Maya Ricote: Ay Am!
Grace’s Satchel Has Burst Open at Soho Theatre and Honestly, Someone Fetch Me a Trolley
Now then, I opened the latest Soho Theatre listings thinking I’d find a few tidy announcements, maybe a comedy night, perhaps a heartfelt play, maybe one performer having a sensible little crisis under a tasteful spotlight.
Reader, I was naïve.
This is not a programme. This is a theatrical avalanche. It came tumbling out of my satchel like someone had tipped Soho, Walthamstow, Edinburgh, several clowns, a drag queen, a possible Bigfoot incident and Satan buying soy milk straight into the sorting office.
Soho Theatre has unveiled its what’s-on listings from June 2026 onwards, and the whole thing feels like London has looked at the phrase “quiet night out” and said, “Absolutely not, love, we’re doing emotional damage with songs, puppets and a man in full-frontal Mikey mode.”
Let’s begin with the theatre, because that’s where the satchel first started making concerning noises.
Hit Machine arrives at Soho Theatre from Wednesday 8 July to Saturday 15 August, written by Jonathan Caren and directed by Daniel Bailey. It brings together two estranged brothers: one a hit-making powerhouse, the other a flailing musician, which already sounds like Christmas dinner if your family owns a keyboard. Their reunion spirals into a fight over memory, family, success, creative theft and who gets to tell the story of their shared past. Add original music by three-time Grammy Award winner Ben Harper and you’ve got brotherhood, bruised childhoods and pain being turned into art. Cheery? No. Compelling? Absolutely. Bring tissues, but don’t bring your sibling if you’ve recently argued over who got the better bedroom.
Then there’s A to B by Tia-Renee Mullings, running from Thursday 11 June to Friday 3 July in Soho Upstairs. Amani and Brianna are getting ready for a blind date, but getting there is apparently less “romantic journey” and more “South London obstacle course.” We’ve got teefing sisters, gentrified patties, flying bird poo, missing barbers and a trim so serious it could end a man. Honestly, I’ve seen less jeopardy in a murder mystery. Set to a Caribbean South London soundtrack, it sounds like a romcom with mud on its shoes and heart in its handbag.
Flo & Joan’s award-winning One Man Musical returns too, running from Wednesday 17 June to Friday 3 July. Here, an icon of musical theatre finally turns the spotlight on the one story he hasn’t told yet: his own. Which is brave, because theatre people telling their own stories can either be moving, magnificent, or 45 minutes too long with unnecessary tap. This one, however, comes with serious praise, including The Guardian naming it their number one show of the year, so I’ll keep my postwoman scepticism in the van.
Eat The Rich (But Maybe Not Me Mates X) by Jade Franks transfers to the main house from Friday 12 June to Friday 3 July after smash-hit, five-star sell-out runs at Edinburgh and Soho. A politically sharp, funny story of a working-class Scouser navigating Cambridge University while hiding her cleaning job, it tackles class, privilege, money and belonging with wit, bite and a dozen characters. As a Yorkshire lass who once felt underdressed in a Waitrose, I am already emotionally invested.
And then, because Soho Theatre clearly thought, “Grace hasn’t had enough weirdness yet,” along comes I Saw Satan at the 7-Eleven by Christopher Brett Bailey from Tuesday 7 to Saturday 11 July. This one features a nameless deadbeat narrator spotting Satan buying soy milk at the 7-Eleven. Satan, apparently, is washed-up and has lost his edge, which is deeply relatable if you’ve ever tried to use a self-service checkout while tired. The show promises romance, buddy comedy, body horror, slapstick, violence, dreaminess and tenderness. So, you know, a light Tuesday.
Jonny Woo: Suburbia Re-Loaded returns from Monday 13 to Saturday 25 July, following a sell-out Soho run in 2025 and an award-winning Edinburgh Fringe season. It charts Jonny Woo’s life from childhood in Medway to the 90s London rave scene and the clubs and drag bars of 00s New York. Performance art, cabaret, storytelling, memory, reinvention — the lot. I’d say pack a glow stick, but knowing me I’d accidentally use it to find my stamps.
