WHAT'S ON at THE HOPE THEATRE
Concise and Easy to use
NEW SEASON OF WORK
SPONTANEOUS MEETS ARE NOT FOR THE WEAK
17th - 19th Sept
£16/£18
7pm
He's nervous, inexperienced, and stranded after a graduation booking mistake. She's confident, guarded, and no stranger to taking risks. When the two match online, they agree to meet for one simple reason: distraction.
Neither expects the night to last very long.What begins as an impulsive decision quickly shifts into something neither of them planned for. As the night unfolds, awkward first impressions give way to unexpected honesty, humour, and vulnerability. Two strangers who initially set out to use each other as a distraction slowly begin to lower their defences.
In the confined space of a hotel room, conversations deepen and assumptions are challenged. Both are forced to confront loneliness, expectation, and the versions of themselves they've worked hard to maintain — or want to break free from.
Funny, heartfelt, and refreshingly honest, Spontaneous Meets Are Not For The Weak is a contemporary comedy-drama about modern dating, emotional openness, and the courage it takes to sit with uncertainty. It explores what happens when two people stop performing and start being seen, and how even the briefest encounter can leave a lasting mark.
G R I E F C A S E
22nd Sept - 3rd Oct
£16/£18
7pm
G R I E F C A S E is The Hope Theatres first ever co-production in 15 years.
It offers a space for people to connect and share a common feeling that is often shied away from.
At its core, G R I E F C A S E is a show all about the nature of Grief.
It follows a central character G who returns to his late mothers flat to clean it after the council has already rented back out to a new family. The house becomes a liminal space: no longer theirs, yet still full of traces of who they were and who their mother once hoped they’d become. It explores how memories mutate, how belongings hold emotional weight, and how grief complicates the act of letting go.
G R I E F C A S E creates a space for these experiences to be seen and shared, helping to build empathy and connection between communities. The project embodies Tailwind Physical Theatre’s mission to make brave, risk-taking work that amplifies underrepresented voices.
TOP PICK
FATHOM
5th - 7th October
£16/£18
7pm
“Once a body is in a bog, I suppose it becomes a bog body, doesn’t it?”
Finn isn’t entirely sure how he ended up here. Last night, he was driving through the middle of nowhere to meet a stranger who had something very important to tell him, when his car suddenly… well, something weird happened. He was probably overtired.
When he wakes up in a house deep in isolated marshland, inhabited by a young woman called Martha, her peculiar father Peter, and their even more peculiar housekeeper Abigail, something isn’t right. Martha is always talking to someone out on the marsh; Peter seems to know more about Finn than he should; Abigail keeps telling him to be careful. It’s clear that the car crash was no accident – but who brought him here, and why?
Fathom is a feminist, folk-horror retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest set against the landscape of the Fens. This is a murky, mischievous, and darkly funny new play that plumbs the depths of rural England – and those who call it their home.
Fathom first appeared as a work-in-progress preview at the Cambridge Junction in April 2026, where audiences described it as “moody and funny”, and “rooted in folklore but entirely original”. Suffolk-based creative Gina Stock returns to direct a full production of this East Anglian thriller. Fathom is written by Imogen Usherwood, the 2025-26 Peter Shaffer Playwright-in-Residence at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Praise for Usherwood’s previous work:
★★★★½ ‘humour, punk, and pathos […] as ridiculous as it is moving.’ – Per Capita
‘Emotionally intelligent, engaging, and witty […] Usherwood’s writing shines with an undeniable sincerity, making her one to watch out for.’ – EdFringe Review
★★★★ ‘Magical to watch […] complex and clever with emotions. Ghosts rarely feel as real as this.’ – Edinburgh Reviews
F--K ME, I'M GRIEVING
8th - 10th October
£16/£18
7pm
F--K ME, I’M GRIEVING is a dark comedy that explores the connection between grief and desire, and what happens when we try to ignore those feelings.
In the beige forgotten basement of a free counseling center, a particularly horny bereavement group and their cold-hearted counselor hold weekly sessions. When a newcomer admits to having an increased sex drive- the others slowly confess similar feelings. Drawing together Hope, a nonbinary teen whose grief is paused by their desire to try butt-plugs. Nida, a grandmother in her sixties who obsesses over Billy Crystal movies to feel something, and Ric, a happy-go-lucky guy in his late twenties who can't stop fantasizing about May, their counselor. May is in disbelief, as she tries to stay professional without revealing her grief fetish, or the fact that there’s a sudden gap in her memory that Nida seems to know more about than she lets on.
Through a non-linear narrative that mirrors the roller-coaster of grief, F--K ME, I’M GRIEVING pushes-back against this idea that there is a right way to grieve, destigmatizing the shame surrounded by sex and death. It’s funny, heart-breaking, absurd, disturbing and horny; just as sex is, as grief can be.
SMALL FRY
18th - 19th October
£16/£18
7pm
What do you do when everyone else seems to know who they are, and you’re still trying to figure it out?
Small Fry follows an aspiring actor who’s convinced his big break is just around the corner. The only problem is every audition ends in disaster, every opportunity goes to someone else, and his confidence is hanging on by a thread. Between impossible casting calls, awkward encounters, flatmate drama and a growing obsession with proving himself, things start to unravel.
It’s funny, chaotic and painfully relatable, but underneath all the laughs is a story about male mental health, self-worth and the pressure to constantly perform. Not just on stage, but in everyday life.
At a time when so many young men are struggling to talk honestly about loneliness, rejection and feeling like they’re falling behind, Small Fry asks what happens when nobody teaches you how to fail, or how to believe you’re enough.
Expect cringe-worthy auditions, Greek mythology, nepo babies, emotional meltdowns and a lot of heart.If you’ve ever felt overlooked, compared yourself to everyone else, or wondered why life seems to come so easily to other people, Small Fry might hit a little closer to home than you’d expect.
SPEAK OF THE DEVIL
13th - 24th October
£16/£18
7pm
‘That’s the thing, working here. You’re always in the middle, never quite settled. You’re always between places.’
The 9am train to Penzance is facing an unexpected delay.And for the passengers in carriage E, this is not the day for a holdup.
There’s a journalist chasing down a story. An actor preparing for a callback. A mechanic and a dentist with traffic-jammed schedules. And a young girl who’s just got to get home.
While they wait for an update, the group attempt to fill the hours with personal stories and crossword puzzles. But with every passing moment, their conversations seem to be stirring up increasingly disturbing memories for the on-board ticket inspector.
With something squirming in a carry-on, and an ocean view where the countryside should be, the idea that something isn’t quite right is becoming harder to ignore. The tide is coming in, and tension is rising. But you know the British – they’ll do anything to avoid a fuss.
The second play from writer/director Elise Simond and the team from THE MATCHBOX COMPANY, 'SPEAK OF THE DEVIL' is a one-act play that captures the strange paradox between wanting to mind your own business, and looking for a human connection.
