Event Details

The NCPA and Soho Theatre presents:

Good Beginnings — Workshop

Why Your First 1,500 Words Matter… an interactive workshop on how to capture an audience’s attention. 

Date: Sunday, January 11, 2026

Venue: Sea View Room

Timings: 9.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Morning Batch)
                   2.30 p.m. to 6 p.m.  (Afternoon Batch)

Conducted by: Max Elton

Pooja Sivaraman

The NCPA and Soho Theatre presents ‘Good Beginnings’ workshop – Why Your First 1,500 Words Matter… an interactive workshop on how to capture an audience’s attention. 

Supported by British Council

Anyone who is an aspiring writer, or an experienced writer who would like to re-visit their craft. These workshops will be held in English. Participants must be over the age of 18. Some of the reading material will include harsh language and references to sexual activity. 

Max Elton

Director, Dramaturg and Writer; Associate Director (Literary), Soho Theatre

Max Elton’s directing credits include Not Now by David Ireland (Finborough Theatre/Lyric Belfast), listed as #6 in The Observer’s Plays of 2022 and earning him a nomination for Broadway World’s Director of the Year. Other notable productions include Yes So I Said Yes and The Melting Pot (Finborough Theatre), The End of Hope (Orange Tree/Soho Theatre – Off West End Awards nomination for Best New Play), and Big Brother Blitzkrieg (King’s Head Theatre), which he also wrote.

His associate work includes Sheppey (Orange Tree Theatre) and Madame Rubinstein (Park Theatre). In 2023, Max was selected for the National Theatre Directors’ Course.

He is also the Artistic Director of Bitter Pill, a new writing company that champions audacious playwrights who use humour at the heart of their work. From 2020–23, their Painkiller Project developed and produced 33 audio plays featuring Toby Jones, Tamsin Greig, Noma Dumezweni, and Jason Watkins. In 2023, Bitter Pill launched The Painkiller Prize.

Pooja Sivaraman

Creative Associate, Soho Theatre

Pooja Sivaraman is a Bombay-born, London-based playwright and theatre-maker.

She is currently a Creative Associate at Soho Theatre, where she works on the development of Soho Theatre India – a project fostering artistic exchange between London and Mumbai. She has been part of the Royal Court Introductory Writers’ Group (2021), the Royal Court Long Form Writers’ Group (2023), and the Soho Theatre Writers Lab (2022). Her plays have been shortlisted for the Theatre503 International Playwriting Award and longlisted for the Theatre Uncut Political Playwriting Award.

Pooja is also an alumnus of the CLORE Emerging Leaders programme and works as a freelance theatre-maker and drama facilitator, collaborating with organisations such as Clean Break, Coney, and Attic Theatre Company.

Individual Registration cost Rs. 300/-
Workshop + Reading Combine cost Rs. 400/-
Register now on bookmyshow
Box office : +91 22 66223754                                                         

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Stage Reading:
Little Brother
by Eoin McAndrew
English (90 mins)

Experimental Theatre – Tues. January 13, 2026 – 7 p.m.

The NCPA and Soho Theatre present a staged reading of the 2024 Verity Bargate Award-winning play Little Brother, written by Eoin McAndrew

Supported by British Council

 Little Brother by Eoin McAndrew is a darkly comic yet deeply moving play about love, guilt, and the impossible task of saving someone you love from themselves. When Niall, a young man from Belfast, survives an act of self-immolation, his older sister Brigid takes him in, determined to help him recover. As she tries to keep him safe—removing every source of fire from her flat, monitoring his medication, and making lists to keep control—their shared history and strained sibling bond come under pressure. Niall’s trauma and self-destructive impulses clash with Brigid’s anxious caretaking, revealing the limits of compassion when mental illness and shame run deep..

As months pass, Brigid’s own life begins to unravel under the weight of responsibility, and both siblings are forced to confront how far love can stretch before it breaks. Blending humour and heartbreak, Little Brother examines the blurred lines between care and control, recovery and relapse, and the quiet heroism of those who stay.

Written by: Eoin McAndrew
Directed by: Rachel D’souza
Performed by: Amba Suhasini Jhala, Dheer Hira, more names during correction stage

Tickets:
Rs. 270/-   – for Members

Rs. 300/- for Public

Reading + Workshop Combine cost Rs. 400/-