Royal Court Theatre announces line-up for inaugural Open Submissions Festival

Today the Royal Court Theatre announces the line-up for the inaugural Open Submissions Festival, the theatre’s brand new regular professional platform to showcase stand-out new writing which has been submitted to the theatre through our year-round open submissions portal. 

The plays will be performed as staged readings in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs over a week in early April, each paired with a director and a professional team, to give these plays the best possible industry spotlight. 

The writers featuring in the Festival are Mary Higgins, Rhys Warrington, Noga Flaishon, Jack Nicholls and Benjamin Kuffuor. The plays are directed by Katie Mitchell and Ellis Buckley, Blanche McIntyre, Daniel Goldman, David Byrne and Aneesha Srinivasan and Nancy Medina. 

The Royal Court’s year-round open submission portal, along with the guarantee that every play submitted through it will be read by a team of readers, is integral to the theatre’s ongoing mission to seek out the best new writers and writing around the world. 

Gillian Greer, Associate Playwright and Senior Dramaturg at the Royal Court Theatre and co-curator of the festival, said, “We are delighted to offer this opportunity to five stand out writers who bravely shared their plays with us. These plays represent the most exciting work we have read among the thousands of plays submitted to us each year – we can’t wait to share them with you.”

The festival runs from Monday 7 – Saturday 12 April 2025 in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. Tickets cost £7.50 and go on-sale to the public at midday on Thursday 20 March 2025.

The full line-up:

very wet
By Mary Higgins
Directed by Katie Mitchell and Ellis Buckley
Monday 7 April 2025, 7.45pm

Monument
By Rhys Warrington
Directed by Blanche McIntyre
Wednesday 9 April 2025, 7.45pm

Memoriam
By Noga Flaishon
Directed by Daniel Goldman
Thursday 10 April 2025, 7.45pm

The Shitheads
By Jack Nicholls
Directed by David Byrne and Aneesha Srinivasan
Friday 11 April 2025, 7.45pm

Working Men
By Benjamin Kuffuor
Directed by Nancy Medina
Saturday 12 April 2025, 7.45pm

See here for the full press release.