COVID-19 UPDATE: We made the decision to cancel all scheduled performances of SUCKER PUNCH. We are hoping to reschedule the show at some point in the future. All ticketholders that have booked via Stratford East have been informed. If you booked your tickets through a third party ticket agent then please contact them directly about your booking.
1981, South London. Thatcher’s Britain.
Jab. Double jab, cross. Jab, hook to body.
Leon and Troy are best mates trying to figure out their place in the world amid mounting unemployment and simmering racial tensions. After finding solace in Charlie’s gym, they start forging their path into the ruthless world of professional boxing.
Roy Williams’ bruising play examines what it was like to be a young black man in 1980s Britain and asks, how can you fight a system that’s desperate to see you fail?
Praise for playwright Roy Williams:
"The undisputed heavyweight champion of black British dramatists"
The Telegraph
Presented by Theatre Royal Stratford East
Previews: Fri 19 - Wed 24 Jun 2020 (what is a preview?)
Runtime: 1 hour 30 minutes (no interval)
Age Guidance: 14+ (see Content Advisory Note)
Concessions available for under 26s. Click here for details about companion/carer tickets.
Booking Enquiries
Our online booking system does not allow customers to leave isolated seats. We do this in order to prevent gaps in the auditorium.
Currently seats are on sale from Row B in the stalls backwards, and it is possible that Row A will go on sale at a later date, so please be aware that purchasing seats in Row B does not guarantee that you will be in the front row. For some shows the boxes might have a slightly restricted view. Seats marked with an ‘i’ indicate a restricted view.
If you have any booking enquiries then please do not hesitate to speak to our Box Office team on 020 8534 0310.
Our ticket prices increase as the theatre fills. We always recommend booking early to secure the best seats at the best price.
Creative Team
Writer - Roy Williams
Director - Roy Alexander Weise
Designer - Jemima Robinson
Lighting Designer - Zoe Spurr
Choreographer and Movement Director – Lanre Malaolu
Fight Director - Kate Waters
Sound Designer - Alexandra Faye-Braithwaite
Casting Director - Isabella Odoffin
Access performances:
Relaxed Performance - Wed 08 Jul, 7.30pm (what's this?)
BSL Performance - Thu 16 Jul, 7.30pm
Captioned Performance - Fri 17 Jul, 7.30pm
Audio Described Performance - Sat 18 Jul, 2.30pm
Touch Tour - Sat 18 Jul, 1.30pm
Neighbours' Night - Fri 26 Jun (what's this?)
UNO Night - Wed 24 Jun (what's this?)
Roy Williams - Writer
Roy began writing plays in 1990 and is now arguably one of the country's leading dramatists. In 2000 he was the joint-winner of the George Devine Award and in 2001 he was awarded the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright. He was awarded an OBE for Services to Drama in the 2008 Birthday Honours List. His play, Sucker Punch, received the award for Best Play at the Writers Guild awards in 2011, and it was nominated for Best Play at the Olivier Awards in 2011 winning the Olivier for Best Choreography.
His plays include Advice For the Young at Heart (Theatre Centre); an adaptation of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Pilot Theatre/UK tour); Sucker Punch (Royal Court - Olivier Award nomination for Best Play & Winner of the Best Play Writers Guild Awards of Great Britain, 2011); Category B (Tricycle); Angel House (Eclipse Theatre/UK tour); Days of Significance (RSC); Joe Guy (Soho Theatre/Tiata Fahodzi); There's Only One Wayne Matthews (Polka Theatre); Baby Girl (National Theatre Connections); Absolute Beginners (Lyric Hammersmith); Little Sweet Thing (Nottingham Playhouse/Eclipse Theatre UK tour); Slow Time (National Theatre Education); Fallout (Royal Court); Sing Yer Heart Out For the Lads (National Theatre); Clubland (Royal Court); The Gift (Birmingham Rep/Tricycle); Local Boy (Hampstead Theatre); Souls (Theatre Centre); Lift Off (Royal Court); Starstruck (Tricycle - Winner of John Whiting Award, Alfred Fagon Award and EMMA Award for Best Play); Josie's Boy (Red Ladder Theatre Co.); Wildefire (Hampstead Theatre)The No-Boys Cricket Club and Kingston 14 (both Theatre Royal, Stratford East) and an adaptation of Antigone (Pilot Theatre/UK tour). Soul: The Untold Story of Marvin Gaye (Royal & Derngate Northampton/Hackney Empire co-production) The Firm (Hampstead Theatre) He also contributed to the Royal Court's Peckham: The Soap Opera.
Television work includes Let It Snow (Endor Productions/Sky); Fallout (Company Pictures/Channel 4, Screen Nation Award for Achievement in Screenwriting); Offside (BBC, Winner of BAFTA Children's Film & TV Award for Best Schools Drama) , Babyfather (BBC) and Soon Gone: The Windrush Chronicles (BBC) For film he has co-written Fast Girls (DJ Films).
Radio work includes adaptations of ER Braithwaite's A Choice of Straws and To Sir With Love as well as original plays Tell Tale and Homeboys. He has also created and written seven series of The Interrogation for BBC Radio 4.
Roy Alexander Weise - Director
Roy Alexander Weise was the 19th annual winner of the James Menzies-Kitchin Award and directed his critically acclaimed, sell out production of The Mountaintop by Katori Hall at the Young Vic. Roy was nominated at the 2018 Evening Standard Awards for the ‘Emerging Talent’ Award.
Director credits for Theatre includes: The Trick (Bush Theatre and UK Tour); Nine Night (National Theatre & West End), Dead Don’t Floss (National Theatre); The Dark (Fuel Theatre); The Mountaintop (Young Vic and UK Tour); Br’er Cotton (Theatre 503); Heretic Voices (Arcola Theatre); Jekyll and Hyde (National Youth Theatre); The Ugly One (Park Theatre); Zero for the Young Dudes (Young & Talented in association with NT Connections); Primetime (Royal Court); and Stone Face (Finborough Theatre).
Assistant Director credits for Theatre includes: Hangmen (Royal Court and West End); X, Escaped Alone, You For Me For You, Primetime 2015, Violence and Son, Liberian Girl (Royal Court); Albion, We Are Proud To Present… (Bush Theatre); and The Serpent’s Tooth (Talawa /Almeida Theatre).
Trainee Director credits for Television includes: Invisible (Red Room/Ballet Boys/Channel 4).
Roy is an Associate Artist of the Donmar Warehouse.
Roy has previously worked at the Royal Court as the Trainee Director, at the Bush Theatre and Lyric Hammersmith as the BBC Theatre Fellow and at The Red Room as Associate Artist.
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