For the first time ever, Playwrights Horizons and London's Soho Theatre join forces to launch a foreign exchange festival for playwrights, sending eight thrilling new plays to opposite sides of the Atlantic. The pair of theaters will produce readings of four plays by U.S. playwrights in London, and four plays by U.K. playwrights in New York. Come to this singular mini-festival as it hits NYC in December, when each visiting playwright is matched with a director, cast, and audience from Playwrights Horizons!

Foreign Exchange Festival is generously funded by Soho Circle, founded by Wesley Moore and Tim Dattels to support the international exchange of plays between the US, UK, and India.

THE PLAYS:

MAIN CHARACTER ENERGY 2

Written by Temi Wilkey
Directed by Nemuna Ceesay
Wednesday, December 3rd

Writer and performer Temi Wilkey’s Main Character Energy is a ‘perfect send up of the one woman show’ (Guardian). Our heroine is forced to confront her insatiable need for attention in a show that is as self-aware as it is self-indulgent. A high camp cocktail of comedy and cabaret, this flamboyant parody is an uplifting and life affirming celebration of embracing your most authentic self. The sequel, Main Character Energy 2, will build on the first show’s exploration of self-love into the theme of romantic love.

LITTLE BROTHER

Written by Eoin McAndrew
Directed by Sivan Battat
Thursday,December 4th

3AM. Brigid’s phone rings. Her brother Niall is by the river with a plastic bag and lighter fluid. Little Brother is Eoin McAndrew’s darkly comic new play about sibling love, self-destruction, and what it means to save someone who doesn’t want to be saved. Set in modern-day Belfast, it asks what happens when the systems designed to help us fall short, and love is doing more heavy lifting than it should.

I, MOTHER

Written by Nadya Menuhin
Directed by Tara Ahmadinejad
Friday, December 5th

Devastating yet ruthlessly funny, I, Mother chronicles a woman’s journey through postpartum depression in the aftermath of a painful pregnancy.

WHITE GIRLS GANG

Written by Rianna Simons
Directed by Gus Heagerty
Saturday, December 6th

White Girls Gang is Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf set within a book club that consists entirely of young white women. Her high-octane drama is a juicy satire on white guilt and its spiraling effects. Described by Jeremy O Harris as a ‘young British phenomenon’ and ‘one of the funniest writers’ he knows, Rianna is a rigorous writer with incredible capacity for capturing the irony of human behavior.