September brings Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It, which is the kind of title that makes you stop mid-biscuit. Running from Monday 7 to Saturday 26 September, this Brechtian puppet show from Xhloe and Natasha follows two teenagers staging fake Bigfoot sightings until a neighbour’s dog turns up torn to pieces. Suddenly the joke has teeth, paws and a community in panic. It sounds like conspiracy, misdirection and small-town fear wrapped in theatrical chaos. I don’t know whether to book a ticket or warn the village Labrador.
Also in September, How Strange It Is: (The Neutral Milk Hotel Show), written by and starring Salty Brine, fuses Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea with Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl and personal confessions from Salty’s own adolescent longings. It sounds ambitious, strange, funny, devastating and probably the kind of thing you leave talking about in hushed tones outside Pret.
Later in the year, Temi Wilkey returns with Lover Girl from Monday 2 to Saturday 21 November, described as sexy, surreal and gloriously self-indulgent. Temi is a Lover Girl, but somehow always single, which frankly should be printed on half the tote bags in London. Max Olesker follows with Making The Cut from Tuesday 3 to Saturday 21 November, a hilarious and heartbreaking true story about love, identity and belonging, in which Max falls for Eliana but must convert to Orthodox Judaism to marry her, despite already being Jewish. Confused? The listing says imagine how he feels, and I’m not arguing with that.
Now, the comedy programme. Deep breath. Big satchel energy.
The London Clown Festival rolls into Soho Theatre in June with enough chaos to make a sensible person clutch a clipboard. Mikey Bligh-Smith brings Full Frontal Mikey Mode on Monday 1 June, promising madcap prop chaos, tremendous jokes and an open-house tour of his mind-palace. I once had a tour of a two-bed flat in Doncaster with less structural risk.
Jack Docherty appears in The Chief: No Apologies from Monday 1 to Saturday 6 June, bringing Chief Commissioner Cameron Miekelson to Soho after viral success. Blizzard (WIP), also on Monday 1 June, features a Polish clown, a suitcase that becomes a horse, fake snow and an orange from the love of his life. I cannot improve on that sentence. It is already wearing a little hat.
Maya Ricote: Ay Am! lands on Tuesday 2 June with telenovela melodrama, camp musical energy and cryogenic defrosting. Josh Glanc presents a work-in-progress the same night, while Sam Jay brings We The People from Tuesday 2 to Saturday 6 June, a show grappling with country, identity and critique after award recognition at Edinburgh Fringe 2025.
There are liberated elders sharing biscuits in Lucy Hopkins & Lexi Strauss: Auntie Show and Nana Subversion Share Their Biscuits, surreal sound ritual energy in Hear We Ahh: Angels, existential panic in Lawrence Dodd: This Can’t Be It, heavenly musical chaos in The Sonic Joy Orchestra, and improvised loopstation shenanigans in Dru Cripps: Juicy Bits. Honestly, by this point I was less reading listings and more surviving a fever dream in sensible shoes.
Closure Cabaret promises exes summoned for one final encore, Lil Wenker’s Boyking WIP gives us eight-year-old Prince Wilfred plotting world domination while guzzling mummy’s milk, and Gutter: A Bouffon Comedy Ritual crawls from the bins with underground cult comedy nastiness. If your idea of a weekend is quiet soup and an early night, perhaps approach carefully. If your idea of fun is being emotionally spat out by a troupe in a bin, congratulations, your moment has arrived.
Then Police Cops return to celebrate their 10-year anniversary, with Police Cops from Monday 8 to Saturday 13 June, Police Cops in Space from Tuesday 9 to Saturday 13 June, and Police Cops Badass Be Thy Name from Wednesday 10 to Friday 12 June. We’re promised physical comedy, 80s bangers, low-fi sci-fi, comedy horror, Manchester 1999 and uncompromising facial hair. That last bit is not a threat, but it does feel like one.
