- SEX, SECRETS AND 12-INCH SYNCHRONISED DICKS: FIVE PROVOCATIVE NEW PLAYS FROM EOIN MCANDREW, DAVID IRELAND, MIRIAM BATTYE, SARAH POWER, AND DAVE HARRIS FOR SOHO’S MAIN HOUSE
- FIVE PLAYWRIGHTS FOR NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME SOHO REDRAFT
- ROSE ABDERABBANI LEADS SOHO’S THEATRE TEAM AS HEAD OF THEATRE PROGRAMME
- UK’s LONGEST ESTABLISHED PLAYWRITING PRIZE VERITY BARGATE AWARD, SPONSORED BY CHARACTER 7, TO RETURN IN 2026 WITH BIGGEST PRIZE YET
In a landmark year which saw the opening of Soho Theatre Walthamstow and the celebration of 25 years in its Soho venue, Soho Theatre today announces: new leadership for the theatre team with Rose Abderabbani as Head of Theatre Programme; a season of five back-to-back in-house produced and co-produced plays for Soho Theatre’s Main House; Soho ReDraft, a new writing program supporting five playwrights to develop their next play; and submissions for the Verity Bargate Award 2026 opening in January.
Rose Abderabbani, Head of Theatre Programme at Soho Theatre, said: ‘This season of five new plays by five razor-sharp voices exploring themes of family, forgiveness, loneliness, adolescence, masculinity and more is a powerful statement of creative intent about our ambition for theatre and new writing. We have long been a pioneer and theatrical tastemaker and are celebrating this legacy by taking it onto an even bigger canvas. With more premieres of new writing, strengthened commissioning and writers’ development programmes, a dynamic theatre team blending fresh talent with experience and our Verity Bargate Award returning next year with its biggest prize yet, it’s an exciting time.’
THEATRE TEAM
In a restructure of the theatre team, Rose Abderabbani takes on a new position as Head of Theatre Programme at Soho Theatre, a collaborative and enabling theatre leadership role working with the many talents of Soho’s theatre department including Theatre Producer Eve Allin, Creative Associate and Co-Chair of Soho Theatre Walthamstow Alessandro Babalola, Associate Director: Literary Max Elton, Creative Associate Pooja Sivaraman, and Producer Maddie Wilson. Returning to the theatre team as Theatre and New Writing Associate after over 20 years is former Soho Literary Manager and award-winning playwright, dramaturg, musician and teacher Paul Sirett.
Rose has taken on several roles at Soho Theatre since joining the arts charity in 2012, joining the theatre team in 2015 and becoming Theatre Programme Manager in 2019. She now becomes Soho’s creative lead for theatre, joining Head of Comedy Steve Lock, and Head of Creative Engagement Jessica Draper. Rose will work across all elements of the Soho theatre programme with the team, also collaborating closely with Executive Director & CEO Mark Godfrey, Steve Lock and Soho Theatre Walthamstow Comedy Programmer Jet Vevers on the emerging Walthamstow theatre programme.
After over a decade working at Soho Theatre – starting as Theatre Producer, becoming Creative Director in 2019, and most recently Head of Theatre, David Luff steps down to continue pursuing other projects and opportunities as an independent producer, with previous commercial productions including Network at the National Theatre, which transferred to the Belasco Theatre, Broadway, and Dr. Strangelove at the Noël Coward Theatre. David will continue to work with Soho Theatre over the next months as Executive Producer on the new theatre season, as well as the Soho return and tour of My English Persian Kitchen (30 September – 25 October, PRESS NIGHT: 2 October), and the Soho Theatre Walthamstow transfer of Haley McGee’s Age is a Feeling (5 – 7 March 2026, PRESS NIGHT: 6 March).
