EAT THE RICH (BUT MAYBE NOT ME MATES X), IRON FANTASY, and More Set For 2026 Soho Theatre Upstairs Season

Soho Theatre has announced a new season of work in Soho Theatre Upstairs, consisting of nine shows from a diverse group of award-winning voices from now through to Saturday 4 July.

Rose Abderabbani, Head of Theatre Programme at Soho Theatre, said: ‘Our intimate 92-seat studio has long been a vital part of our creative ecology for new theatre, comedy and cabaret—championing new work and offering a launchpad for emerging and established artists. Many of this season's theatre productions blur boundaries and cross genres to exhilarating effect. And, if you're a writer, now's the time: submissions are open for our Verity Bargate Award, the UK's longest-established new writing prize sponsored by Character 7, with its biggest prize yet. We're looking forward to discovering the best, most original new voices.'

Renowned as a launchpad for groundbreaking artists and ideas, Soho Theatre Upstairs has long nurtured work that goes on to shape the wider cultural conversation. Examples include Jack Rooke's GOOD GRIEF, which went on to inspire BAFTA-winning Big Boys and recently enjoyed a sold-out 10-year revival run in Soho Theatre Downstairs, and Haley MaGee's AGE IS A FEELING, which was developed in Soho Theatre Upstairs, earned critical acclaim at Edinburgh Fringe before transferring to Soho Theatre's Main House,  and will be heading to Soho Theatre Walthamstow's 962-seat auditorium (awarded Theatre Building of the Year at the recent Stage Awards) in March this year. To date, it has been translated and produced in six different countries, with upcoming international productions planned for India, Taiwan, Sweden and Poland.

This season features seven Edinburgh Fringe transfers, beginning with the already sold-out run of Jade Franks' EAT THE RICH (BUT MAYBE NOT ME MATES X), following critical acclaim last August, including a Scotsman Fringe First award, drawing on her time as a working-class student at Cambridge. Cult hit David Elms DESCRIBES A ROOM invites audiences to build a comedy mind palace together. Hannah Caplan's mind-bending debut THIS IS NOT ABOUT ME spirals heartbreak and hyperreality in a romcom-meets-psychological thriller, while Christopher Brett Bailey presents an adaptation of his novel, I SAW SATAN AT THE 7-ELEVEN, a screwball monologue of romance, body horror and soy milk. Shenoah Allen, recent writer and co-star of Nina Conti's 2024 film Sunlight, brings BLOODLUST SUMMERTIME, directed by Kim Noble, which offers a marvelously unique, acid-fuelled ride through sex, drugs and murder. Tia-Renee Mullings' A TO B celebrates Caribbean South London rhythms in a blind-date odyssey and Mayuri Bhandari's award-winning THE ANTI “YOGI” takes to the yoga mat to expose cultural appropriation with dance, drama and live percussion.