SE Fest 2026 – New Writing in South East London
Although this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival is drawing to a close, it is not time to lower the curtain on this year’s festival season just yet. Established in 2024, SE Fest is back for its third year, running from 1st – 12th September 2026. The festival aims to promote and celebrate new theatre writing, and is hosted by two award-winning South East London theatres, The Bridge House Theatre in Penge and The Jack Studio Theatre in Brockley.
Both venues have a strong reputation for supporting new work, offering a year-round programme that includes plenty of new writing from a diverse range of voices.
For SE Fest, there will be 24 performances of eight new plays over its two week run. All of the productions will perform at both venues, offering both the companies and audiences a unique theatrical experience. This year’s festival includes new works from a range of distinct voices. Whether tackling society’s challenges or saying things that often remain unsaid, this year’s programme truly celebrates what SE Fest was created to do.
You can book tickets for any of the shows at this year’s SE Fest via the theatres’ websites:
https://brockleyjack.co.uk/se-fest-26-line-up /
https://thebridgehousetheatre.co.uk/se-fest/
SE Fest 2026 - What’s On
Week One
Violent Circumstances
by Susannah Cann
Co-creator: Ariane Lenihan
Dates: Tuesday 1st – Thursday 3rd September at 7.30pm. Running time: 70 minutes. 16+
5 women, 5 stories, 5 lives changed under violent circumstances.
First developed in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa in 2021, Violent Circumstances aims to shed light on women’s day to day encounters with misogyny and violence.
On the recent 5th year anniversary of Sarah’s murder, the BBC published an article titled 5 Years on: What’s changed? The short answer, nothing. With the growing rise of toxic masculinity, incel culture and disregard for women’s issues, it’s getting harder to be heard, so come hear us roar.
Cookie Dough by Andy Sellers
Dates: Tuesday 1st – Thursday 3rd September at 7.30pm.
Running time: 60 minutes. 15+
On a stormy night in Bournemouth, Polly meets up with her work best friend Bernie. Armed with a bag of vegan brownies, she will try and convince her not to move back home.
Played out over one time bending evening, Cookie Dough is a tender comedy about the line between romance and platonic love, baking and what happens when the literal universe seems to be tearing itself apart pushing you down a path you don’t want to take.
The Dating Game by Alan Booty
Dates: Friday 4th – Saturday 5th September at 7.30pm & Saturday matinee at 3.00pm.
Running time: 65 minutes. 13+
Roger is 70. Ruby is 60. Both are single. Both have their own reasons for trying out a dating app for seniors.
Ruby is expected to care for her aged and difficult mother and seeks escape. Roger cares for his dying father, who wants his son to find someone special before he dies. He is witty, which she likes. She is feisty, which he likes. What could go wrong?
As more doors in their lives open, questions arise: Should she? Did he? What if … ?
Speech, Speech by Tristan Simpson
Dates: Friday 4th – Saturday 5th September at 7.30pm & Saturday matinee at 3.00pm
Running time: 90 minutes. 14+
Roger’s mum’s getting remarried, and to make matters worse, he’s being forced to give a speech with his uncle David. But Roger soon realises that, armed with a cutting opener and a microphone, he can have a lot of fun, and do a lot of damage…
David, unaware of Roger’s plotting and still reeling after the divorce from his husband, is bringing plenty of his own baggage to the writing process. He’s got the potential to derail everything, even without Roger’s help.
As the big day approaches, all eyes are on the duo. Surely it’ll be fine – when has a wedding speech ever gone too far?
Tristan Simpson’s debut play, Speech, Speech, is a comedy for all the families who, for whatever reason, just can’t quite find the right words.
Week Two
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The Obituary by Xinyu Lu
Dates: Tuesday 7th – Thursday 9th September at 7.30pm.
Running time: 60 minutes. 12+.
Three siblings return to their old family house before it is demolished, with one hour to complete a property report. What begins as paperwork becomes a fight over memory, migration, and who gets to decide what a family is worth.
As they sort through decades of belongings, resentments, and conflicting memories, it becomes clear that they have not only inherited the same house, but entirely different ideas of home.
Using one East Asian family story to reflect wider experiences of migration and cross-cultural identity, The Obituary is a sharp and tender new play about inheritance, belonging, and what remains when the people you love no longer share the same understanding of where they come from. At its heart, The Obituary asks a simple but difficult question: if home can no longer hold a family together, what can?
DISS-LEX-IANS by Penny Topsom and Genie Sutherland
Dates: Tuesday 7th – Thursday 9th September at 7.30pm.
Running time: 85 mins. 13+
Ever made the mistake of over promising something? Like saying that you’ve written an entire musical about the history of Hip Hop, when you haven’t! Well G has…
Meet G, a fast-talking daughter of Lewisham. With the help of her friend P, can she overcome the chaos of home life… spellings, the inner demon Negs… spellings, her mother… spellings. G has Missy Elliott, her spelling answer to everything, or is she?
Sisterland by Georga de la Cour
Dates: Friday 11th – Saturday 12th September at 7.30pm & Saturday matinee at 3.00pm
Running time: 60 mins. 16+
Petra is selling her knickers, Lara is mid crisis and Michelle has gone so far off the rails it’s rural. During a girl’s night out, Lydia escapes to the toilet fearing the worst, whilst all Cassie wants is some toilet roll.
In the magical land of the club toilets, worlds collide. A revolving bathroom door invites us into the sanctuary of the loos, and the hours in which five women find themselves retreating there. As late-night turns to early morning, we bear witness to problems faced, appearances undone, and how female friendship can be built in moments of vulnerability.
Sisterland is a still life capture of women finding their place and becoming themselves in a room without expectations. Here, we embrace the blood, tears, sick, stains, expletives, howls, anthems, urges, confessions, ecstasies, miseries and complete wonderment of Womanhood, Girlhood, Sisterhood. Ready? Get ya glad rags on. Time to get liberated.
White Light by Tom Powell
Dates: Friday 11th – Saturday 12th September at 7.30pm & Saturday matinee at 3.00pm
Running time: 70 mins. 16+
Jay is a fourteen-year-old Londoner, and his shit moustache is the only thing in his whole life he’s proud of. When a brand-new Lamborghini accelerates past his dad’s dingy flat, Jay asks himself, “why can’t I have that?”
Jay’s search for the truth will take him through a world of struggling teachers and wild conspiracy theories, accompanied by his best mate Param.
What Jay discovers is explosive.
Broken Hearted Youth (DNA, My Mind Matters, Jack Studio) present a new monologue by Papatango and Off West End Award winning writer Tom Powell.