Mark Godfrey, Executive Director & CEO, and Sam Hansford, Co-Executive Director, said: ‘We’re delighted that Rose Abderabbani now steps up to lead a uniquely talented team delivering a creatively ambitious theatre programme with new opportunity and new resource. As we mark 25 years in Soho, and now the opening of our beautiful 970 seat space Soho Theatre Walthamstow, our platform and reach has taken a giant leap forward with four London performance spaces, and UK and international touring. Home to the UK’s longest running playwriting award, supporting new playwriting talent and producing new plays has always been a constant at the heart of our vibrant and diverse programme, and this now moves on to an even bigger scope, scale and stage.’
SEASON of IN-HOUSE PRODUCED AND CO-PRODUCED PLAYS
A series of five back-to-back new plays, with four in-house productions and one co-production (David Ireland’s Most Favoured), all headed to Soho Theatre’s Main House from October until June, starting with our Verity Bargate Award 2024 winner LITTLE BROTHER by Eoin McAndrew.
WORLD PREMIERE
Soho Theatre presents
LITTLE BROTHER
Written by Eoin McAndrew
Directed by Emma Jordan
Fri 17 Oct – Sat 22 Nov
Soho Theatre – Main House
At 7pm, 2:30pm matinees on Thursdays and Saturdays
From £13
Press Night: Wed 22 Oct
Captioned Performance by Alex Romeo: Wed 5 Nov, 7pm
Audio Described Performance by Miranda Yates: Thu 6 Nov, 2.30pm
‘I’d like you to promise me that you’re not going to try and set yourself on fire again.’
3AM. Brigid’s phone rings. Her brother Niall is by the river with a plastic bag and lighter fluid.
Little Brother is Eoin McAndrew’s Verity Bargate Award-winning, darkly comic new play about sibling love, self-destruction, and what it means to save someone who doesn’t want to be saved.
Set in modern-day Belfast, it asks what happens when the systems designed to help us fall short, and love is doing more heavy lifting than it should.
Directed by Emma Jordan, award-winning Artistic Director of Prime Cut Productions.
Sometimes being there for the people you love is very very very difficult.
LONDON PREMIERE
19th Street Productions and María Inés Olmedo Projects in association with Soho Theatre present
MOST FAVOURED
Written by David Ireland
Directed by Max Elton
Starring Lauren Lyle and Alexander Arnold
Thu 11 Dec – Sat 24 Jan
Soho Theatre – Main House
From £14
At 6:30pm, 2:30pm matinees on Thursdays and Saturdays
Press Night: Mon 15 Dec
Mary’s been sleeping with strangers across Scotland for eight months. Tonight’s conquest: Mike, an American tourist who’s never heard of KFC.
After the best sex of her life, she tells him what she’s been hiding.
Then he tells her what he’s been hiding.
From award-winning David Ireland (The Fifth Step, Cyprus Avenue) comes a sharp and hilarious exploration of faith and loneliness in a Travelodge, directed by Soho Theatre’s Associate Director Max Elton (The End of Hope, Not Now).
WORLD PREMIERE
Soho Theatre presents
THE VIRGINS
Written by Miriam Battye
Directed by Jaz Woodcock-Stewart
Thu 29 Jan – Sat 7 Mar
Soho Theatre – Main House
From: £14
At 7pm, 2:30pm matinees on Thursdays and Saturdays
Press Night: Thu 5 Feb
Captioned Performance by Alex Romeo: Wed 18 Feb, 7pm
Audio Described Performance by Miranda Yates: Thu 19 Feb, 7pm
‘There’s a boy in my living room. I’m not prepared for this.’
Friday night. Four girls. Two boys. Alone in a house. Some of them are in love. Most of them are virgins. Everyone’s pretending they know what they’re doing.
Tonight’s the night they stop pretending.
This is Miriam Battye’s (Strategic Love Play, Succession) The Virgins: a funny and devastating fever dream of desire and teenagerhood, directed by Olivier-nominated Jaz Woodcock-Stewart (Paradise Now!, Grud, The Glass Menagerie).
