My Brother’s a Genius – Debris Stevenson’s new play at Sheffield Theatres and UK tour

I arrived in Sheffield with me satchel bouncing, me scarf fighting the wind, and that familiar feeling that summat good were waiting inside the envelope. You can always tell. It’s either a parking fine… or brand-new theatre. This one? Oh, definitely theatre.

Tucked inside were news of a brand-new production by Debris Stevenson, heading to Sheffield Theatres in 2026 — and let me tell you, I stopped dead outside to read it properly. Nearly got knocked over by a tram, but that’s commitment, that is.

The show’s called My Brother’s a Genius — and before you ask, no, it’s not about my family. Although… now I think on… people do keep asking if I’ve got siblings. I’ll neither confirm nor deny. Let’s just say if I did, one of ’em would definitely be labelled “the clever one” and I’d be the one legging it round Yorkshire with a satchel full of theatre gossip. But I digress.

This explosive new play dives head-first into neurodivergence, sibling rivalry, and all that messy pressure to be brilliant, wrapped up in poetry, movement, and an original grime soundtrack that doesn’t politely ask for your attention — it grabs it by t’collar.

At the heart of the story are twins Daisy and Luke, growing up on a high-rise estate where big dreams and even bigger doubts start scrapping with each other. Luke’s got the label of “genius”. Daisy’s stuck with “idiot”. (Which, as anyone from Sheffield will tell you, says more about the label-makers than the people wearing ’em.) The question is: will their bond lift them up together… or send ’em crashing down separate stairwells?

It’s a sharp, energetic two-hander, blending grime and lyrical writing in a way that feels immediate, urgent, and very now. Debris Stevenson’s work doesn’t sit quietly at the back of the room — it moves, it pulses, it listens. Directed by Eleanor Manners, with an original soundtrack by Jammz, this is theatre that understands rhythm — of language, of bodies, of young lives.

The show grew out of Debris’s own experiences — having a brother branded a “genius” while she, dyslexic, couldn’t read until she was 11 and got labelled the opposite. From that starting point comes a story that’s fictional, truthful, and painfully familiar, unpacking how those labels stick, scrape, and shape ambition.

On stage, award-winning theatre maker and poet Jess Senanayake plays Daisy, with Tyrese Walters as Luke, supported by a cracking creative team bringing the world to life through design, movement, sound, and light. It’s been developed through Theatre Centre’s Future Makers process — meaning young people across schools and communities have helped shape it — and co-produced with Sheffield Theatres and National Youth Theatre.

And after Sheffield? Oh, it’s not staying put. Once it’s done with us (and we’ll forgive it, eventually), My Brother’s a Genius heads out on tour to Scarborough, Leeds, London, Crawley — and secondary schools nationwide. Proper graft, that.

So if you find yourself wondering about family, labels, expectations, or whether flying together is ever easier than flying solo… this one might just land right in your lap.

I popped the letter back in me satchel, adjusted me scarf, and thought: Sheffield always gets the good stuff. And this? This feels like one to watch.

Tickets are on sale now — and if you see a postie lingering outside the Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, that’ll be me.

My Brother’s A Genius | Sheffield Theatres

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Who Is Andrew “The Guvnor” of Theatre Village? (As delivered by Grace Hatchell, 2nd Act Couriers, First Class & Slightly Nosy Service) Now then… if you’ve spent any time wandering through Theatre Village, you’ll have felt it. That hum. That buzz. That sense that somewhere, behind the curtain, someone’s pulling the strings, brewing the tea, and making sure the spotlight actually turns on. That, my lovely lot, would be Andrew. Or as I’ve taken to calling him… The Guvnor. I

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