NOTE: Wheelchair access is available at this venue, please enquire when booking tickets.

SE Fest 2026 1 - 12 September 2026

Eight new productions performed over the festival fortnight, bringing some of the most exciting new theatre south of the river!

SE Fest is a writing festival based in southeast London to promote and celebrate new writing. It is hosted by two neighbouring venues, The Bridge House Theatre in Penge and The Jack Studio Theatre in Crofton Park, two award-winning theatres with a reputation for supporting and presenting new work.

Performances at Jack Studio Theatre:



Violent Circumstances by Susannah Cann
Co-creator: Ariane Lenihan

Confronting, Irreverent, Funny.
5 women, 5 stories, 5 lives changed under violent circumstances.

First developed in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa in 2021, Violent Circumstances aims to shed light on women’s day to day encounters with misogyny and violence. On the recent 5th year anniversary of Sarah’s murder, the BBC published an article titled 5 Years on: What’s changed? The short answer, nothing. With the growing rise of toxic masculinity, incel culture and disregard for women’s issues, it’s getting harder to be heard, so come hear us roar.

Tuesday 1 – Thursday 3 September @ 7.30pm, 16+.

Cookie Dough by Andy Sellers

Heartwarming, Funny, Romantic

On a stormy night in Bournemouth, Polly meets up with her work best friend Bernie. Armed with a bag of vegan brownies, she will try and convince her not to move back home.

Played out over one time bending evening, Cookie Dough is a tender comedy about the line between romance and platonic love, baking and what happens when the literal universe seems to be tearing itself apart pushing you down a path you don’t want to take.

Tuesday 1 – Thursday 3 September @ 7.30pm, 15+.

Speech, Speech by Tristan Simpson

Witty, Poignant, Playful

Roger’s mum’s getting remarried, and to make matters worse, he’s being forced to give a speech with his uncle David.

But Roger soon realises that, armed with a cutting opener and a microphone, he can have a lot of fun, and do a lot of damage…

David, unaware of Roger’s plotting and still reeling after the divorce from his husband, is bringing plenty of his own baggage to the writing process. He’s got the potential to derail everything, even without Roger’s help.

As the big day approaches, all eyes are on the duo. Surely it’ll be fine – when has a wedding speech ever gone too far? Tristan Simpson’s debut play, Speech, Speech is a comedy for all the families who, for whatever reason, just can’t quite find the right words.

Friday 4 September @ 7.30pm, Saturday 5 September @ 3.00pm & 7.30pm, 14+.

The Dating Game by Alan Booty

Witty, Thought-provoking, Emotional

Roger is 70. Ruby is 60.
Both are single. Both have their own reasons for trying out a dating app for seniors.

Ruby is expected to care for her aged and difficult mother and seeks escape.
Roger cares for his dying father, who wants his son to find someone special before he dies.

He is witty, which she likes. She is feisty, which he likes. What could go wrong?

As more doors in their lives open, questions arise: Should she? Did he? What if… ?

Friday 4 September @ 7.30pm, Saturday 5 September @ 3.00pm & 7.30 pm, 13+.

The Obituary by Xinyu Lu

Memory. Home. Rage.

Three siblings return to their old family house before it is demolished, with one hour to complete a property report.

What begins as paperwork becomes a fight over memory, migration, and who gets to decide what a family is worth.

As they sort through decades of belongings, resentments, and conflicting memories, it becomes clear that they have not only inherited the same house, but entirely different ideas of home.

Using one East Asian family story to reflect wider experiences of migration and cross-cultural identity, The Obituary is a sharp and tender new play about inheritance, belonging, and what remains when the people you love no longer share the same understanding of where they come from.

At its heart, The Obituary asks a simple but difficult question: if home can no longer hold a family together, what can?

Tuesday 8 – Thursday 10 September @ 7.30 pm, 12+.

Diss-Lex-ians by Penny Topsom and Genie Sutherland   

Commadie ❌ Comarde ❌Comedy ✔

Ever made the mistake of over promising something? Like saying that you’ve written an entire musical about the history of Hip Hop, when you haven’t! Well G has…

Meet G, a fast-talking daughter of Lewisham. With the help of her friend P, can she overcome the chaos of home life… spellings, the inner demon Negs… spellings, her mother… spellings. G has Missy Elliott, her spelling answer to everything, or is she?

