Adults

Over two evenings we presented 12 original scripts written by young playwrights aged 18-30, based in SE London. Performed script in hand by a professional cast of Spontaneous ‘regulars’, themes were diverse, intriguing and all the pieces highly entertaining.

6 plays were presented each evening, all approximately 10-15 mins long and with only three days’ rehearsal in total to stage all 12 pieces. Themes included father/son relationships, language censorship, love in the era of Chatbots and AI avatars, the pressures of modern living on young people and even ancient Indian medicine!

2-year funding from London Borough of Lewisham enabled us to stage the third in our series of events marking Lewisham’s becoming Borough of Sanctuary. Partnering this time with Compass Collective, we worked with a very small group of mostly younger refugees, who wrote and performed their own true stories of courage and change, in June 2026.

A mix of theatre, storytelling, music, spoken word and poetry – a wide range of stories explored themes including father-son relationships, immigration battles, personal loss, memory, growth and survival.

Our Spring season 2025 kicked off with a sell-out scratch night: original playlets set in Purgatory and written by members of our advanced scriptwriting workshop.

• Nurturing new writing and showcasing new voices
• Exploring themes related to the seven deadly sins, including hatred, forgiveness, betrayal, animosity, jealousy, truth and desire
• Featured regular Spontaneous performers
• Audiences and performers love the variety of ‘scratch nights’ – like a box of chocolates you never know what you’re going to get!

We transformed Upstairs at the Sydenham Centre into the Tokyo Museum of Vegetables as we presented our ‘very veggie double-bill’ of THE PRINCESS AND THE PEA & THE ENORMOUS TURNIP – featuring Spontaneous legend Hjalmar Nordén as a giant talking pea.

• Technically innovative – our staging including video projection effects and animation by Joe Kaufman of Red Kite Films
• Featured a special performance from our Japanese intern Hinako Nakamura as museum guard Midori
• First time staging a ‘two fairy tales for the price one’ show

This was our biggest production to date, at St Bart’s Church. It was a hugely ambitious show about one of Sydenham’s most famous former residents, ERNEST SHACKLETON, and featured a special appearance by Mensun Bound, who led the 2022 expedition to find the Endurance in Antarctica.

• Funding from Backstage Trust enabled us to stage a more ambitious show
• Featured a cast of six Spontaneous regulars
• Was co-written by six members of our advanced ScriptHub scriptwriting workshop

In June, we returned to Home Park for the first time in two years, for our madcap outdoor production of THE THREE BILLY GOATS GRUFF – featuring a rapping Troll and three very hungry goat siblings. Luckily the weather was on our side this summer – just – and we managed 12 rain free performances!

• Our tenth outdoor show since 2019 and our fourth in Home Park
• Saw us collaborating with puppet maker Adam Boyle and artists Mia Tofil and James Titchner
• Explored themes of redemption and learning empathy

After an extended summer and autumn break – while we made funding applications and planned our winter season – we returned to St Bart’s Church in November to celebrate Austen’s 250th birthday with THE COMPLETE WORKS OF JANE AUSTEN IN 90 MINUTES. They said it couldn’t be done but we did it, in style, with two sold out shows!

• Co-written by members of our advanced ScriptHub scriptwriting workshops
• Featured many regular Spontaneous performers
• Staged with only two days rehearsal, and scripts being tweaked overnight