CRANES and HOW TO KEEP WARM IN WINTER to Join Ryan Calais Cameron Season

Following the sold-out success in July of Justice Ezi's Last Goal Wins, the launch production from Olivier Award-nominated writer and Sky Arts Award winner Ryan Calais Cameron and Catford's Broadway Theatre's pipeline initiative, The Ryan Calais Cameron Season will continue through autumn. This month writer and performer Demi Wilson-Smith's Cranes opens from 23 September until 4 October followed by Kaleb D'Aguilar's How To Keep Warm in Winter from 14 October until 25 October.

Cranes is directed by award-winner Merle Wheldon (Two Little Pigs, Pleasance, Edinburgh Fringe 2026; FLUSH, Arcola Theatre, 2026) with movement directed by Theophilus O. Bailey (For Black Boys..., West End; Chewing Gum Dreams, Theatre 503).

The season concludes with How To Keep Warm in Winter, written and directed by Kaleb D'Aguilar. Further cast and creatives to be announced.

CRANES 

written and performed by Demi Wilson-Smith (23 September – 4 October 2026)

Cranes is a moving depiction of the personal cost of activism, delving into identity, adulthood, the suppression of dissent, and the brutality of the criminal justice system. Inspired by Demi Wilson-Smith's life-altering encounter attending her first protest and being in the wrong place at the wrong time, this debut play celebrates the heroes who do not get commemorated by statues - at least not at first. Following its initial showcase last year at SEEN Festival, the production returns with further development work as a fully-realised show.

It's 2010. Summer has just turned eighteen. She's lucky enough to have the rest of her life to look forward to. She has always dreamed of being a photographer - but it's hard to dream about the future when the world around you is on fire. What is there to look forward to exactly? The solution? Change the world. Duh. By going to a protest increasing student fees, obviously. 

Summer throws herself into her first ever protest, and has the best day of her life, literally. She knows this one will go down in history. This has got to change things - she can feel it. And she's right. It changes everything. Just not in the way she expects.

HOW TO KEEP WARM IN WINTER 

written and directed by Kaleb D'Aguilar (14 October – 25 October 2026)

A Caribbean love story set against the adversity of 1970s London. Following Jamaican newlyweds navigating racism and economic hardship, exploring themes of migration, race, economic crisis and family. Kaleb's writing debut receives its first-ever staging after being long-listed for the prestigious Alfred Fagon Award. This drama is about an independent go-getter, a depressed drifter and a struggling musician, who all try to make something of themselves in London, while trying to hold onto a passion for life, for home and each other. Kaleb says: “Times are changing, and we're coming out of the Windrush Generation and entering the Rebel era of Caribbean young people unwilling to “just get on with it”.

1973. London is on the verge of a terribly cold winter with Prime Minister Edward Heath's announcement of a Three-Day week. Just arrived from Jamaica, Irene joins her childhood sweetheart Everton in London, sharing a tiny room in a house in Peckham, as the two try to adjust to their new life together and navigate a racist new country, unwelcoming to the growing Caribbean population.

Socio-political changes in the UK and the fuel crisis exposes the differences between them, and a blossoming new friendship with their landlord David threatens the likelihood of our young couple's marriage to last through winter.

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