Full Cast Set For World Premiere of TOP Gs LIKE ME

Full casting has been announced for the World Premiere of Top Gs Like Me, a brand new play by Samson Hawkins (Village Idiot), directed by Jesse Jones (Breaking the Code: Education, Education, Education). The biting comic satire interrogating the influence of online culture and the pull of toxic masculinity will take place at Royal & Derngate, Northampton where the auditorium will be transformed into a skatepark with audiences seated in the round. Top Gs Like Me runs from 23 February to 7 March 2026, with a Press Night on 26 February.

The groundbreaking new play threads satirical humour through the story of a group of rudderless young adults, diving headfirst into the influence of online culture, the pull of toxic masculinity, and the search for identity in the digital age. It centres on the sometimes dangerous, coercive, relationships that young people can have with digital algorithms and with influential figures who curry ideological favour with people on the cusp of adulthood, getting to them via the quick endorphins and short-cut culture of poisonous social media. 

The full cast includes Fanta Barrie (The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs), Emily Coates (Ladhood), Danny Hatchard (EastEnders), Daniel Rainford (The Mousetrap), Finn Samuels (Twisted! The Musical) and David Schaal (The Inbetweeners).

The cast will be joined by a community chorus, the ‘internet ensemble', representing the online world on stage and made up of 25 third year acting students from the University of Northampton.

Jesse Jones, Artistic Director, Royal & Derngate, Northampton said: “It brings me so much pride to be platforming urgent new writing on our largest stage, transforming our Derngate auditorium into Northampton's Radlands Plaza skatepark, reconfiguring it for a capacity of 800. Big, bold and brave, Samson's bitingly funny play doesn't pull any punches. It is provocative and painfully funny, bringing the addictive and dark world of social media shorts and reels onto the stage. I am so excited to work with this incredible creative team and cast to smash this inherently theatrical world out of our screens and into three dimensions, encouraging our audience to ask how the algorithm is affecting us all.”

Rebecca Brower (Peaky Blinders - The Rise) is the Set & Costume Designer, lighting design is by Rory Beaton (For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy), sound design is by Benjamin Grant (Death of England) and movement direction is by Monica Nicolaides (Rigoletto). The casting director is Kristian Wall and dramaturgy is by Lauren Mooney (More Life).

Aidan's lost. His best mate's starting uni, his mum can't get out of bed, and his new side hustle has questionable legality. Meanwhile, he's stacking shelves at the supermarket wondering if this is all he's cut out for. He's got hobbies – hanging out at the skate park and doomscrolling his days away.

As he's lapping up the algorithm, “Hugo Bang” appears with the promise to help Aidan become the alpha he was born to be. Will Hugo Bang help Aidan get his life back on track, or will he lead Aidan to a darker, more dangerous place?

Top Gs Like Me was developed with the support of The National Theatre's Generate programme and was originally seed funded and developed through Royal & Derngate's Generate artist development programme, in partnership with Andy Routledge.