Belly Scratch

Belly Scratch is Underbelly Boulevard Soho’s first ever theatre scratch night!

Discover exciting and bold new pieces in their early stages, from both new and established theatre-makers! We’re providing a regular safe space for theatre-makers to test out never-performed extracts of their work and receive feedback from a receptive audience. Belly Scratch nights will feature 4 artists each performing or reading up to 20 minutes of a new piece of work, and audience members will have access to a feedback form after watching, providing an opportunity to offer new ideas and thoughts on the work and influence its future direction.

Come along and take your place at the forefront of new, innovative theatre, and stick around in the bar afterwards to meet and mingle with the artists and your fellow audience members!

The following pieces will be performed on the 28th of May:

THE GOOD DEVICE: 
Charlie joins a clinical trial for a brain-computer interface implant that promises to cure his depression. As the device gradually relieves his symptoms, he finds himself growing more uncertain—compelled to confront the deeper causes of his unhappiness.

Inspired by cutting-edge psychological research, The Good Device asks a critical question: When treatments are driven by profit, do they truly heal us—or simply keep us functioning within a broken world?

Elby Rue is a playwright originally from China. She is an alumna of New Earth Theatre’s Writers’ Group and Victoria & Albert Museum’s Inwrds. Her plays explore the essence of humanity, reflect on current social and political structures, and reconsider the complexities of our existence. 

Director:
Ciara Wynne is a director, writer and producer from London dedicated to telling LGBTQIA+ and
women-centred stories. A member of the Irish Creative Collective, their most recent works
include musicals Crossing the Rubicon and The Pull, of which she was both playwright and
director, and a producer for The Lesson at Southwark Playhouse. They are currently writing a
one-person play about a lesbian embarking on a space odyssey to find somewhere she
belongs.

Dramaturg:
Ke Meng is an independent scholar, freelance writer and a theatre educator in London. She
used to work as an assistant professor in University. Ke writes vastly for a number of different
platforms including Theatre Weekly, A Youngish Perspective, Shanghai Theatre and The Initium.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST:
Ryuji, a homophobic gangster on the run, ends up stuck in a basement squat with Gloria, a film-obsessed drag queen who knows more than she lets on – but could a kiss change everything?

Beauty and the Beast was the first produced by the LGBTQ theatre company Flying Stage in Japan. It premiered at the 8th Ikebukuro Theatre Festival in 1996, where it received the Theatre Festival Jury Special Award, and was later restaged in 1999. An English-translated extract was showcased at Foreign Affairs’ Theatre Translation Showcase Vol. 6 at the Jermyn Street Theatre in 2025, featuring James Bradwell as Ryuji and Shogo Amo as Gloria. A vibrant celebration of Japanese culture and queer identity, they are now seeking opportunities for further performances and development.

Translator / Co-Producer: Gareth Mattey (they/them) is a writer, dramaturg, director, and translator. They have primarily worked as an opera librettist, focusing on telling LGBTQ+ stories with and through music.

Starring / Director / Co-Producer: Shogo Amo (they/him) is an actor, director and theatre maker with over 10 years of experience in the theatre industry across Japan and the UK. They create emotionally resonant, visually striking work—particularly stories centering LGBTQ+, East Asian, and working-class experiences.

NICKED: 
Late on a Friday afternoon, a fur coat–obsessed chancer and a burnt-out inspector find themselves locked into an unlikely conversation. What begins as a mild interrogation over a string of misdemeanours takes a turn below the surface. As coats and layers are shed, so too are the stories underneath, revealing the mad, tender things we do for the ones we love.

Niamh McEnhill is a London-based Irish writer and actor working across theatre, film, and audio drama. Her play Snatched was recently staged in Belfast with Belfast Playwrights. She has received Arts Council funding in support of her writing and recently held a table read of a pilot episode for a new series with Scripted HotSeat. This will be the first time Nicked is performed in London and it is also currently in development as a short film.

PARTY TIME
Party Time is set in a world where fear and paranoia rules. A psychological thriller that revolves around a party… or a prison. It is really up to you to decide. Two guardians, Phoebe and Tom, are under inspection after a recurring failure in their duties. The creatures are getting stronger, smarter even. But the longer the inspection is, the more curious Phoebe gets, forcing her to find the answers to all her questions and finally go in. To go to the party.

Sun&Flowers Theatre was co-founded by rural creatives Alyssa Wint (she/her) and Morgan Goodfellow (she/her) in April 2025. It was created with the aim of championing underrepresented voices in new writing. Both Bristol Old Vic Theatre School graduates, Morgan Goodfellow was part of a writer’s festival at Bristol Old Vic Theatre and lately had her play showcase at the Pleasance Theatre through Writers Corner. Alyssa Wint recently had a successful show at the Wardrobe Theatre of Scene with Girls by Miriam Battaye and is part of the semifinals of Jam Factory’s Battle of the Bands.