Miriam Battye’s Play TRIP THE LIGHT FANTASTIC Makes London Debut This Week
The production runs through March 1, 2026.
By: Gillian Blum Feb. 22, 2026
Following the success of Miriam Battye's critically acclaimed play The Virgins at Soho Theatre, her formative early work Trip the Light Fantastic will receive its first London staging, opening February 26 for four performances only at The OSO Arts Centre.
The production runs through March 1, 2026, with shows at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday-Saturday, and 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. The show runs 60 minutes, with no intermission.
Two men, strangers. Thrown together every Tuesday. To try to waltz. Jack has lived Freddie's lifetime three times over. Freddie has been tasked with bringing Jack up to speed. He stays for the company and to calm his scattered brain. And Jack? He wants to court his wife all over again. Armed with biscuits, they discover an unexpected intimacy they didn't know they needed. A delicately funny story of love, loneliness and intergenerational reconnection. And of course, dance.
10 years after its premiere at the Bristol Old Vic, the London debut of Miriam Battye's Trip the Light Fantastic explores what the waltz can do in a divisive and lonely time.
"This is a delicate, beautifully written story of facing fear (fuelled with biscuits!)," said director Ella Strauss. "Jack and Freddie are complex and polar opposite characters, and through learning to waltz, they learn to trust themselves and each other. They're two stuck individuals from different worlds, who work together towards a mutual goal and find some kind of love.
Miriam Battye is an extremely talented playwright, whose writing undercuts social norms to explore what unexpected connection can do. Trip the Light Fantastic was written 10 years ago, and since then it's been a radio play for BBC Radio 4, but hasn't been staged since its debut in Bristol. In a divisive and lonely time it is, if anything, more poignant today. It is a pleasure to be putting this funny, challenging and heartwarming play on in London for the first time."
The cast includes Harvey William Brown as Freddie and John Peters as John.
The creative team includes Battye (writer), Strauss (director), Alfie Packham (designer), Amanda Harker (choreographer), Angelo Sangelli (lighting designer), Jon Fiber for Shock Audio Visual (sound designer), Sadie Connolly (casting director), and Harriett Billington and Other Ostrich Productions (producers).
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