GENRE-DEFYING SEASON ANNOUNCED FOR SOHO THEATRE UPSTAIRS: Nine exhilarating London premieres for Soho’s intimate studio space

• STARTING NOW WITH SOLD-OUT TRANSFER OF JADE FRANKS’ BLISTERING CLASS SATIRE, EAT THE RICH (BUT MAYBE NOT ME MATES X)
• ALSO FEATURING WORKS BY SHENOAH ALLEN, SHAMIRA TURNER, EUGÉNIE PASTOR, HANNAH CAPLAN, CHRISTOPHER BRETT BAILEY, MAYURI BHANDARI, DAVID ELMS, TIA-RENEE MULLINGS AND RICH HARDISTY
• RUNNING UNTIL SATURDAY 4 JULY 2026, WITH IMAGES AVAILABLE HERE

 PRESS NIGHTS

Soho Theatre today announces a new season of work in Soho Theatre Upstairs, consisting of nine shows from a diverse group of award-winning voices from now through to Saturday 4 July.

Rose Abderabbani, Head of Theatre Programme at Soho Theatre, said: ‘Our intimate 92-seat studio has long been a vital part of our creative ecology for new theatre, comedy and cabaret—championing new work and offering a launchpad for emerging and established artists. Many of this season’s theatre productions blur boundaries and cross genres to exhilarating effect. And, if you’re a writer, now’s the time: submissions are open for our Verity Bargate Award, the UK’s longest-established new writing prize sponsored by Character 7, with its biggest prize yet. We’re looking forward to discovering the best, most original new voices.’

Renowned as a launchpad for groundbreaking artists and ideas, Soho Theatre Upstairs has long nurtured work that goes on to shape the wider cultural conversation. Examples include Jack Rooke’s GOOD GRIEF, which went on to inspire BAFTA-winning Big Boys and recently enjoyed a sold-out 10-year revival run in Soho Theatre Downstairs, and Haley McGee’s AGE IS A FEELING, which was developed in Soho Theatre Upstairs, earned critical acclaim at Edinburgh Fringe before transferring to Soho Theatre’s Main House,  and will be heading to Soho Theatre Walthamstow’s 962-seat auditorium (awarded Theatre Building of the Year at the recent Stage Awards) in March this year. To date, it has been translated and produced in six different countries, with upcoming international productions planned for India, Taiwan, Sweden and Poland.

This season features seven Edinburgh Fringe transfers, beginning with the already sold-out run of Jade Franks’ EAT THE RICH (BUT MAYBE NOT ME MATES X), following critical acclaim last August, including a Scotsman Fringe First award, drawing on her time as a working-class student at Cambridge. Cult hit DAVID ELMS DESCRIBES A ROOM invites audiences to build a comedy mind palace together. Hannah Caplan’s mind-bending debut THIS IS NOT ABOUT ME spirals heartbreak and hyperreality in a romcom-meets-psychological thriller, while Christopher Brett Bailey presents an adaptation of his novel, I SAW SATAN AT THE 7–ELEVEN, a screwball monologue of romance, body horror and soy milk. Shenoah Allen, recent writer and co-star of Nina Conti’s 2024 film Sunlight, brings BLOODLUST SUMMERTIME, directed by Kim Noble, which offers a marvelously unique, acid-fuelled ride through sex, drugs and murder. Tia-Renee Mullings’ A TO B celebrates Caribbean South London rhythms in a blind-date odyssey and Mayuri Bhandari’s award-winning THE ANTI “YOGI” takes to the yoga mat to expose cultural appropriation with dance, drama and live percussion.

Also making its London debut is She Goat’s IRON FANTASY, embarking on a surreal, sweaty quest for strength blending medieval music, fight moves and 1990s TV nostalgia, created through workshops with children and elders. Finally, a world premiere is Rich Hardisty: POP, a remarkable true story of self-discovery in search for an untraceable father, directed by Lee Griffiths.

LISTINGS

JFR Productions & Soho Theatre present
EAT THE RICH (BUT MAYBE NOT ME MATES X)

Mon 12 – Sat 31 Jan
Soho Theatre – Upstairs
6.45pm (60 mins)
Press night: Thu 15 Jan

Inspired by Franks’s own time as a working-class student at Cambridge, the show follows Jade, a Scouse fresher juggling secret cleaning shifts with the culture shock of Oxbridge privilege. With razor-sharp wit and a dozen unforgettable characters, Eat the Rich exposes the absurdities of class, money and belonging in Britain today.

Listed in The New York Times among the ‘Buzziest Acts of the Fringe’ and in The Telegraph’s Top Plays to See, Eat the Rich has cemented Jade Franks as one of the UK’s most exciting new voices.

Brought to you by double Oliver nominated producer JFR Productions and award-winning director Tatenda Shamiso.

Soho Theatre & John Mackay present
SHENOAH ALLEN: BLOODLUST SUMMERTIME

Wed 18 – Fri 21 Feb
Soho Theatre – Upstairs
7.15pm (60 mins)
Press from: Wed 18 Feb

Shenoah Allen’s electrifying new show plunges headlong into his wild New Mexican roots, unleashing acid-fueled tales of drugs, murder, and family with fearless comic bite.