WORLD PREMIERE
Soho Theatre presents
WELCOME TO PEMFORT
Written by Sarah Power
Directed by Ed Madden
Thu 12 Mar – Sat 18 Apr
Soho Theatre – Main House
From: £14
At 7pm, 2:30pm matinees on Thursdays and Saturdays
Press Night: Wed 18 Mar
Captioned Performance by Alex Romeo: Wed 1 Apr, 7pm
Audio Described Performance by Miranda Yates: Tue 31 Mar, 7pm
Uma’s running a struggling countryside castle, and everything’s finally falling into place for Pemfort’s first Living History event. Glenn’s got his sword-fighting down, Ria’s befriended a deer, and new arrival Kurtis is settling in well.
But in a village where everybody knows everybody, some truths refuse to stay buried.
A new play from writer Sarah Power (Grud) and director Ed Madden (The Habits) about what we owe each other when the past demands a reckoning.
WORLD PREMIERE
Soho Theatre presents
TENDER
Written by Dave Harris
Directed by Matthew Xia
Thu 23 Apr – Sat 30 May
Soho Theatre – Main House
From: £14
At 7pm, 2:30pm matinees on Thursdays and Saturdays
PRESS NIGHT: Thu 30 Apr
Captioned Performance by Alex Romeo: Wed 13 May, 7pm
Audio Described Performance by Miranda Yates: Thu 14 May, 7pm
‘Thank you for trusting us with your pleasure!’
The Dancing Bears strip club is failing. Ten covers on a Saturday night. One booking next week. The new club down the street are packing fifty women a night with their twelve-inch synchronised dicks.
When the boss’s daughter shows up, she realises they’re gonna need a bigger show.
From the ★★★★★ Tambo & Bones powerhouse duo: writer Dave Harris and director Matthew Xia comes a steamy, boisterous and tender story about breaking free from masculinity’s seductive cage.
SOHO REDRAFT
Also announced today is Soho ReDraft, a pilot commissioning programme aimed at supporting five playwrights in developing existing first drafts of their plays into production-ready scripts through workshops and dramaturgy sessions facilitated by guest speakers and Soho’s theatre team.
The year-long programme was created following the record number of submissions to the Verity Bargate Award 2024, with 1,700 scripts entered, highlighting the high quality of scripts and a lack of opportunities for a supported development process.
After reading hundreds of first drafts, the theatre team selected five scripts that held a strong resonance with Soho Theatre’s programme and the promise of making their way on to our main stage.
Since the programme started earlier this year, the theatre team has been working with the following writers:
Lena Kaur – VINDALOO NAH NAH
Lena is an actor for stage and screen and VINDALOO NAH NAH IS her debut play. She is also a member of the Royal Court Intro and Royal Court X Sister Pictures writing groups.
Soho Theatre says: ‘Set in a pub run by a British Punjabi family, Lena’s play VINDALOO NAH NAH is a snapshot into the lives of three generations of women and their relationship with national identity. Lena’s writing, generous in detail and humour, tells us a story we’ve not heard from a fresh perspective.’
Nadya Menuhin – I, MOTHER
Nadya Menuhin read languages at University College London, and has previously worked as a literary agent for non-British authors in adaptation and translation.
She was part of the Royal Court Theatre Writers’ Group, mentored by Stef Smith, and BBC Writers Room London Voices cohort.
I, MOTHER is her second full length play and her first original script. In 2024 her adaptation of THE PASSENGER by Alexander Ulrich Boschwitz ran at the Finborough Theatre.
Soho Theatre says: ‘Nadya’s play chronicles a woman’s journey through post-partum depression in the aftermath of a painful pregnancy. It is devastating yet ruthlessly funny. We were immediately taken by the voice of the writer and their incredible skill to commit to such powerful subject matter without sacrificing a single laugh.’
Rianna Simons – WHITE GIRLS GANG
Rianna Simons is a Bermudian-British playwright and writer. Her debut play WHITE GIRLS GANG was shortlisted for the 2023 Yale Drama Series Prize and longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting as well as the Mustapha Award. Rianna has worked with the Almeida Theatre as a part of their ‘Anthem’ writer’s group and the Royal Court Theatre on attachment. In 2025, a reading of WHITE GIRLS GANG took place at Williamstown Theatre Festival starring Kaia Gerber.
