WE ARE WOUND UP THEATRE

We are a critically acclaimed comedic theatre company formed in 2013. We work between London and the glorious North of England.​

We discuss seismic issues affecting working class and other marginalised communities through hilarious, bold little pieces of theatre.

Catch our latest production, the return Tones - A Hip Hop Opera, next to be seen at the Brixton House Theatre in South London from February 4th to 15th, 2025, before embarking on a tour of the UK throughout the spring and summer.

Creative Director | MATTHEW GREENHOUGH

Matthew is a working-class, award-winning theatremaker, playwright, actor and comedian from Sheffield, working across Theatre, TV and Radio. As well as founding the company, Matthew has written much of Wound Up’s work to date including The Death of Molly Miller, Bismillah! an ISIS Tragicomedy and It’ll be Alt-Right on the Night.

He is currently developing a number of original projects for Television and Radio. These include KILL THE POOR, with The Boom Group, two projects, Kompromat and Parts of Life, with Rollem Productions, and MEAT, with Free Turn Productions and Screen Yorkshire. His original audio comedy/drama for BBC Radio 4, The Death of Molly Miller, was broadcast in July 2023 before being developed for the stage with Wound Up. He has previously worked with the BBC as a member of the BBC Drama Room 20/21, and was shortlisted for the BBC Drama Writers Programme 2020. A recipient of The Peggy Ramsay Foundation Grant and The Live Theatre Bursary, awarded by Live Theatre, Newcastle for ‘innovative approaches to story-based performance’. With Jonny and Sofi he is also an associate artist at The Pleasance Theatre Trust.

After spending his youth in punk bands around Yorkshire, Matt started writing in his twenties, after performing stand-up comedy as a dare while living as a squatter. His writing uses comedy to explore seismic issues through dark, character-led stories informed by his background. He has been described as “skilfully juxtaposing the poetic and mundane – a sweary Alan Bennett with funkier hair”.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR | JONNY KELLY

Jonny Kelly is a theatre director, dramaturg, producer and teacher. He trained as an actor at East15 Acting School. As Artistic Director of Wound Up, he has directed, developed and co-produced Bismillah! An ISIS Tragicomedy and It’ll Be Alt-Right On The Night.

As a director, his credits include: Redcoats and Revolting Women (Mikron Theatre Company) A Princess Undone (Park Theatre) The Passing Of The Third Floor Back and Proud (Finborough Theatre) Hyem (Northern Stage & Theatre 503) and Money Womb (Theatre 503)

As an assistant/associate director he has assisted Justin Audibert and Nina Raine on productions at Trafalgar Studios and a No.1 tour, amongst others.

Along with Sofi and Matt, he is an associate artist at The Pleasance Theatre Trust. He was the assistant director at Papatango Theatre company where he still works as a judge on the Papatango new writing prize.

CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTOR | Gerel Falconer

Gerel Falconer is an award-winning actor, writer, rapper, rapperturg, and lyricist. As a writer, Gerel specializes in fusing theatre with UK Hip-Hop, Grime, and UK Drill music.

The winner of the Black British Theatre Awards 2023 Book And Lyrics Award (presented at The National Theatre) he completed the CertHE and BA Acting course at East 15 Acting School, where he won the 2012 Lilian Bayliss Award. He is also an associate artist at Highrise Entertainment, resulting in him being part of delivery teams working in partnership with venues/organizations including We Are Spotlight, Centre Point & Artsdepot, working with young people across London. Gerel's theatre credits include: Tones (Brixton House, Edinburgh Fringe), UK Drill Project (Barbican), Alice In Wonderland (Brixton House), Lil.Miss.Lady (Roundhouse, HighTide), Black Power Desk (Brixton House, Old Vic 12).

A longtime friend of the company, like Wound Up, representation of the socially disenfranchised is at the forefront of Gerel's work. After creating the critically acclaimed Tones A Hip-Hop Opera with the company in 2023, he became co-artistic director in 2024.

PRODUCER | SOFI BERENGER

Sofi is an award-winning Sri Lankan/Australian theatre producer. She is currently Senior Producer at Kings Head Theatre, Islington, and chairwoman of outdoor theatre specialists Iris Theatre. Previous roles have included producer and general manager for VAULT Festival and VAULT Creative Arts and general manager for Olivier-award nominated immersive theatre company Les Enfants Terribles. From 2017-2018 she was the producer of London’s Free Open Air Theatre Season at The Scoop in front of city hall. As well as producing for Wound Up, she is also the producer for Metal Rabbit Productions.

Notable productions include Spiderfly (Theatre503 2019), We’re Staying Right Here (Park Theatre 2019), The Trench (Southwark Playhouse 2018), Cuckoo (Soho Theatre 2018), The Three Musketeers (Iris Theatre 2018), H.R.Haitch (Union Theatre 2018), Mark Farrelly’s Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope and The Silence of Snow (Various 2016-17), Treasure Island (Winner 2017 Offie Awards for Best Production for Young People ages 8+)

Sofi is currently supported by Stage One New Producers bursary. Along with Jonny and Matt, she is an associate artist at The Pleasance Theatre Trust.

EMAIL US

Tones - A Hip Hop Opera

A man in a battle with his identity, and on a journey through the depths of Black-British culture, class, and belonging. What happens if you're not black enough for the ends, but too black for the rest of the world?

Tones combining gritty underground sounds of Hip-Hop, Grime, Drill and the melodrama of Opera, to present a piece of gig theatre like no other, as Jerome, aka The Professor, navigates his way through a treacherous path to self-discovery.

