CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT Will Embark on Spring UK Tour
The show will dance its way through Doncaster, Salford, Hull and Birmingham, before making its London debut at Southwark Playhouse Borough in March.
By: Stephi Wild Dec. 11, 2025
This Spring, audiences are invited on a trip that will transport them back to the euphoria and chaos of Northern England in the 1990s. Mad Friday Productions’ drama Children of the Night will dance its way through Doncaster, Salford, Hull and Birmingham, before making its London debut at Southwark Playhouse Borough in March. Shortlisted for both the 2023 Women’s Prize for Playwriting and the 2024 New Diorama Untapped Award, this will be writer Danielle Phillips’ debut play.
Living amidst the electric finale of 90s nightlife, post-Thatcher Britain and during the UK’s first heterosexual HIV cluster, Lindsay Jenkins is a young Donny lass with an undeniable thirst for hedonism. Inspired by her single dad (an ex-miner and old school raver), Lindsey pulsates her way through ‘Yorkshire’s very own Vegas’, navigating sexual health, grief and the perceived ‘lack of ambition’ in working-class towns - all of which she encounters across three long summers on Doncaster’s relentless dancefloor.
Children of the Night is a love letter to the working-class cultural pulse of the North, mixing kitchen-sink drama with spoken word dance floor euphoria. Developed using the testimonies of over 30 local Doncaster people, the piece is a tapestry of personal truth that proudly centres the resilience and spirit of ordinary people, the power of female friendships and the importance of the nightlife economy within local communities.
The piece is written and performed Danielle Phillips (The Merry Wives of Windsor & The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare's Globe; The Upstart Crow, West End; Trying It On, RSC & Royal Court), one half of Mad Friday Productions, alongside co-founder and producer Lauren Yvonne Townsend (Standing at the Sky’s Edge, West End). With Kimberley Sykes (Dido Queen of Carthage, RSC UK Tour; Romeo and Juliet, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), as Director and Dramaturg and Hannah Sibai (Sing, Dance, Leap, Royal Opera Theatre; No Such Thing as Wolves, Birmingham Hippodrome) leading on set and costume design, the predominantly female team will showcase the most exciting creatives coming out of Northern England. Lighting design is from Jessie Addinall (Oliver Twist!, Hull Truck Theatre) alongside sound design and composition from Ben McQuigg (Next Generation Hamlet, RSC). Movement direction will be led by Jennifer Kay, with additional dramaturgy from Stephanie Dale and casting provided by Ellie Collyer-Bristow.
Tour Dates
4th – 14th February 2026
Cast, Waterdale, Doncaster, DN1 3DG
https://www.castindoncaster.com/events/children-of-the-night/
20th – 21st February 2026
The Lowry, Pier 8, The Quays, Salford, M50 3AZ
https://thelowry.com/whats-on/children-of-the-night-h87z
25th – 26th February 2026
Hull Truck, 50 Ferensway, Hull, HU2 8LB
https://www.hulltruck.co.uk/whats-on/drama/children-of-the-night/
2nd – 3rd March 2026
Birmingham Rep, Centenary Square, Birmingham, West Midlands, B1 2EP
https://www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/whats-on/children-of-the-night/
11th March – 4th April 2026
Southwark Playhouse Borough, 77-85 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BD
https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/children-of-the-night/
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