New ideas, new partnerships and new stories are made at Theatre Peckham and we can’t wait to share them with you. Here, from July through to December we highlight an ambitious programme of theatre and live performance, platforming a rich mix of under-represented voices. We hope to inspire you, our audience, to come through our doors. Join us in celebrating artistic excellence in our community and support social change.

We kicked off the month with a fundraiser, The Green Room, a hilarious new play that took subtle aim at the lack of diversity in the publishing industry. Six authors. One diversity award for literature. A green room full of egos, secrets, disappointments and desperation. As featured in The Guardian, this new comedy brought together a host of award-winning talent with authors Yvette Edwards and Irenosen Okokjie; Crongton Knights playwright Alex Wheatle and Manchester Royal Exchange’s joint artistic director Roy Alexander Weise. Live-streamed, the fundraising event was a resounding success for the theatre and the story served as a timely reminder about the myriad of obstacles that Black writers face while trying to carve out a career that matters. You can still donate to the fundraiser or grab a ticket to see the Livestream here.

From laugh out loud comedy to a moving, raw and honest portrayal of family, roots and belonging. We are so proud to be able to champion the work of playwright, poet and actor, babirye bukilwa, who gave us an early glimpse of their new play …cake last October as a script in-hand rehearsed reading. Now it’s triumphantly returning as a fully staged show with an amazing cast and creative team. This is a story set in working-class London in the noughties, a psychological drama told through a Black queer femme lens. Running for 4 weeks from 13 July – 7 August, a first for Theatre Peckham.

The long-awaited stage adaptation of Small Axe’s Alex Wheatle’s award-winning book Crongton Knights was sadly cancelled last year due to the pandemic. However, for one night only on July 19, we bring you South Crong, an adapted version by Emteaz Hussain directed by our very own Artistic Director Suzann McLean and Alumni Gustavo Navarro. Featuring Theatre Peckham’s Young Actors Company, it’s the perfect madcap adventure story about the friends you’ll never forget to showcase the next generation of talent springing forth from our community. 

At the height of this summer we will be hosting Peckham Previews, a glorious two-week festival of participatory theatre, performance art, spoken word, comedy and cabaret. Taking on the themes of Roots + Reflections see the work of the city’s most promising young artists with international aspirations and experiences and join them in exploring where we’ve come from, where we are going, who we want to be and how will we get there? From 9- 21 August. More to be revealed very shortly…

Christmas in Peckham wouldn’t be quite the same without our annual festive show. This December we return with The Wonderful, a re-imagining of a classic tale like no other. Think Wizard of Oz meets Black Panther and you’re only halfway there! Our story begins in Nanna Emi’s take-away shop in Peckham, where we meet our hero Efe and her dog TikTok who are magically transported to Ozanda, a mystical African land where ancient civilisation rubs shoulders with high tech gadgetry. There Efe embarks on a fantastical quest of self-discovery to find her way home. But not without the help of her new friends, who show her there really is something wonderful in all of us!