Shenoah grew up in an unconventional family – the grandson of a rocket engineer for the Apollo moon landing and an Air Force Colonel, and the son of a man who lived openly gay despite the Colonel’s disapproval. Around them, other relatives battled brain damage, addiction, and jail time, while his mother anchored the family with grit and warmth, raising three boys alongside her husband and his other partner under one roof.

School wasn’t a good fit for Shenoah, he was suspended repeatedly, dropped out, and by thirteen was experimenting with LSD, punk, and goth culture while narrowly skirting the edges of gun violence and chaos.

That chaos becomes his comedy in Bloodlust Summertime. Transforming taboo subjects into sharp, fearless humour, Allen confronts societal norms and asks audiences to question their boundaries – all while inviting us to revel in the sheer madness of it.

Directed by Kim Noble.

She Goat presents
IRON FANTASY

Tue 10 – Sat 21 Mar
Soho Theatre – Upstairs
6.45pm (75 mins)
Press night: Thu 12 Mar

Two confrontation-avoidant gentlefolks investigate what it means to feel strong. Written through workshops with children and elders, mixed together with the fantasy lands of 1990s TV shows, Iron Fantasy is a quest to (finally) get strong and asks the question of why we would want to.

In search of “assertiveness”
In search of a six-pack.
With medieval music, fight moves, and a lot of cottage cheese.

This is IRON FANTASY.

Hannah Caplan & Douglas Clarke-Wood for WoodForge Studios present
THIS IS NOT ABOUT ME.

Wed 25 Mar – Sat 18 Apr
Soho Theatre – Upstairs
6.45pm (70 mins)
Press night: Mon 30 Mar

A spiralling playwright dramatises the secrets of her broken friendship, but should she let truth get in the way of a good story?

Hot off their award winning, sold out run, Summerhall’s worst kept secret has snuck out of it’s Edinburgh basement and burrowed into Soho’s attic.

Christopher Brett Bailey & Beckie Darlington present
I SAW SATAN AT THE 7-ELEVEN

Tue 21 Apr – Sat 2 May
Soho Theatre – Upstairs
6.45PM (70 mins)
Press from: Thu 21 Apr

Fear and Loathing meets South Park in a screwball monologue that’s part romance, part buddy comedy, part body horror.
Two miles north of Hell, a nameless deadbeat narrator spots Satan buying soy milk at the 7-Eleven. Satan’s a washed-up has-been, who’s totally lost his edge. That is until he falls in love with our narrator and the two embark on a debauched misadventure, by turns slapstick, violent, whimsical, dreamlike and tender.

The Anti “Yogi” Collective present
THE ANTI “YOGI”

Wed 6 – Sat 16 May
Soho Theatre – Upstairs
6.45pm (60 mins)
Press night: Thu 7 May

Inhale, upward dog. Exhale, downward dog. Namaste.

This is the world that yoga professor Mayuri knows well: Incense, turmeric lattes, spandex. It’s absurd, especially as the only South Asian/Indian in a practice rooted in her own heritage.

Join Mayuri Bhandari and Kali, Goddess of Death as they take on wellness capitalism and spiritual theft.

Liberation! Not Lululemon!

Celia Dugua & Berk’s Nest in association with PBJ Management present
DAVID ELMS DESCRIBES A ROOM

Tue 19 – Sat 30 May
Soho Theatre – Upstairs
6.45pm (60 mins)

Following a sell-out run at Soho Theatre in 2025 and a critically acclaimed, sold out Edinburgh Fringe, the cult hit show returns.

Together with his audience, veteran improviser Elms ‘builds a comedy mind palace before your very eyes. And you’ll want to move in for good!’ – Phil Wang

JFR Productions in association with Soho Theatre and Hightide Theatre presents
A TO B

Thu 11 Jun – Sat 4 Jul
Soho Theatre – Upstairs
6.45pm (80 mins)
Press night: Tue 16 Jun

‘Cause how am I gonna have the summer to end all summers with no one to share it with?’ Amani and Brianna are getting ready for a blind date but getting there is the real test. Between teefing sisters, gentrified patties, flying bird poo, missing barbers, and a trim that could end a man, romance might not be the only thing on the line… Set to a Caribbean South London soundtrack, A to B is about the beauty and absurdity of trying to be seen and to connect in a world that won’t stop interrupting.

Soho Theatre presents
RICH HARDISTY: POP

Tue 16 Jun – Fri 3 Jul
Soho Theatre – Upstairs
8.45pm (70 mins)
Press night: Thu 18 Jun

Fresh out of psychiatric care, Rich Hardisty embarks on a transatlantic journey of self-discovery to find his biological father in this remarkable true story. A hilarious and heartbreaking exploration of family, trauma and redemption, POP. is the extraordinary true story of acclaimed comedian Rich Hardisty’s search for the father he has never met. In 2013, following psychiatric treatment and a mania-induced epiphany, Rich flies to New York with no money or plan. Armed with little more than a name Rich tries everything in the hope of finding the seemingly untraceable man, and answers to questions that have plagued him his whole life. Desperate, he searches everywhere, with the help of some endearing strangers along the way. However, when Rich finally does find his father, it doesn’t go as anticipated. A nostalgic emotional rollercoaster POP leaves you believing dreams can come true…Just sometimes not in the way we imagined.
Directed by Lee Griffiths