Queer Upstairs

Nine new pieces of work, read script-in-hand, will be presented across three evenings, with three different pieces shared each night.

Queer Upstairs includes new pieces of work from Enxi Chang, Jamal Gerald, Mika Onyx Johnson, Lauren John Joseph, Pete MacHale, Nemo Martin, mandla rae, Amelia Stubberfield and Yaz Zadeh.

The writers have been working together over a period of five months, through group and individual sessions with writers Travis Alabanza, Hester Chillingworth, Nazareth Hassan and Mark Ravenhill. Making a queer space and holding conversations about the ancestors, forms and images that define their writing has led these artists to create these new pieces of work.

See one night for £8 or join us for all three for £20.

“We are so happy to have been a part of bringing this group of incredible writers together at the Royal Court. The writers’ previous works have already made a huge contribution to the canon of queer performance work and so to have the chance to be close to whatever this group helps them to create is a privilege.” –  Char Boden, Artistic Director at The Queer House

“We are delighted to be working with The Queer House, a leading force for the discovery and development of LGBTIQ+ theatre makers. This partnership and the imaginations of our lead artists have enabled us to create a space for 9 writers to begin new pieces of work, emboldening each other and reimagining our space in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs.” Jane Fallowfield, Literary Manager, Royal Court Theatre

04 Nov

The Weight of the Light of the World by Lauren John Joseph. Directed by Emily Aboud.

An absurd and brutal look at power and its abuses. 

Cast

Jackie Clune

Lilit Lesser

Helena Lymbery

Type Specimen by Nemo Martin. Directed by Myah Jeffers.

When Newt and Farah are sent the details of their next heist they are presented with a challenge: how far can they exploit the cracks of a 19th century cis, white, English naturalist before things go wrong? 

Cast

Tigger Blaize

Suuz Endah

Kenya Sterling 

x and b by mandla rae. Directed by Zodwa Nyoni.

Cast

Mika Onyx Johnson

Mogali Masuku

Rudolphe Mdlongwa

mandla rae

05 Nov

CAP – a medicinal love story by Mika Onyx Johnson. Directed Emily Aboud.

The world is on fiyah and The Wounded is tryin to heal. Tryin to process. Tryin to move through. A therapist, a psilocybe cubensis and its band of fungi spores are here to guide their trip. A trip into memories and moments that will lead The Wounded back to 1996. When the Spice Girls released wannabe and they first laid eyes on that rainbow coloured phallus.

Cast

Stacy Abalogun

babirye bukilwa 

Jumoké Fashola

Swell by Amelia Stubberfield. Directed by Hester Chillingworth.

Have you ever felt a longing for a place that doesn’t exist? Swell is a soft hearted, comedic, romantic tale in a mystical seaside town where queer magic and rekindled connections hide in unexpected places. It asks where do our anchors lie, what keeps us afloat and what is home? 

Cast

Leah Kirby

Amelia Stubberfield

Amanda Wilkin

RAT by Yaz Zadeh. Directed by Charlie Josephine.

“I don’t want to be a rat anymore, it’s too fucking hard – I’m gonna be a man and I’m gonna need a bad motherfucker just like me.”  

Cast

Yaz Zadeh

06 Nov

Watermelon by Enxi Chang. Directed by Izzy Rabey.

Watermelon is a semi-autobiographical one woman show / extended traumadumping session by playwright and performer Enxi Erskine Chang. Join her as she unpacks the trials, tribulations and trauma of online discourse, cancel culture and the consumption, commodification and brutalisation of trans bodies in spaces online and IRL…. tl;dr a standard Tuesday night when you’re a trans girl on the internet.

Cast

Enxi Chang

Pastor Fi Dead by Jamal Gerald. Directed by Anthony Simpson Pike.

3 friends plot to sacrifice a pastor out of vengeance. But a conflict arises when it’s time to get the job done. 

Cast

Kwaku Mills

Octavia Nyombi

Michelle Tiwo

Shake my bones by Pete MacHale. Directed by Sammy Glover.

Rio embarks on night out with his best friend, all in his recently deceased twin sister’s honour, but it quickly spirals out of control when Rio becomes convinced he can find the other half of his whole in the crowd. 

Cast

Zachary Hing

Shiv Rabheru

Millicent Wong