is a fun romp through Jane Austen’s iconic book. There is heavy encouragement from the performers to buy drinks throughout the show to keep the mood up but it’s still plenty of fun.

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