By Grace Hatchell, Relive sixteen years of marriage? Love, I can barely survive re-reading last week’s delivery notes.
Make It Count, a new award-winning comedy-drama by James Sweeney, comes to Louth Riverhead Theatre from 18 to 20 June 2026. The studio-scale three-hander follows one man’s chance to relive sixteen years of marriage — with surprising and painful consequences.
There are some shows that knock on the door politely, and then there are some that sidle up with a grin and ask a question so awkward you nearly spill your tea. Make It Count very much belongs in the second camp.
Coming to Louth Riverhead Theatre from 18 to 20 June, this new studio-scale three-hander from writer James Sweeney begins with a gloriously unsettling premise: what if you died, and then got one chance to win the love of your life all over again?
At the centre of it all is Jonas, who dies unexpectedly and then, thanks to a rather unfortunate afterlife error, is given the chance to relive the last sixteen years of his life with his wife Lily. There is, of course, a catch — because there is always a catch with these things. Jonas remembers everything. Lily remembers nothing. Armed with knowledge of the future, he tries to perfect their life together, only to find that the more he attempts to control events, the more everything begins to slip through his fingers.
Hovering over this emotional chaos is a Grim Reaper stand-in who sounds less like a fearsome master of fate and more like somebody who has been handed the wrong clipboard on their first day. Which, let’s be honest, is exactly the sort of energy many of us bring to work on a Monday morning. As Jonas tries to rewrite the story of his marriage, the play digs into free will, hindsight, and that very human urge to go back and “fix” things that may never have been fixable in the first place.
Described as an existential comedy-drama, Make It Count sounds like the kind of piece that can make you laugh, wince, and then stare into the middle distance on the bus home. It asks a brilliantly uncomfortable question too: could you actually survive reliving your marriage? That alone is enough to make this one sound far more intriguing than your average neat-and-tidy love story.
The show has already gathered some impressive momentum. It won Best Stage Play at the Best Script Awards in 2026, as well as the audience vote at Louth Riverhead Theatre Scratch Night in September 2025. Following its June run in Lincolnshire, it is also set for a staged reading at Langham Court Theatre in Victoria, Canada, later in the year.
Make It Count is written by James Sweeney, directed by John Hewer, and produced by Hambledon Productions and Louth Playgoers. The cast features Brayden Kerr, Laura Thompson and Derek Hodges in a studio-scale production with a running time of around 90 minutes plus an interval.
The production runs at Louth Riverhead Theatre from 18 to 20 June 2026, with performances starting at 7pm. Tickets are priced at £10.
It has the makings of one of those intimate little plays that sneaks up on you. A bit funny, a bit painful, a bit philosophical, and probably the sort of thing that will have audiences leaving the theatre quietly reconsidering every time they ever said, “If only I could do that all again.”
Make It Count – Scratch Night Winner — Louth Riverhead Theatre
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