Rising stars of comedy writing take centre stage at Birmingham Rep hosted by Darren Harriott

The Rep’s ground-breaking collaboration with Sky Studios comes to fruition this March as audiences are invited to be amongst the first to enjoy the work of the comedy writing stars of the future. Sky Comedy Rep will host its first-ever festival of new comedic short plays at Birmingham Rep from 3-5 March 2022.

Performances on 3 & 5 March will be hosted by the award-winning comedian, Birmingham’s own, Darren Harriott (Live at the Apollo, Mock the Week, Black Label).

Eleven new comedy writers will present nine new plays in two sets of performances, each played twice over the course of three days, under the mentorship of some of the UK’s biggest names in comedy writing including Guz Khan, Meera Syal and Danny Brocklehurst.

Led by Sky Comedy Rep Patron, Julie Walters, the performances are the culmination of The Rep’s new comedy writing talent development scheme with Sky Studios. Headed by The Rep’s Artistic director, Sean Foley, and Creative Director of Comedy at Sky Studios, Anil Gupta, this new yearly bursary and mentorship scheme gives early-career comedy writers the opportunity to have their ideas and scripts developed in collaboration with the finest talents in the industry.

Double Olivier-Award winner, Sean Foley said; “It has been incredibly rewarding to see these gifted early career writers benefit from the Sky Comedy Rep programme. From working with their mentors, to having their scripts go through the rehearsal process and into production, this ambitious scheme is a unique way to test and improve their work. And now for the final test - the audience… are the plays actually funny? I think they are, and am so looking forward to seeing them in performance.

“Sky Comedy Rep is delivering on its promise to offer significant national talent development in comedy right here in Birmingham; helping new writers who may not have access to conventional networks emerge and progress is a thrill, and something that will ultimately benefit the TV, theatre, film and wider creative industries.”

Performances of Sky Comedy Rep on 3 March at 7.45pm and 5 March at 3.45pm will comprise of Hatch by Rob Carter; Twitch by Ed Amsden and Tom Coles; Confucius Says Don’t Use F***ing Tinder On The Full Moon by Jingan Young and Desperate by Kat Rose-Martin.

Performances on 4 March and 5 March at 7.45pm will comprise of Pink Spaceship by Drew Vida Marke; Boys Who F*** and Cry by Ryan Walker-Edwards; Sprint by Jodie Irvine; Mismatch by Ashfaq Gorsi and Spoffin by Mari and Lowri Izzard.

The cast includes Charlotte Brown, Sam Butters, Linda Hargreaves, Duncan Hess, Mari Izzard, Lowri Izzard, Reece J. Morant, Kerena Jagpal, Adonis Jenieco, Karen Johal, Danielle Kassaraté, Su-Lin Looi, Danielle Phillips, Colin Ryan, Kate Spencer, Nylah Taylor-Johnson and Maanuv Thiara.

The series of plays will be directed by The Rep’s Artistic Director, Sean Foley, Associate Director, Iqbal Kahn and Associate Director, Madeleine Kludje.

The creative team for Sky Comedy Rep includes Set and Costume Designer Ebrahim Nazier, Lighting Designer Richard G Jones, and Sound Designer Clive Meldrum.

For more information and to book tickets, please click here.