‘You care a lot, that’s nice. It shows your age.’
Jay’s new. He’s just started as a temp at an NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service office. He arrives with little more than a fledgling desk plant and well-meaning plans to change the broken system.
Angela’s seen it all. She’s been working in this building for over 30 years and nothing seems to faze her – except perhaps this eager new hire who seems determined to challenge her at every turn.
Exhausted by archaic protocol, Jay starts to bend the rules to breaking point in a desperate attempt to help their patients. Trust is shattered, professional boundaries are crossed and Jay discovers the reality of what is truly at stake.
This Might Not Be It unflinchingly confronts the hard truths of our crumbling NHS mental health services. This candid portrayal of human lives at the mercy of the system is written by former Bush Emerging Writers’ Group member Sophia Chetin-Leuner and directed by Ed Madden. Produced by Broccoli Arts (Salty Irina, Summerhall) and Jessie Anand Productions (Orlando, 59E59).
SHORTLISTED The Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2020
LONGLISTED Verity Bargate Award 2020
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Broccoli Arts produces work for stage and page, primarily for/by/about lesbian, bisexual & queer people who experience misogyny. Founded by Salome Wagaine in 2019, now run by Eve Allin, Broccoli exists to produce theatre that has variety, ingenuity and relevance. We enable queer writers and creatives to make work that is not defined solely by identity. We aim to produce work which is enjoyable, political & theatrical.
Productions include Eleanor Tindall’s Before I Was A Bear at the Bunker Theatre and Soho Theatre.
Ed Madden‘s productions include: The Limit (Royal Ballet); Octopolis (Hampstead); Yellowfin (Southwark); A Table Tennis Play (Underbelly, Edinburgh Fringe); A Number (The Other Room, Cardiff); The World’s Wife (Welsh National Opera) and Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons (Warwick Arts Centre, Edinburgh Fringe, UK Tour).
Jessie Anand Productions makes theatre and opera that is fresh and playful. Since it was founded in 2018, the company has been nominated for six Offies and premiered five new plays.
Productions include the Offie-winning Yellowfin at Southwark Playhouse, the acclaimed Pennyroyal at the Finborough, and Orlando, which transferred to New York in 2023 following its success in London and Edinburgh. The company has also produced opera at the Arcola Theatre and Wilton’s Music Hall, and is currently working with Maz O’Connor to develop her new musical The Wife of Michael Cleary, which recently won the MTI Stiles and Drewe Mentorship Award.
Upcoming productions include Antisemitism: a (((musical))) at Camden People’s Theatre and Tiger at Omnibus Theatre.
Jessie Anand Productions is supported by Stage One.
Rory Thomas-Howes is a queer, West Midlands-born producer and writer trained at East 15 Acting School and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. His work focuses mainly on underrepresented voices in bold new writing, and he has been longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, shortlisted for the Sit Up Award, the VAULT Five and the Charlie Hartill Award, and won an Off West End Commendation and Theatre Weekly’s Best of Fringe Award.
As a producer, he works both freelance and as Associate Producer to Grace Dickson Productions, working on productions such as Lady Dealer (Roundabout at Summerhall), SPLINTERED (Soho) and Project Dictator (New Diorama), and has produced numerous sell-out shows at venues and festivals including Soho Theatre, New Diorama, Pleasance, Sheffield Theatres & Edinburgh Fringe Festival, with runs ranging from single work-in-progress performances to extensive national tours.
Sophia Chetin-Leuner is a writer for theatre, TV and film. Sophia had two plays Shortlisted for the inaugural Paines Plough Women’s Prize for Playwriting in 2021: This Might Not Be It and Porn Play, which was also on the Verity Bargate Award shortlist 2022. Sophia is currently on the BBC Writer’s Drama Room (2023) and is developing original TV pilots with Two Brothers and Mam Tor. She was chosen for the Bush Theatre’s Emerging Writers’ Group in 2019.
Awards include Dalio Foundation Scholarship, Tisch NYU (2017-18); Austin Film Festival Second Round, Arif (2017); Best of the Vaults, Save + Quit, published by Nick Hern Books (2017); HighTide Academy Winner (September 2016).
