The Rep’s ground-breaking collaboration with Sky Studios comes to fruition this March as audiences are invited to be amongst the first to enjoy the work of the comedy writing stars of the future. Sky Comedy Rep will host its first-ever festival of new comedic short plays at Birmingham Rep from 3-5 March 2022.

Performances on Thursday 3 and Saturday 5 March will be hosted by the award-winning comedian, Birmingham’s own, Darren Harriott.

Harriott has hosted Live at the Apollo and is a regular face on panel shows such Mock the Week and Don’t Hate the Playaz as well as giving his viewpoint on popular reality shows; The Apprentice: You’re Fired and The Great British Bake Off: Extra Slice. He’s a Comedy Central favourite on shows such as The Comedy Bus and Roast Battle and earlier this year he wrote and recorded his own 4 part series Black Label on BBC Radio 4.

Eleven new comedy writers will present nine new plays in two sets of performances, each played twice over the course of three days, under the mentorship of some of the UK’s biggest names in comedy writing including Guz Khan (Man Like Mobeen), Meera Syal (Goodness Gracious Me, The Kumars) and Danny Brocklehurst (Brassic, Shameless).

Led by Sky Comedy Rep Patron, Julie Walters, the performances are the culmination of The Rep’s new comedy writing talent development scheme with Sky Studios. Headed by The Rep’s Artistic director, Sean Foley, and Creative Director of Comedy at Sky Studios, Anil Gupta, this new yearly bursary and mentorship scheme gives early-career comedy writers the opportunity to have their ideas and scripts developed in collaboration with the finest talents in the industry.

Performances of Sky Comedy Rep on Thursday 3 March at 7.45pm and Saturday 5 March at 3.45pm will comprise of Hatch by Rob Carter; Twitch by Ed Amsden and Tom Coles; Confucius Says Don’t Use F***ing Tinder On The Full Moon by Jingan Young and Desperate by Kat Rose-Martin.

Performances on Friday 4 March and Saturday 5 March at 7.45pm will comprise of Pink Spaceship by Drew Vida Marke; Boys Who F*** and Cry by Ryan Walker-Edwards; Sprint by Jodie Irvine; Mismatch by Ashfaq Gorsi and Spoffin by Mari and Lowri Izzard.

The cast includes Charlotte Brown, Sam Butters, Linda Hargreaves, Duncan Hess, Mari Izzard, Lowri Izzard, Reece J. Morant, Kerena Jagpal, Adonis Jenieco, Karen Johal, Danielle Kassaraté, Su-Lin Looi, Danielle Phillips, Colin Ryan, Kate Spencer, Nylah Taylor-Johnson and Maanuv Thiara.

Sky Comedy Rep plays in The Studio at Birmingham Rep from Thursday 3 - Satuday 5 March with tickets at just £14. Tickets are on sale now at birmingham-rep.co.uk