Desire Under the L Train at Omnibus Theatre

“I am the altar and the ashtray of these men’s desires.”

Award-winning playwright Chris Thompson and RSC Associate Artist Owen Horsley unite for the UK premiere of Desire Under the L Train — 3 nights only at the Omnibus Theatre.

Following a sold-out, extended Off-Broadway residency at New York’s Kraine Theatre, award-winning playwright and screenwriter Chris Thompson (Carthage, Albion, Of Kith and Kin) brings his outrageously funny and haunting solo show Desire Under the L Train to Omnibus Theatre for a strictly limited three-night engagement as part of the venue’s landmark 96 Festival.

The production is directed by Owen Horsley (Troilus and Cressida, Twelfth Night, Diana: The Musical), Associate Artist at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Associate Director of Cheek by Jowl.

With his ten-year relationship at an end and his career in freefall, British playwright Chris Thompson flees to New York City and throws himself into a no-limits odyssey of sex and connection.

That was the plan.

As desire spirals into something darker and more compulsive, he is forced to confront not just what he wants, but why he keeps wanting it.

It’s a journey of sex and survival that propels him into the shadowy corners of New York, past and present.

As he searches for connection in cruising grounds, art galleries and dive bars, he is haunted by the artists who came before him, and the ghost of every gay man in whose footsteps he walks.

Desire Under the L Train is a filthy, hilarious and devastatingly brutal reckoning with self-deception, collective memory and the limitations of our own desires.

Laying himself bare with striking vulnerability, Chris Thompson’s writing and performance push the theatrical self-portrait to its limit, leaving audiences entertained, deeply affected and – in their own words — “seen, adored and celebrated.”

The play is adapted from Thompson’s hit podcast Two Foreskins Walk Into a Bar, which reached the iTunes Top 20 in 15 countries and won the “Highly Commended” prize at the British Independent Podcast Awards 2025.

Previous praise for Chris Thompson:

“Chris Thompson can write moments so raw and tender they make the audience gasp.”

The Sunday Times on Of Kith and Kin.

“Highly entertaining…gripping…knows how to surprise.”

The Guardian on Of Kith and Kin.

Previous praise for Owen Horsley:

“A thrilling major event.”

The Guardian on Henry VI: Rebellion & Wars of the Roses (Royal Shakespeare Company).

“Witty and seductive…stylish and surprisingly sexy.’’

Evening Standard on Twelfth Night at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre.

Thompson’s theatre credits include Of Kith and Kin (Bush Theatre and Sheffield Theatres), Albion (Bush Theatre), and Carthage (Finborough Theatre, Doosan Theatre, Seoul), winner of the Channel 4 Playwriting Award and the Pearson Playwriting Award. His screen projects include upcoming feature films Polly, starring Alan Cumming, and The Life After co-written with Derek Simonds (executive producer of Call Me By Your Name, and creator of Netflix’s The Sinner).

Horsley’s directing credits include Troilus and Cressida (Shakespeare’s Globe); Cinderella (Rose Theatre); Twelfth Night (Regent's Park); Diana: The Musical (Hammersmith Apollo); Into the Woods (Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama); La Cenerentola (Nevil Holt Opera); Linck and Mülhahn (Hampstead Theatre); Wars of the Roses (Royal Shakespeare Company); Boundless as the Sea, Miss Littlewood (RSC, Cunard); Dorian (Reading Rep Theatre); Maydays by David Edgar (RSC); Hamlet (Classic Stage Company, New York); Don Giovanni (La MaMa, New York); Salome by Oscar Wilde (RSC); The Famous Victories of Henry V (RSC); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Garsington Opera), Henry V (Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre); The Picture of Dorian Gray (Watermill Theatre).

Performance Details:

Dates: 19 – 21 June 2026

Time: 7.30pm

Tickets £14 - £16

Venue: Omnibus Theatre, 1 Clapham Common North Side, London SW4 0QW

Part of the 96 Festival — Omnibus Theatre’s annual celebration of queer theatre, comedy, cabaret, music, art and activism.

Tickets and information: https://www.omnibus-clapham.org/whatson/desire-under-the-l-train