Troupe Announces World Premiere of TWENTY THOUSAND STREETS UNDER THE SKY

Shehrazade Zafar-Arif 3 March, 2026, 11:28

Troupe has announced the world premiere of Simon Reade's stage adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky, which will open at Southwark Playhouse Borough on 16 September, with previews from 10 September, running until 17 October 2026.

Following the sold-out RSC transfer of The Forsyte Saga Parts 1 and 2, and with The Rat Trap currently playing at Park Theatre, critically acclaimed theatre company Troupe will present a brand new play by Simon Reade, to be directed by Matthew Iliffe.

Based on the classic novel by Patrick Hamilton, Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky is set in London in 1929, where three lonely Londoners pursue their desire for connection and mutual obsession in the sprawling metropolis. In the seedy Midnight Bell pub, barman Bob dreams of becoming a writer and becomes obsessed with the alluring prostitute Jenny Maple, while barmaid Ella dreams of being with the oblivious Bob. Darkly humourous and devastating, it is a love letter to 1920s Jazz Age London in all its grimy glory.

Simon Reade previously adapted Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man for Troupe at Park Theatre and Philip Pullman’s The Scarecrow and His Servant for Southwark Playhouse. Off West End Award winner Matthew Iliffe previously directed Slippery at the Omnibus Theatre and Skye: A Thriller at Summerhall Edinburgh.

Reade described the story as "a dark celebration of a seedy, smoggy, smutty London where heart-breaking, heart-broken people just strive to survive and attempt to have fun in those twenty thousand streets from the Euston Road to Soho, the West End to Hammersmith."

Full casting will be announced shortly.