Our Ethos

Something Happened is a theatre company that wants to change things. And, hopefully, make you laugh in the process.

Recently, there's been a lot of coverage about how poorly women are represented in British theatre, both on and off the stage. Oddly enough, while 68% of theatregoers are women, the 2:1 problem (two men for every woman) persists when it comes to the actual productions. Why there would be such a discrepancy is somewhat confusing, but Stella Duffy has offered the notion that "young women playwrights currently in the ascendency have clearly [...] noticed that they are likely to be taken more seriously, that their work is more likely to be produced, if it’s about men."

This is, hopefully, where Something Happened comes to the rescue, cape flapping majestically in the wind and all that. 

Our goal, quite simply, is to create funny, interesting parts for women. We're not saying we want all-female casts or even that we always want women to be at the forefront of the action. We simply want to even out that 2:1 ratio and, beyond that, depict women as people who are just as capable of jokes and - more broadly, just as complicated - as men. 

Admittedly, we're starting off small. Our first project is a two-hander by the name of Character, in which two old friends, Michelle and Freya, reunite in a country cottage so that one of them can finish her first novel. It's a comedy about the creative process, a satire on the romanticisation of the act of writing, a poignant look at the passing of time and also sort of a bromance. Only with women. But there's no word for that - not just yet, anyway. Think Bridesmaids meets Withnail & I and you're halfway there.

With a bit of luck, we'll be staging a shortened version of Character this summer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Beyond that? Well...watch this space.