Charlie Mulliner’s Love Hunt arrives Friday 12 to Saturday 13 June, described as Bridget Jones on acid rather than Eat, Pray, Love, which is exactly the kind of distinction theatre needs more often. Ayoade Bamgboye’s Swings and Roundabouts follows from Monday 15 to Wednesday 24 June, a debut show about suffering and smiling from the Nigerian stand-up and Saturday Night Live UK star. Amy Annette brings Busy Body, Ania Magliano brings Peach Fuzz, and Matt Winning brings Solastalgia, in which a climate scientist must save the world by lunchtime tomorrow or sell his soul for a slice of Rockefeller’s fortune, while also dealing with the birth of his son and needing a wee. Finally, climate comedy that understands the human condition.
Further along the comedy road, Rosco McClelland makes his Soho debut with How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, Alex Edelman returns with What Are You Going To Do, Rohan Sharma brings Mad Dog, Karen Houge offers Dreamgirl, Ralph Barbosa plays his first UK dates with The Red 40 Tour, and Hot Singles In Your Area Play D&D gives us heroes who are less concerned with ancient dark powers and more concerned with getting laid. Somewhere, a dungeon master just dropped their dice.
FOC It Up with Kemah Bob continues celebrating comedians of colour who aren’t cis-men, Shamik Chakrabarti returns to Soho, and later summer brings everything from Patti Harrison’s gloriously unhinged Just Ironing Some Things Out! to HOLE!, which I will describe only as an apocalyptic religious comedy involving Nebraska, plugs and The Great Sucking, because my post round does have standards, even if Soho’s programme delightfully does not.
There’s also Matt Forde on a mission to find joy amid global political turmoil and health challenges, Laurie Kilmartin’s Non-Refundable Plane Tickets Tour, Two Hearts: Don’t Stop Throbbing, Dynasty Handbag: Hell In A Handbag, Jay Jurden Takes London, Chris Parker: Take A Good Hard Look At Me, Bron Lewis: Chaos, Rick Glassman: Me And My Puppet Rick, Tarang Hardikar: If I’m Not Wrong, Fuccbois: Live In Concert, Scout Boxall: God’s Favourite, Frankie McNair: Huge Ass Mindset, Kate Dehnert: Echo, Catherine Bohart: Borrowing Trouble, Joseph Morpurgo: Highlander 70, Frankie Thompson: Horrible Things, Ginger Johnson: Show Pony, Li Jin Hao: Falling From A Moon, Sofie Hagen: I Think Some Of This Is My Fault and Paul Foot: The Future.
That is not a line-up. That is a cultural traffic jam with excellent lighting.
Over at Soho Theatre Walthamstow, things are just as lively. Jinkx Monsoon stars as Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow from Friday 15 May to Sunday 21 June, stepping into Peter Quilter’s portrait of Garland at London’s Talk of the Town in 1968. A legend, an icon, a voice, a spotlight and the cost of survival. I’m already worried about my mascara and I’m not even wearing any.
Richard Ayoade brings Afterthoughts on Saturday 27 June, sharing reflections from his latest book Afterthoughts, or Some Pistachios Won’t Open: Wisdom for the Unreflective. Lenny Henry follows with Still At Large on Sunday 28 June, part stand-up, part storytelling and part conversation after five decades of shaping British comedy and television.
Then Swamplesque arrives from Wednesday 1 to Saturday 11 July, an ogre-inspired burlesque and drag parody from Far Far Away. That sentence alone deserves a little round of applause and possibly a waiver form. Rahul Subramanian brings a new Hinglish stand-up show on Sunday 5 July, Michelle Wolf arrives with Best Job In The World from Wednesday 8 to Thursday 9 July, and Grayson The Musical gets a first look from Thursday 16 to Sunday 19 July, offering an early glimpse at a new musical comedy inspired by Sir Grayson Perry.
