WHAT'S ON at THE HOPE THEATRE
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THE SUPERMODEL IN THE CAFF
Tuesday 14th October 2025 - Saturday 18th October 2025
Nessa’s drinking a cuppa she probably can't afford.
ding-a-ling — someone walks into the caff. (That’s caff, not café.)
Wait, isn’t that...?
Emma Bentley’s latest solo show cracks open the heads of four women, wanting and questioning, whose search for comfort leads them to the fried embrace of the greasy spoon. Take a seat in the world of tea in white mugs and having a cheeky Kit Kat for breakfast pudding. This is the place you can show up how you like, whether that’s in your scruffiest hoodie or your Fred Perry queer armour.
Directed by Moses Gale (FAKE, Damien Nettles) and returning to London after a sold-out run, the supermodel in the caff is “bonkers, warm, relatable” — and a chance to people-watch without looking away.
Tuesday 21st October 2025 - Saturday 8th November 2025
In your darkest hour, what would you wish for?
In Edwardian London, newlyweds John and Jenny White set up home together. They look forward to a happy and prosperous life, their home echoing with the laughter of their children. As the years pass, things do not turn out the way they had hoped. Living in an isolated cottage on a pitch-black street, with a world war rumbling away in the background and the price of everything going through the roof, John and Jenny face the ravages of poverty and childlessness.One day, a mysterious, ancient object comes into their possession, a ghoulish talisman that seems to grant wishes. Could this be the remedy for all their troubles? Or is it something more sinister, with the power to plunge them into far deeper miseries?
Adapted from the macabre Edwardian ghost story by W. W. Jacobs, we bring you a re-imagining of The Monkey's Paw: a spine-tingling warning of the dangers of meddling with fate and a chilling reminder to be careful what you wish for.
The Dream Machine (Monthly Sunday/Monday)
Making your dreams come true…
Welcome to The Dream Machine – Make It Beautiful’s unique, long-form improvisation show, based around audience members’ dreams. This isn’t just a show, it’s an experience of the mind. The Dreamers will build a world full of crazy characters, odd challenges, and heart-warming stories. From one audience member’s dream, comes an entire production.
This hit improv show has had successful runs at many UK theatres, including: the White Bear, the Space, Trestle Arts Base, the Cockpit, the Garage Norwich, the Maltings Theatre St Albans, the OSO Arts Centre and the Golden Goose.
“The Hope are proud to have Make It Beautiful as one of our new associate companies and we can’t wait to see what they get up to each month!” – Laurel & Toby, joint Artistic Directors at The Hope
27 October
Courtney’s +1 – because comedy is better with company (and because Courtney cannot stand to be alone with her thoughts).
Award-winning comedian Courtney (as seen on BBC, 60M+ views online, 5-star sold-out EdFringe stand up show, Best of Comedy winner @ Fuse Festival) is back with a brand-new show. But this time, she’s not coming alone.
Each show, Courtney and an incredibly talented comedy star will bring their freshest, funniest material! Some of the material will have never been seen before and depending on your reactions…might never be seen again.
A night of bold risks, brilliant stand-up and some of the most talented comedians around. Come for the chaos and be a part of the creation of both comedian’s newest shows.
10 - 14 November
Following their smash hit Edinburgh Fringe debut, THUNK Productions presents PARATROOPERS at the Hope Theatre!
Frank Fletcher, long-time senior MP for Cackby has suddenly died. Labour Party members have gathered at North Cackby Community Arts Centre to choose a successor. But when Mackenzie Steele and Connor Banks happen to be the only "high-quality" candidates born in Cackby, how much of a choice do you really have?
"A frenetic triumph and cautionary tale" - The Live Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Hilarious and clever comedy" - Everything Theatre ⭐⭐⭐⭐
15 & 16 November
Wisdomless is a bold new solo play by multi-award-winning writer and performer Maria Shehata. Blending stand-up, storytelling, and theatrical flashbacks, it hurls the past into the present through the eyes of Reem, an Egyptian-American woman caught between love, faith, and identity. When Reem leaves Los Angeles for London, all for a fiancé she met through a screen, she finds herself in a collision of her family’s expectations, her culture’s traditions, and her own restless ambition. Her parents once made their own leap of faith, moving from Cairo to Ohio after knowing each other for just three days. Now Reem is unwittingly writing her own version of that story, caught between inherited traditions and the life she dreams of creating. From ancient Coptic wedding vows that demand submission ("For he is your husband, and to him you will submit"), to the modern chaos of a long-distance love story, Wisdomless is about finding a voice that can honor where you come from without losing who you are.
Hailed by British Comedy Guide as “so effortlessly engaging, the audience would gladly take a half-hour encore,” Maria Shehata jumps between past and present, arranged marriage and creative chaos, that is heartfelt, honest, and hilarious.
25 - 29 November'
Tanked' explores the love and fear within a relationship, with an anthropomorphic approach and clowning style. Playing off of the concept of looking at a relationship through a fishbowl. All of which is captured through a documentarian lense in the form of a live feed camera!
'Tanked' is fresh off the back of a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe, with co-performers Isaac Morris and Maddie Maycock having initially created the piece in 2024.
