Casper Vandeputte
2 F / 1 M
Youth play
Dutch text – Swedish translation by Katharina Keller Cohen
Dutch youth play about a 12-year-old girl, Ziggy, who stops talking when she finds out that her parents have kept it a secret from her that she had a brother who died before she was born. She ends in therapy with the psychologist, Chris, who unties Ziggy’s inner knots and makes her companion visible, the ghost of the deceased brother, David. Finally, Ziggy speaks again.
Laura Waldren
5 F / 1 M
Drama
English text
A gripping play about a group of women at a treatment facility for eating disorders. The text focuses on the evolving relationships between the patients, the challenges of treatment, and the complexity of the illness. A thought-provoking work about mental health, the healthcare system, and the personal struggles that people with the condition can face.
Adapted for the stage by Dave Johns
Based on the film I Daniel Blake Directed by Ken Loach From a Screenplay By Paul Laverty
3 F / 3 M
Drama
English text
Touching play based on Ken Loach’s 2016 film. The 59-year-old carpenter, Daniel Blake, has suffered a heart attack and is advised by his doctors to avoid work. The authorities declare him fit to work and denies him Employment and Support Allowance, forcing him to navigate a labyrinthine bureaucracy to get help. Along the way, he befriends a struggling single mother Katie, who has also been failed by the system. Strong text about struggle, solidarity, dignity, humanity and systemic indifference.
Jennifer Haley
2 F / 3 M
Drama
Languages Danish, Swedish, English
In the nether (the internet), a virtual world called the Hideaway has been created for men who are attracted to underage girls. Here one can choose any identity that suits one. Detective Morris (female) interrogates the creator of this sci-fi world, a paedophile named Sims, whose client Doyle, a 65-year-old science teacher, also ends up being questioned about his activities on the site. Here one can check in to a Victorian house, in which Papa (Sims’ virtual identity) is the host and Iris, is a seducing Lolita, who charms the customers to act out their illegal desires. Papa has given Iris an axe she can give to the gentlemen, so that they can butcher her after they’re done with her. THE NETHER is both an intricate crime drama and a haunting sci-fi thriller that explores the consequences of making dreams a reality. Winner of the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, awarded to the best new play written by a woman in English.
FRAU YAMAMOTO IST NOCH DA
Dea Loher
Variable cast
Drama
German text – English and Swedish translation
Best Play in Theater Heute Jahrbuch 2025. Vignettes woven together in a filigree of fleeting scenarios between people whose destinies intersect in an associative space. A subtle existentialist text about life and death, love and loneliness from one of Germany’s leading playwrights.
THE FIFTH STEP
David Ireland
2 M
Comedy
English text
Luka is new to Alcoholics Anonymous. James is his older sponsor. Together they must navigate through sobriety, shame, and confession. The play is brutally funny yet emotionally charged, exploring themes of addiction, masculinity, faith, and the fragile bonds that form when humans are in a vulnerable state.
Pasi Lampela
1 F / 1 M
Drama
Finnish text – English translation
A freelance journalist and a photographer travel to Nigeria to expose an oil company’s environmental and human rights abuses. Their mission goes awry when they are arrested and imprisoned on terrorism charges. Locked in a cell, they struggle with fear, guilt and conflicting ideals as they are forced to confront the limits of their freedom, courage and friendship.
HABITAT
Peter Quilter
1 F / 1 M
Comedy
English text
A couple, drowning in debt, move into a tiny apartment piled high with moving boxes. Between dead-end jobs, money worries, and fragile dreams, they struggle to build a life together while love and hope battle the daily chaos. Two versions of this text exist: One for a couple in their 20s/30s, another for a couple in their 40s.
Charlotte Brontë, adapted for the stage by Tone Schunnesson
2 M / 6 F
Drama
English text
The young orphan Jane searches for her own voice in a world shaped by class, gender and desire. As a governess at Thornfield Hall, she falls in love with the mysterious Mr. Rochester, but their relationship is threatened by the dark secrets hidden within the house. Tone Schunnesson’s stage adaptation combines Gothic atmosphere with contemporary language and feminist perspectives, creating a poetic and powerful story about freedom, identity and love.
John Steinbeck
1 F / 9 M
Drama
English text
John Steinbeck’s own stage adaptation of the famous tragic 1937 novel follows the structure and dialogue of the original and maintains the elements of friendship, loneliness and the pursuit of the American dream during the Great Depression. Two migrant workers – George and Lennie – dream of owning land. Lennie, who is mentally challenged, accidentally kills a woman. To spare him from a brutal fate, George ends Lennie’s life.