Comedy Bang! Bang! brings its improvised podcast madness on Wednesday 22 July, while Neon Nights with Alan Davies takes over Friday 24 July with a line-up including Bella Hull, Erika Ehler, Jordan Brookes, Ed Night and host Catherine Bohart. There’s also Soho Theatre Walthamstow’s Big Family Day on Saturday 25 July, The Palestinian Circus: Step and a Half from Friday 31 July to Sunday 2 August, Alice in Wonderland from Wednesday 5 to 16 August, The Cat in the Hat from Friday 21 to Sunday 23 August, Neon Nights Summer Special with Sindhu Vee on Saturday 22 August, Guz Khan & Friends from Thursday 27 to Saturday 29 August, Musical Magic Box on Friday 28 August, Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee on Wednesday 2 September, Stamptown from Thursday 3 to Saturday 5 September, John Kearns: Tilting at Windmills on Friday 11 September and The Good Immigrant: Live 10th Anniversary on Sunday 13 September.
If Walthamstow was ever planning a quiet summer, nobody told Soho.
There is also a strong India and South Asian heritage strand running through the programme, including Rohan Sharma’s Mad Dog, Rahul Subramanian’s new Hinglish show, Shamik Chakrabarti: Live, and more. Soho Theatre notes its role over the past decade in introducing more than 30 Indian artists to UK stages, from Soho Theatre and Soho Theatre Walthamstow to the Royal Albert Hall. That is not a footnote; that is a proper cultural bridge with stage lights on it.
And because the satchel was still somehow not full, Soho Theatre heads to Edinburgh too. Temi Wilkey brings Lover Girl to Pleasance Upstairs from Wednesday 5 to Sunday 30 August, Tarang Hardikar takes If I’m Not Wrong to Pleasance Courtyard, and Demi Adejuyigbe returns to the Fringe with Demi Adejuyigbe Sells Out at Pleasance Dome. Expect jokes, songs, cultural chaos, fame-chasing, lover-girl behaviour and probably at least one audience member saying, “I saw them before they were massive,” while holding a £9 pint.
There are tours too, including dates for Catherine Bohart’s Borrowing Trouble across the UK and Ireland, with stops including Leeds, Newcastle, Bristol, Norwich, Brighton, Cambridge, Birmingham, Oxford, Cork, Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester and Exeter. Amy Gledhill also heads out on tour with Thanks For Having Me, and Rhys James brings Chop Logic to Soho Theatre Walthamstow in March. In other words, if you cannot get to Soho, Soho may still come and find you. Like a theatrical debt collector, but with better punchlines.
The programme also looks beyond performance into creative engagement. Cabaret & Drag Lab: Plus runs in summer 2026 for cabaret and drag performers already on the circuit, offering industry advice and masterclasses. Comedy Lab: Stand Up for Women from Muslim Backgrounds runs May to July 2026, creating a fun, safe and supportive environment for women from Muslim heritage or currently practising to try stand-up. Makers’ Lab runs July to October 2026 for artists developing one-hour shows across different artforms. Bursaries are available across these programmes, which is always good to see, because “new work” should not only mean “people who can afford London rent and emotional risk.”
So, what does all this tell us?
It tells us Soho Theatre is not tiptoeing into 2026. It is arriving with a megaphone, a clown suitcase, a Judy Garland spotlight, a Bigfoot rumour, three Police Cops, a Scouse class warrior, a climate scientist needing the loo, and Satan at the convenience shop.
It is messy in the best way. Bold in the best way. Wild enough to make a listings editor reach for a lie-down, but full of the sort of theatre and comedy that makes live performance feel properly alive. Not polished to death. Not beige. Not one of those cultural programmes that looks like it was assembled by a committee allergic to fun.
This is Soho Theatre doing what Soho Theatre does: championing strange ideas, sharp voices, international artists, cult favourites, big names, rising stars, clowns, comics, cabaret-makers, storytellers, drag artists, family shows, political work, personal work and the odd title that makes you check you’ve read it correctly.
I did read it correctly.
Bigfoot did rip the dog in half.
Satan is at the 7-Eleven.
And Grace’s satchel is now officially on light duties.
Tickets can be booked online via Soho Theatre or through the box office, with performances taking place across Soho Theatre, Soho Theatre Walthamstow, Edinburgh Fringe venues and touring locations.
I’ll be honest, I may need a bigger bag.
All tickets can be booked
Online: sohotheatre.com/ Phone: 020 7478 0100 Mon-Sat, 10am-6pm
About the Author