Soho Theatre says: ‘Rianna’s play is Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf set within a book club that consists entirely of young white women. Her high-octane drama is a juicy satire on white-guilt and its spiralling effects. Described by Jeremy O Harris as a ‘young British phenomenon’ and ‘one of the funniest writers’ he knows, Rianna is a rigorous writer with incredible capacity for capturing the irony of human behaviour.’
Eleanor Tindall – WHAT IF ORPHEUS WAS FOUR SAD WOMEN
Eleanor is a writer from London. Her first play BEFORE I WAS A BEAR premiered at The Bunker Theatre, gaining her a nomination for Best Writer at The Stage Debut Awards in 2020 and returning for a sold out run at Soho Theatre in June 2022. Eleanor has been a member of Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab and was selected for BBC Voices in June 2024 from a nationwide open call. Also in 2024, they were commissioned by the Donmar Warehouse to adapt Macbeth for young audiences & their adaptation, MACBETH: SOMETHING WICKED toured schools across Camden and Westminster from June-July of that year. Eleanor’s play TENDER was a finalist for the Ambassador Theatre Group’s Playwriting Prize in 2023 and received an extended run at the Bush Theatre from November 2024-January 2025. Eleanor’s new play, WHAT IF ORPHEUS WAS FOUR SAD WOMEN, was one of the five plays shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award 2024. It was also longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize 2025.
Soho Theatre says: ‘Eleanor’s play was shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award 2024 and received electric responses from our reading and judging panel. Her play is a thrilling yet tragic roller-coaster that vividly illustrates contemporary womanhood, male violence and the costs of looking back in anger.’
Natasha Tripney – HIM, UPSTAIRS
Natasha Tripney is a freelance writer, critic and the international editor for The Stage. In 2011, she co-founded Exeunt, the (recently revived) online platform for independent and experimental theatre criticism, which she edited until 2016. She is a regular contributor to the Guardian and to BBC Culture, and has written for the Evening Standard, New York Times, the Independent and Index on Censorship. She also writes the weekly European theatre newsletter, Cafe Europa. She completed a MA in Writing at the University of Warwick and has had two short plays, RESTORATION and SMOKE, staged at the Miniaturists at the Arcola Theatre, directed by Rafella Marcus. In 2021, she was longlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Prize for Fiction.
Soho Theatre says: ‘HIM, UPSTAIRS is a searing portrait of contemporary masculinity. We discovered Natasha’s playwriting through the reading process for the Verity Bargate Award and were instantly drawn to the play’s capacity to address large-scale issues within a deliciously contained world. This is a conflict between London neighbours – both personal and political – has explosive theatrical potential.’
VERITY BARGATE AWARD 2026
Finally, the Verity Bargate Award, the UK’s longest established and Soho Theatre’s flagship playwriting competition, sponsored by Character 7, will return in 2026 with its biggest prize yet, with submissions opening in early January. Past judges have included Anupama Chandrasekhar, Moira Buffini, Ryan Calais Cameron, Anthony Lau, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Laura Wade, Russell T Davies, Sue Townsend, Emma Rice, Irving Wardle, Meera Syal, Ikenna Obiekwe, Alan Cumming, Lolita Chakrabarti, April De Angelis, Theresa Ikoko, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, Rebecca Lucy Taylor AKA Self Esteem, James Graham, and more.
More information will be announced later this year.
The 2024 winner, Eoin McAndrew’s LITTLE BROTHER will open at Soho Theatre 17 October to 22 November, and will receive readings and workshops in leading new writing venues in India and USA. 2022 winner BOYS ON THE VERGE OF TEARS by Sam Grabiner went on to win Best Writer at the Stage Debut Awards in 2024 and the Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre category at this year’s Olivier Awards.
-ENDS-
PRAISE FROM ARTISTS AS SOHO THEATRE MARKS 25 YEARS IN 2025
Ryan Calais Cameron: ‘Soho Theatre was a major launchpad for me, it helped nurture my voice through the Writers’ Lab, gave my play Typical its first stage, and took Queens of Sheba from Dean Street to New York. It’s where my stories first found their rhythm and their reach.’