Tuesday 8 - Thursday 10th September @ 7.30pm, 12+.

Sisterland by Georga de la Cour

Messy, Liberating, Funny

Petra is selling her knickers, Lara is mid crisis and Michelle has gone so far off the rails it’s rural.

During a girl’s night out, Lydia escapes to the toilet fearing the worst, whilst all Cassie wants is some toilet roll.

In the magical land of the club toilets, worlds collide. A revolving bathroom door invites us into the sanctuary of the loos, and the hours in which five women find themselves retreating there. As late-night turns to early morning, we bear witness to problems faced, appearances undone, and how female friendship can be built in moments of vulnerability.

Sisterland is a still life capture of women finding their place and becoming themselves in a room without expectations. Here, we embrace the blood, tears, sick, stains, expletives, howls, anthems, urges, confessions, ecstasies, miseries and complete wonderment of Womanhood, Girlhood, Sisterhood.

Ready? Get ya glad rags on. Time to get liberated.

Friday 11 September @ 7.30pm, Saturday 12 September @ 3.00pm & 7.30pm, 16+.

White Light by Tom Powell 

Powerful, Funny, Hard-hitting

Jay is a fourteen-year-old Londoner, and his shit moustache is the only thing in his whole life he’s proud of.

When a brand-new Lamborghini accelerates past his dad’s dingy flat, Jay asks himself, “why can’t I have that?”

Jay’s search for the truth will take him through a world of struggling teachers and wild conspiracy theories, accompanied by his best mate Param.

What Jay discovers is explosive.

Broken Hearted Youth (DNA, My Mind Matters, Jack Studio) present a new monologue by Papatango and Off West End Award winning writer Tom Powell.

Previous work: “Entertaining… Dark and dangerous” ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The Stage.

Friday 11 September @ 7.30pm, Saturday 12 September @ 3.00pm & 7.30pm, 14+.

SE Fest 2026 Workshops 29 August

As part of SE Fest 2026, we’re delighted to bring you three workshops run by industry professionals. The workshops cover topics relevant for new and emerging theatre companies and artists. No previous experience is necessary to attend.

All workshops last approximately 90 minutes, and tickets need to be booked in advance. Suitable for 18+. Come and join us!



Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevsky 

adapted by Jack Jacobs
presented by Off By Heart

Tuesday 15 – Saturday 26 September at 7.30pm

“I needed to know that I was not a louse.”

Rocks piled high. A staircase. A man with a theory and an axe.

Raskolnikov is a student living on nothing, in a room barely wider than his arms, in a city that never goes quiet. He has a theory. He believes some people are extraordinary, and the rules do not apply to them. To test his belief, he picks up an axe.

Sonya, a girl with her own reasons for shame, refuses to look away from him. Porfiry, an investigator who never raises his voice, begins to circle. The city presses in. The theory begins to crack. What follows is not just a manhunt but a reckoning.

Dostoevsky’s restless novel is reimagined as a thrilling chamber piece in an intimate study of the theories we use to excuse cruelty, and the quiet work of being found out.

Crime and Punishment is the debut production of Off By Heart, a new London theatre company committed to telling great stories. Adapted and directed by Jack Jacobs — actor, theatre maker and voice artist — the production brings Dostoevsky’s feverish interior world into the intimacy of the Jack S

Flock

by Lin Coghlan

directed by Jim Pope 

presented by PlayingON

29 Sept - 3 Oct

Flock originally toured nationally, including a four-week run at the Soho Theatre. Now it’s coming home to Lewisham.

Robbie is 17. His sister Cel is 20. They’ve grown up in and out of the care system, different placements, different addresses, always finding their way back to each other. Cel wants to go to university. Robbie wants them to finally live together in one place. Neither of those things seems too much to ask.

What follows is Robbie’s journey back through every place he’s lived, every moment they shared, every argument and tender exchange, trying to understand how they got here, and whether any of it was his fault.

Lin Coghlan’s play is a portrait of grief, love and resilience told through the eyes of a young man who sees the world through the behaviour of birds: free, loyal, and pecking the shit out of each other. It is sad, funny, honest and, in the end, full of hope.

Flock is set in Lewisham, rooted in Lewisham, and made with and for the people of Lewisham. There are 461 children in the borough without a family home. This play is not about statistics. It’s about what that actually feels like.

This production is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.