Guest Author

I grew up in a small northern town—now known to the world as the real Happy Valley. It’s a place of two sides: a creative, hippy-dippy haven filled with wacky parades and free hugs, yet also a town weighed down by thick clouds, hidden struggles, and an undercurrent of mental health crises.

I started CNC in 2010, towards the tail end of my Masters degree at The Courtauld Institute of Art – where I’d also studied for my undergraduate degree in History of Art.  I stumbled into PR, almost by chance, while working on the East Wing Collection exhibition.  So much hard work was going into the exhibition that I decided I wanted more people to see this and so I started emailing journalists. 

Relish Theatre was initially established in 2015, like many companies, to take a production to the Edinburgh Fringe. What started out as a feisty new-writing company has grown and evolved over time into the pretty specific niche we have now carved out for ourselves.

About a year ago our director, Anna Marshall, came across a call-out from a company we have long admired, Told by an Idiot. They were looking for an Associate Company to make a piece in response to the climate emergency. We got a text from Anna saying, “Hey team, there’s an opportunity up from Told by an Idiot at the moment…” Her idea for the show? A story about a group of cockroaches who survive the apocalypse and share their perspective on how the world ended. “Think Six meets Operation Mincemeat meets Kafka’s Metamorphosis”…we were sold.

Til Ungdommen er baseret på norske Linn Skåbers bog af samme navn, hvor hun har talt med norske teenagere om, hvad der fylder i deres liv. Alt fra følelser, svigt og forelskelse til pres fra forældre. På scenen bliver bogen bragt til live af Adam Schmidt, Anna Hawa Kamuk Mnasi, Asbjørn Hays Thøgersen, Emma van der Vleuten Busk og Emil Hyldeborg. Alle 5 leverer en stærk præstation med både nerve og nærvær, der på hver sin måde adskiller sig fra hinanden. 

In Argos Archives, the main character, ‘Woman’, invites the audience to have their fortune told by flicking through the pages of the Argos catalogue. Using the ancient practice of stichomancy (the jury is still out on the correct pronunciation!) Woman takes control of her life and offers the same for our audience, through the comforting order offered by the Argos catalogue. The audience will go on a journey with Woman, accompanying her through the archives of her life, conducted by the ‘book of dreams’.

A few months back I bought a bag of mushroom powder off Instagram to improve my focus. It didn’t work. I’m always looking for a magic fix for my messy brain, especially now I’m a mum. Before I had kids I used to write into the night. I could work better when the rest of the world was settled and daybreak seemed like a natural deadline. I was free to set my own schedule and didn’t really give it much thought.

On January 23, 2025, the world lost a bright light. Our local theatre community lost a talented performer. I lost my dance partner, audience buddy, dear friend and the third part of our dressing room Pentatonix tribute band. Ethan Ramos was all of these things, but most of all, he was the best human. 

When I ventured into the world of playwriting, I found myself in completely new territory. Unlike painting, the written word invites evolution. A play is never truly “done.” It transforms, grows, and contracts.

In 2024 I was Carne Deputy Director at Jermyn Street Theatre. The role was designed to teach the recipient about the day to day running of a theatre with the view to one day leading a building.

I started thinking about what would become Belly of the Beast in 2019. The year had seen protests, by parents, outside schools which had proposed teaching an inclusive curriculum. I couldn’t stop imagining how it’d feel to be an LGBT student and have, possibly, the parents of my friends essentially protesting against me.

The Apollo Victoria Theatre is a theatre that has hosted Wicked since 2006, and a theatre I know all too well having played The Wizard during the UK’s 10th anniversary in 2016 and returned in 2023. On this second return I discovered podcasts. The 1 hour 20-minute wait before my first entrance was made easier by listening, and this inspired me to create a series of my own.

I’m covered in glitter and surrounded by the kind of costumes that would give Ru Paul’s Drag Race a run for its money. It must be panto season again.

Panto is Hamlet in a nappy; Beckett in a bath of beans; Johnson in long johns. It’s gaudy and brash and all the better for it. It’s the High Art of Low Comedy

When I was at the Juilliard Playwriting Program, my instructor Marsha Norman talked a lot about how every playwright has their “stuff” – essentially the themes and ideas that they keep coming back to in all their work.

London's Voila! Theatre Festival is currently hosting 72 shows across nine venues, with 35 different languages being spoken.

‘I JUST HOPE YOU DON’T END UP WORKING IN THEATRE.’ My mum, who worked in theatre, would often say to me. It didn’t seem to have any impact - I ended up working in theatre. It’s all I ever pictured myself doing. And yet, I imagine I’ll say the same to my kids.

Unlike what seems like the entire population of the UK, I didn’t know anything about Abigail’s Party when I began working on it with Jack Bradfield in May this year. I was, however, a big fan of Mike Leigh’s films because of his eccentric yet totally believable characters. I love his use of banal and repressed dialogue and there’s such an incredible combination of brutality and compassion in his work.

Described as 'a raw, euphoric choreography between 3 figures and 75 litres of fake blood' and 'a cyclical feat of endurance and precision', Ocean Hester Stefan Chillingworth's Blood Show is coming to the Battersea Arts Centre from 12-23 November. We asked the artist to fill us in on what they found fascinating about the red stuff.