PLAYWRIGHT’S PLAY NIGHT No.9
Once a month we are inviting audiences to a double bill of brand new work at different levels of readiness. Scripts will be in hand. Some plays might be 20 minutes of an idea, others will be full length. It’s not polished but it is all the fun. We are inviting audiences to take a look and support some of the incredible new voices out there. There’s nothing better than live feedback, and this is giving exactly that.
Lineup and Schedule
Tuesday 3rd February 2026 7.00pm
7pm Shaky Breaky Heart by Jonny Brace
Samuel likes to keep things simple and Jenny likes to keep things moving. But they somehow fall in love anyway.
Yet their fairytale stumbles at the first step when a diagnosis makes its way into their lives. They find themselves having to adjust, just as their story is starting to unfold. Together they go through dates and dancing and doctor's appointments - hoping that each one can bring them closer, even when it feels like it's tearing them apart.
Shaky Breaky Heart is a feel-good comedy about invisible disability, imposter syndrome, and love.
Director: Conor Dye
Cast: Jonny Brace, Molly Cutter
7.45pm Mates by four mates
A play by four mates about four mates making a play about four mates.
Mates is a fast-paced, meta-theatrical exploration of friendship, ambition, and creative chaos. It follows four old friends who reunite to make a play together after years apart. The venue is booked. They’ve got the props. They even have huge financial backing. All they need now is... well, the play. What begins as an exciting creative reunion quickly spirals into plays-within-plays-within-plays, exposing old tensions, bruised egos, and uncomfortable truths.
Funny, choatic, and painfully familiar to anyone who has ever tried to collaborate with friends, Mates explores the desperate urge to create something meaningful before it’s too late and the uneasy realisation that you might just be a bit ordinary.
Director Will Merrick
Cast: Joseph Ollman, Jack Staddon, Kieran Urquhart, Ciaran Duce
ABOUT THE WRITERS
Jonny Brace
Jonny is a Writer/Actor/Director/Stand-Up Comedian. He graduated from MA Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media at RCSSD in 2021. He is an alumni of the Guiness World Record Winning comedy show ‘NewsRevue’ having directed the most recent Edinburgh Fringe run in 2025.
His writing credits include: NewsRevue (Canal Café Theatre & EdFringe), That’s Ace (King’s Head Theatre & VAULT Festival), PlantGays (Tour - co-written) and My Beautiful Distraction (Barons Court Theatre). His recent acting credits include: Jack and the Beanstalk Pantomime (Stantonbury Theatre), Vandals (Barons Court Theatre), NewsRevue (Canal Cafe Theatre), PlantGays (Tour), Beauty and the Beast Pantomime (Bedford Corn Exchange) and Alice in Wonderland (Outdoor Tour). He is also a Stand-Up Comedian and was a Semi-Finalist in the Musical Comedy Awards 2025 and the West End New Act of the Year 2025.
The Mates
Joseph Ollman
Joseph Ollman is an actor, writer and director from Wales. His TV/Film credits include The Guest (BBC), Queenie (Channel 4), Spent (BBC), Domina (Sky), Industry (HBO) and The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Sky). His award‑winning short films such as Throw Me to the Dogs, Bitter Sky and Meat on Bones have gained festival acclaim and distribution on MUBI, BBC, BFI player and earned him a BAFTA Cymru nomination.
Jack Staddon
Jack Staddon trained at Drama Centre London. Screen work includes The Chelsea Detective (Acorn TV/BBC); Towards Zero (BBC); A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story (ITV); House of the Dragon (HBO); The Boys in the Boat, (Dir. George Clooney - MGM/Smokehouse); Harlots (Monumental) and Masters of the Air & Slow Horses (Apple TV). Theatre credits include Black Chiffon (The Park Theatre) and The Enchanted (Pharmacy Theatre).
Kieran Urquhart
Kieran Urquhart is an actor and writer represented by The Artists Partnership. His theatre credits include work at the Liverpool Everyman, Royal Exchange Manchester, and The Curve. Television credits include The North Water (BBC One), The Syndicate (BBC One), The Responder (BBC One), Screw (Channel 4), and Somewhere Boy (Channel 4).
Ciaran Duce
Ciaran is an actor and writer from Birmingham. Stage work includes Polar Bears, (White Bear Theatre), Goodbye Kiss ( Drayton Arms) Animals, (co-writer) (Vault Festival) Foundry Project (The Birmingham Rep), Oedipus (Almeida Theatre). Television work includes Doctors, Just Act Normal, Silent Witness (BBC). Short films I Woke Up Like this, Dice, Tribal Mark.