Poppy Jay: ‘[Soho Theatre] is embracing of talent and people from other backgrounds. It’s completely different to how I always imagined theatre spaces to be.’
Bryony Kimmings: ‘It’s an extraordinary space for people whose work is genre-pushing… They never say no. They trust you to be creative. It’s managed to establish a mark of quality and experimentalism. It feels like if you’re there, you’re original, you’re good quality.’
Jack Rooke: ‘It’s always been good at taking a risk on new talent and not just following where the buzz is.’
Prashasti Singh: ‘It’s surreal that I was aware of Soho Theatre as this very elite and prestigious venue. It was this fancy thing in my head where really big artists perform and it’s very classy, so on Monday when I came here and I saw my face on the entrance of Soho Theatre, I could have never imagined this day – it’s such a big deal and it’s such an honour. It’s great how life works sometimes.’
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: ‘Soho Theatre has a genuinely experimental, risk-taking attitude. It’s one of the only theatres that consistently puts on provocative work from lesser-known writers and performers and encourages them to be original. I’ve seen some of the best work of my life in those spaces.’
Notes to Editors
Tickets are now available for LITTLE BROTHER, and on priority booking for MOST FAVOURED, THE VIRGINS, WELCOME TO PEMFORT, and TENDER. General on sale for these shows from Wednesday 1 October at 11am. Tickets available on Soho Theatre’s website here.
The theatre season is supported by Linda Keenan.
Images are available here.
SOHO THEATRE is London’s most vibrant producer for new theatre, comedy and cabaret. Our central London venue in Soho is celebrating 25 years as one of the UK’s busiest with a buzzing bar, lively audiences and an entertaining year-round festival programme with a queer, punk, counter-culture flavour. Our second London venue SOHO THEATRE WALTHAMSTOW opened in May 2025, bringing our vibrant programme to its biggest stage yet. Work extends beyond our venues with a full touring programme and connections with New York, Melbourne and Mumbai. Edinburgh Festival Fringe is a huge part of our year, we present many shows and scout hundreds more and we are the UK’s leading presenter of comedians from India. Our filmed comedy specials can be seen on international airlines and online. And our artist development and participation programmes are as important as the work on our stages. Soho Theatre is a charitably-owned social enterprise; with annual audiences projected to increase to over 400,000 this year, turnover to exceed £11m and strong international links, it makes a positive contribution to growth in creative industries and UK soft power. sohotheatre.com / @sohotheatre.
Launched in 1982, the VERITY BARGATE AWARD is Soho Theatre’s flagship playwrighting competition, sponsored by Character 7. It is one of the longest-established playwrighting awards in the UK and the only award to guarantee the winning play a fully staged production in one of Soho Theatre’s stages in their central London venue. The award honours Verity Bargate, Soho’s co-founder who passionately championed new writing during her time at the small but hugely influential fringe theatre company, Soho Poly.
For 50 years Soho Theatre has championed new writing, from lunch time plays in the 1970s to today’s commissions, attachments, Writers’ Labs and awards. Open to new and emerging UK and Irish writers, the Verity Bargate Award uncovers the best new plays and launches the careers of some of Britain’s most established playwrights and screenwriters. Previous winners and nominees include Sam Grabiner (Boys on the Verge of Tears at Soho Theatre, 2024), Nathan Ellis (Super High Resolution at Soho Theatre, 2022), Amanda Wilkin (Shedding a Skin at Soho Theatre, 2021 & 2022), Matt Charman (Bridge of Spies), Vicky Jones (Touch at Soho Theatre, 2019), Toby Whithouse (Doctor Who) and many, many more.
The biennial award is judged by a panel of industry experts and attracts approximately 1,700 submissions. The award is chaired by Stephen Garrett, founder and Executive Chairman of Character 7, a multi-award-winning production company whose recent credits include The Night Manager, The Rook, The Undoing, and Culprits.