Soho ReDraft is a year-long writers’ group supporting playwrights to develop their first drafts into fully realised, production-ready scripts.
We launched this initiative after receiving 1,700 submissions to the 2024 Verity Bargate Award: a record number that revealed both the exceptional quality of new writing and a crucial gap in the industry: too few opportunities for writers to develop their work with proper support.
Our current cohort of writers is working together with our theatre team and guest dramaturgs through workshops and dramaturgy sessions, refining scripts that we believe have the potential to reach our main stage. We’re looking for distinctive voices, bold storytelling, and plays that push boundaries while speaking to the urgent conversations of our time.
This is about giving writers the time, space, and expertise they need to take their work to the next level—in a collaborative environment where they can learn from each other as much as from the process itself.
Soho ReDraft Writers 25/26
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.’