Belly Scratch

Belly Scratch nights will feature 4 artists, each performing or reading up to 20 minutes of a new piece of work. You, the audience, are encouraged to share your thoughts via a digital feedback form after each performance, providing invaluable feedback on the work that could influence its future direction.

Making Plans for Nigel
by April Miller

Making Plans for Nigel is a comedy-drama about modern dating, grief, and the cultural rise of misogyny — told through the story of a woman whose most stable relationship is with her dog. Blending confessional monologue, poetry and verbatim interview fragments to capture the absurdity of app-based intimacy, Making Plans for Nigel asks urgent questions about how misogyny has the capacity to bleed into everyday intimacy — and how women metabolise its consequences.

April Hope Miller is a writer/actor/producer from London. She is passionate about female-led stories centred around contemporary women’s experiences and specialises in comedy. April is the founder of Launch Box Productions and her 5* sell out debut play FLUSH won a 2025 Bitesize Award and a Fringe Theatre Award at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe. FLUSH was also listed in the Financial Times’s Top 9 of 3,853 shows.

In 2024 April was commissioned by the Bush Theatre to write and perform a piece as part of their Protest series. She has written and performed a number of original stand-up sets and was part of Broken Silence’s 2024 playwriting cohort, Hive.

April has been accepted onto the prestigious Criterion New Writing Group 2026 and is honoured to begin the programme in April 2026.

Renegade Spermatoza
by Joel Stern

In couples therapy, Sanjay and Marga desperately try to save their polyamorous relationship following an unplanned pregnancy within their polycule. However, their therapist’s attempt to salvage this sinking ship exposes an obscene web of narcissistic toxicity which causes her to question not just her career, but her entire faith in the fundamental goodness of humanity.

What unfolds is a ridiculous battle of sociopathic proportions as Sanjay and Marga leverage race cards, gender politics, bribery and seduction in their attempts to “win” the therapy session, while their conflict-avoidant therapist gets progressively more and more triggered by their aggressive style of communication. A bonkers, adrenaline-fuelled, romp of passion and debauchery.

Performed by Joel Stern, Mila Michael, Olive McHugh and directed by Lyna Dubarry.

Joel Stern is a British–Sri Lankan writer, performer, and director working across stage, screen, and digital platforms. He is the co-founder of Third Leg Studios, a digital production company whose worldwide. He has also appeared in ITV’s The Stand Up Sketch Show and a range of sketch work for BBC Three, and recently featured in the BBC drama Pack of Lies as well as HBO’s The Regime. In 2024, he made his feature film writing and directorial debut with Bored Games, a dark comedy in which he also plays a role. The film is now available to stream on Amazon Prime. On stage, Joel has performed in productions including The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter, Ground Rules by Eric Chappell, and Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona. His short play No Babies on This Train was staged at The Space and Omnibus Theatre, while Nahuelito premiered at Bold Theatre. In 2025, he wrote and performed The Madwoman of Camdenwhich played at The Park Theatre, The Arcola and The Old Red Lion Theatre.

The Tooth Will Out 
by Noah Geelan

“Your dentist is dead. And also he was a secret millionaire. And also he’s designed an elaborate game to determine who receives his fortune. And also you’ve been selected as one of the players but you don’t know why. What’s going on?”

Four players are gathered upon the dying wishes of Dr Frank Bannatyne. Unbeknownst to his loved ones, Frank was the possessor of an enormous fortune, won on a lottery ticket years ago. One of the players will receive this fortune.

They must complete a series of challenges to prove their worthiness. Who was listening to his life lessons? Who is most deserving of carrying on his legacy? His son? His daughter? His estranged godson? Or a random patient who doesn’t know why she’s there?

The Tooth Will Out is a dark comedy debut play from writer and game designer Noah Geelan (Guardian Culture Pick 2023 for Squid Game immersive experience; “Abundantly talented writer” – Varsity)..

Noah Geelan is a writer, comedian and game designer. He is in the very early stages of development on The Tooth Will Out and looks forward to hearing it spoken aloud in front of an audience for the first time!

Noah has been Creative Director at Immersive Gamebox for six years, creating immersive gaming experiences with Warner Bros, Sony, Netflix and more. His games have been played by over 2 million people worldwide and received a Guardian Culture Pick for theatre in 2023 (for Squid Game). 

Noah’s sketch double-act with Will BF (Will & Noah) has a growing presence online and on the Fringe comedy circuit after making their Edinburgh debut in 2025 with Underbelly (“The pair take silly to new levels” – Bruce on the Fringe). They are performing their new show with Underbelly again in 2026. Noah recently directed Dan Bishop’s comedy play Brainsluts at Pleasance and the Seven Dials Playhouse (★★★★, Guardian and Times) and is currently developing multiple pitches and scripts for stage and screen.

Wasted
by Jean

On a planet far, far away made completely of trash, your old, abandoned pair of jeans wade through a lifetime of waste. Every empty Tesco meal deal, cracked iPhone and lost opportunity. Every second of wasted time, millimetre of wasted space and scrap of wasted potential. Presented by Jean, a shapeshifting, gender-bending drag thing, Wasted is a surrealist drag show that explores our collective relationships to things that are discarded, rejected and forgotten.

Jean is a denim drag alien from a planet far, far, far away. Jean wants to party! Jean wants to cry! Jean wants jeans for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Jean wants you. Jean has performed across nightlife and theatre spaces in the UK and USA including the National Theatre, EartH Hackney, The Divine, The Clapham Grand, The Slipper Room (NYC) and The Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club. 

They developed a full-length solo show Jean: Live!, as part of the Camden People’s Theatre Sprint Festival in 2025, and received a Creative Curations development grant from Tin Shed Theatre company for their new show, Wasted, in 2026. They won of Top of the Slops S4; their work has been featured in Cold Magazine, Up After Dark, LMAOnaise and they were named Love Queers Top 100 in 2025.