An epoch-shattering leap forward for Wound Up, as for the first time, we invited a new writer to discuss seismic issues through groundbreaking, bold little pieces of theatre. We couldn’t have been more proud to have our friend Gerel Falconer, aka G, be that writer, in collaboration with Producer, engineer and sound designer, 3D Williams.

Tones can next be seen at the Brixton House Theatre, South London from the 4th - 15th February 2025.

The Death Of Molly Miller

A pitch-black satire on influencers, inequality, gambling addiction, reality-dating shows and Wagamamas. 

Molly's a social media influencer/runner-up on 'The Love Shack'. One night, returning to her penthouse, she finds a desperate thief, robbing her under duress from a psychopathic loan shark. In shock, the thief takes Molly hostage... An act which surprises him more than anyone. He needs Molly's money to clear his debts and protect his family. But Molly has a secret... one which could have deadly consequences for them both…

Developed from writer Matthew Greenhough’s debut BBC Radio 4 play, it was originally developed and script edited by legendary radio producer Kirsty Williams. This stage adaptation, extended and uncensored, premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in August 2023 in the Big Belly at The Underbelly, Cowgate.

It’ll be alt-right on the night

It’ll be Alt-Right on the Night chronicles a friendship through youth, adolescent rebellions, a shared passion for punk rock music and a parallel seduction by radical polarised politics.

Greeny and Stevo grew up punks – squats, dumpster-diving and PVA-glue-spiked hair. But they've changed. No, f*ck that, the world's changed.

One’s a soyboy, one’s a fascist, and, in a world of trigger warnings and snowflakes, conservatism is the new punk rock.

A story of social justice warriors and the far-right. With a jazz-punk score and a friendship ending in a Lidl carpark with a punch-up and accusations of Nazism.

Are they stupid? Dickheads? Or just on different sides of an impassable ideological divide?

BISMILLAH! AN ISIS TRAGICOMEDY

A STORY OF DISENFRANCHISEMENT, SOCIAL ALIENATION, PREJUDICE, RADICALISATION AND THE ROCK BAND QUEEN.

Dean joined the Army, 'Danny' joined the Islamic State. One’s from Leeds, the other's from London.

Brought together in a holding cell in Northern Iraq, as captive and volatile guard. They discuss the North/South divide, reminisce about dead-end jobs they couldn't escape and lampoon the outrageous ever increasing price of a standard airport meal deal, all the while circling an awful terrifying truth – that both of them just want to go home.

​

Bismillah! is a hilarious, heart-breaking and compassionate contribution to the vital discussion around the experiences of disenfranchised young people in modern Britain.

#VILE: The Untimely Demise of a Manufactured Pop Star

2017

theSpace @Jury’s, Edinburgh Fringe 14-26th Aug

A pitch-black, satirical comedy for a cynical, digital age.

Chronicling the social media-induced breakdown of a D-list celebrity, this one-man show explores the dark realities of fame, ambition, existential angst, social media and masturbating in an accessible toilet at the Pride of Britain Awards.

Indoctrinated into the cult of celebrity from birth and still reeling his first heartbreak, our protagonist achieved in his late teens what our culture values most highly: a low level of national recognition following exposure on a reality television programme.

Now a manufactured pop star, he is famed for his social media presence, his ‘British Kardashian' pop starlet girlfriend and his brief spells presenting magazine pieces on breakfast television. He is the epitome of contemporary minor mainstream success. Only, he doesn’t feel that way, he feels vile, and he hardly even recognises the man who looks back at him from his profile pictures.​

Initially developed with the support of London's Theatre N16 as part of its ‘N16: Presents’ showcase of exciting young creatives, and also enjoying support from the Soho Theatre through the Soho Theatre Young Company, #VILE: The Untimely Demise of a Manufactured Pop Star was Wound Up's first one man show which enjoyed a barnstorming run at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe.

#VILE is the story of a famous-ish man, who returns to his northern home town just as his forced persona of banality begins to slip away, with hilarious, offensive and potentially deadly consequences.

CREATIVE TEAM & CAST

Written & performed by Matthew Greenhough

Directed by Dom Riley

Produced by Abbee McCallum

Costume Designed by Alice Cousins

Sound Designed by Ben Everett Riley

Technical Support from Ikram Gilani

Delusions of Adequacy

2013

Cowgatehead, PBH Free Fringe. 11th - 17th August.

A Unique Stage Comedy: Part Theatre, Part Sitcom, Part Stand-Up, Part Greek Tragedy.

"Nihilism, Cynicism, Sarcasm, Orgasm... and the Dole queue"

This upbeat ensemble piece of comedic theatre follows Anthony Bates, a misanthrope with a superiority complex, dealing with affairs of the heart and the dole office.

Anthony is a cynical northern unemployment statistic. Delusions of Adequacy takes us through his depressing actuality while exploring his delusional reality. With less than helpful asides from his vicious Greek chorus.

Inspired by writer Matthew Greenhough’s experiences of unemployment in the fall out of the 2008 Financial crash, Delusions of Adequacy was Wound Up Theatre's first full-length play which premiered in Edinburgh as part of the PBH Free Fringe in 2013.

Written by Matthew Greenhough

Developed, devised and performed by the Delusions company:

Matthew Greenhough

Lauren Pattison

Katy O’Brien

James Morren

Luke Taylor

Technical Support from Graham Clarke