Only two years into our creative collaboration our collective, Meg Bowron, Josh Stainer, Lizzie Hawke and Ned Blackburn (professionally known as Choir Boys) aims to stage bold and provocative work and provide a safe and engaging space for the young and old, queer and non-queer, for a laugh, a cry or anything in-between.

Whilst still at the University of Manchester, Josh, Meg and Ned first came as together to stage Josh’s new play, Bad Traffic in March of 2023. The play debuted at Manchester’s iconic Contact Theatre with a sold-out run. Meg and Ned then directed and produced The Manchester Revue’s Lonely Hearts Sketch Club for the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe which was met with audience hysterics, critical praise and a posh feature on BBC 4’s Front Row. Whilst Lizzie at this point was too busy running the UoM Drama Society, she was a key collaborator on both projects and so when the opportunity arose for us to develop a new show it was an easy decision to add her to the team.

As a fully-fledged team of dedicated collaborators and close friends, we debuted Ned’s first play An Adequate Abridgement of Boarding School Life as a Homo at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe. Amongst the first two-person cast was the wonderful Will Walford, whilst Will is now pursuing further training at LAMDA, his brilliance remains firmly within the show and we cannot wait to see what he does next.

After having achieved a sold-out run that was met with high audience praise, multiple five-star reviews and even a coveted fringe award from Broadway Baby, we were hell-bent on continuing the journey by bringing the show back to the stage in 2025. We are delighted to have Harvey Weed join Ned in the cast and cannot wait to see the show come alive once more.