THE HATE PLAY
Performance length: 60 Minutes
Audience: Ideally suited for Years 8, 9 and 10
Audience number: Approximately 150
Venue: Ideally school hall with the audience on two sides
The Hate Play is supported by John Lyon's Charity and using public funding by Arts Council England.
Thank you to Harrow High School for hosting The Hate Play rehearsals.
Currently Touring in Spring 2026
The Performance
This powerful performance explores the dynamics of teenage friendships and peer pressure and, through its unflinching portrayal of the devastating effects bullying can have on the emotional well-being, health and social cohesion of a group of young people, addresses directly and honestly the reality of bullying, specifically hate crime. These issues are explored through the loves, hates and power struggles of four teenagers. When the perpetrator of hate, Tan, pushes herself and her friends, Skate and Cal, too far, it leads to disastrous consequences for the victim, Vik.
The follow-up workshop
The performance is followed by a workshop with the entire audience, allowing them to engage fully with the themes and creative process of the play, and to articulate their response to what they have just witnessed. Key moments in the play are re-played with the direct involvement of students to explore the challenge of the timing and type of appropriate verbal and non-verbal interventions to produce a different outcome. In using theatre to confront and work through these issues, we’re challenging young people, including those who are neither victims nor bullies, to take up an active role in making their school environment a safer and happier place in which all can flourish.
The creative writing workshop
Further engagement of the students with the members of the company and the issues the play explores is provided by creative writing workshops. Students who attend, having seen the play in their schools, will be encouraged to share their own experiences of dis-harmony and to articulate their opinions about a way forward, creatively in poetry, prose, creative writing or monologues.
The Symposium.
Participating schools will be represented by staff/students who will share the outcomes of their creative writing workshops and be given a platform to express their views on current issues such as crime rates, social cohesion, bullying and intolerance and how these are being dealt with in their communities. The Symposium will conclude with students working collaboratively to create a manifesto for change.
Gallery
THE COMPANY
oneness sankara & Michael wicherek | WRITERS
Riad Richie | DIRECTOR
YUMU LIN | COSTUME DESIGNER
Jae Depz | COMPOSER
PIP THURLOW | PRODUCTION & LIGHTING
OLIVIA POMMIER | CAL
Olivia Pommier, a Rose Bruford Graduate, made her professional debut with Box Clever in 2023-24 , as Lady Macbeth and returned for our 2024-25 season in Jekyll & Hyde, A Christmas Carol and Romeo & Juliet. Olivia has also performed in L'envol at the Sibiu International Theatre Festival and as Helena in Radical City at Arch 6 in Manchester. She has appeared in Jim Cartwright’s new play Northern Soul, directed by Nick Bagnall.
Olivia is excited to return to Box Clever - she is passionate about bringing live theatre to new audiences, especially those who may be seeing it for the first time.
Kiara Pillai | TAN
Kiara Nicole Pillai is an Indian-Chinese actor from Singapore. She recently lead the UK Theatre Award Winning Beauty and the Beast (Stephen Joseph Theatre) and UK Theatre Award Nominated Jungle Book (Bolton Octagon), and was part of the cast of the WhatsOnStage Award Nominated Pride and Prejudice (Bolton Octagon, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Hull Truck, Theatr Clwyd, Theatre by the Lake).
She’s delighted to return to Box Clever 3 years after her Box Clever debut as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet.
Other credits include: various projects for Audible, Sleeping Beauty (Stephen Joseph Theatre), Ridiculous Rhyme Show (Laugh N Learn), Anya and the Potter (Greenhouse Theatre Project) and Romeo and Juliet (Petersfield Shakespeare Festival).
JEZ DAVESS-HUMPHREY | VIK
Jez is an accomplished actor and director, hailing from South West London. He graduated with a first-class honours BA degree in Acting for Stage and Media from Kingston College (London College of Music – University of West London).
Most recently, Jez completed a highly successful 9-month tenure with the National Youth Theatre Rep Company, where he showcased his skills in three captivating shows. These included performances in “Much Ado About Nothing” at the Duke of York Theatre, “Gone too Far” at Royal Stratford East, and “Bakkhai” at NYT Holloway Road.
Kyan Andrews | SKATE
Kyan graduated from the BA Acting course at Rose Bruford College in 2022. Since graduating, he has appeared in several short films produced in collaboration with the London Film Academy.
His theatre credits include his Box Clever Theatre debut in A Christmas Carol, Jekyll & Hyde, and Romeo & Juliet, as well as playing Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles with Westacre Theatre.
Kyan is delighted to be returning to Box Clever Theatre. Over the past six months, he has also been developing his skills as a presenter for TikTok, enjoying the opportunity to explore new creative disciplines across the arts.
SAMATER AHMED | VOICE & WORKSHOP LEADER
Samater Ahmed graduated with a BA (Hons) in Acting from Plymouth Marjon University. He’s toured regionally and internationally with Actors Wheel, playing Edmund in King Lear and the Boy in Children of the Birds during a tour to Greece, and portraying Satan in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot.
He has also contributed to community-focused work with Beyond Face in Plymouth, supporting representation of Black and minority ethnic artists through new theatre and film projects.
Samater’s screen and digital experience includes performing in A Whatsapp To The Curious, a digital ghost‑story project, and most recently he has returned to Box Clever as a lead performer in our national tour of Macbeth.
Trained in classical text, devising and physical performance, Samater brings strong ensemble presence and cultural insight to every role. We’re excited to welcome him back as he continues to shape bold, school‑engaging storytelling with us.
TESTIMONIES
The play showed how much a person who gets bullied suffers and how to act towards bullying if you see it happen. I think the way they acted it was good because it involved us and showed us what we might do and could have done
“I also liked that we shared ideas and I enjoyed listening to other
people’s work. It was really inspiring and very worthwhile.”
“I think the way the actors stayed in character was really good and
also the way they expressed their emotions was exceptional.”