In a unique collaborative effort between the NCPA and London’s Soho Theatre, new narratives from worlds apart will intermingle at the staged reading of the award-winning new play Little Brother.

By Neelakshi Singh

Northern Irish playwright Eoin McAndrew’s Little Brother begins with a trepid late-night phone call between siblings Brigid and Niall. The latter stands by the river with a plastic bag and lighter fluid, and right after the line disconnects, he sets himself on fire. An uneasy question hangs in the air: can love be the antidote for self-destruction?

Set in modern-day Belfast, Little Brother is an episodic modern tragicomedy that, last year, competed against 1,700 entries to win Soho Theatre’s Verity Bargate Award, one of the most prestigious and oldest awards for new writing in the UK. After a successful production at Soho Theatre that opened to rave reviews, a staged reading of the play will be presented at the NCPA’s Experimental Theatre this month, which marks the beginning of a new collaboration between the two leading cultural institutions to develop and support new writing in India.

Soho Theatre operates at the intersection of theatre, comedy and cabaret with storytelling at its heart. It has had a long-standing relationship with the performing arts scene in India, with theatre productions from here travelling to London and vice versa—The Gentlemen’s Club, presented by the NCPA, had a 12-day run at Soho in 2024—and a robust exchange involving stand-up and spoken word artistes from India and the UK. “The NCPA has been working with Soho for the last four years. Under our collaboration on this new writing project, a series of workshops will be held in Mumbai and Delhi over the next two years,” notes Bruce Guthrie, Head of Theatre and Films at the NCPA. The initiative will see eight emerging playwrights—four from Mumbai and four from Delhi—experience Little Brother and, in response to the reading, write their own full-length plays. These works will be produced at the NCPA and travel across India and to London, with generous support from the British Council.

Participating writers will receive one-on-one dramaturgical support and take part in a workshop at the NCPA with Soho Theatre’s Associate Director (Literary) Max Elton, and Mumbai-born, London-based Creative Associate Pooja Sivaraman. McAndrew will travel to Mumbai to attend the staged reading and engage with the Indian writers. For a young, award-winning playwright to witness a fresh interpretation of his work and directly inspire a new generation of writers in another country adds a different dimension to the exchange of artistic vision.

Yet, it is imperative to ask: why stage a dramatised reading rather than a full production? For Guthrie, it’s about the distinct power of the medium itself. “This is an intimate reading happening at the Experimental Theatre; on the other hand, OGANGA! was also a staged reading, but it was in front of a very big crowd at the Tata Theatre,” he reflects, referring to the play written by eminent physician and author Dr. Farokh E. Udwadia on the journey of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, who forsook a comfortable life to work as a doctor in the jungles of Equatorial Africa. The soliloquy, performed by Jim Sarbh, was first staged in 2022. “I think the staged reading is just a different medium to experience. It’s a different challenge for performers and the audiences to experience emotions of a different density. I have seen audiences try not to cry at readings.”

A staged reading occupies a unique place in theatrical tradition—an intermediate phase leading to a full production. Actors may even read stage directions aloud, and the purpose is to gauge the effectiveness of elements like dialogue and flow, and receive feedback. “The focus will be more on the writing itself and the emotions of the characters,” Guthrie explains. Without the distraction of elaborate sets, costumes or blocking, the audience’s attention will be captured entirely by McAndrew’s words.

At its core, Little Brother is a quintessentially Irish story about sibling love with a Kafkaesque exploration of the crumbling healthcare system in the UK. “I especially love the idea that it is focused on siblings because that is not a relationship we see very often [onstage],” says Rachel D’Souza, who is directing the reading. “We tend to see a parent-child dynamic, we tend to see romantic relationships or friendships in situations like these. It’s also very dear to me in a lot of ways because of my own relationship with my sibling.”

For D’Souza, the challenge of a staged reading is distinct from a full production. “When it comes to a reading, I think about how to get the audience to listen in for maybe an hour, an hour and a half,” she explains. “Readings can be quite satisfying, but they can sometimes feel incomplete. I know that I would like to have as much focus on the script as possible and not create moments that take away from it.” To enhance the emotional beats of Niall and Brigid’s journey, D’Souza is introducing live music to accompany the reading, which features a talented cast of actors: Amba Suhasini K. Jhala, Dheer Hira, Santanu Ghatak and Lekha Parida.

The broader initiative behind this collaboration reflects a philosophy of artistic development that breaks traditional hierarchical models. It is an innovative idea to pair emerging Indian playwrights with another young writer and his award-winning contemporary work, rather than teach the greatness of a more experienced, celebrated playwright.

“The NCPA has a similar initiative for Marathi playwrights with the Pratibimb festival,” says Guthrie. “We want to do the same for English-language theatre in the country. It’s extremely hard to earn as a playwright. Hopefully, our partnership with Soho will lead to opening up new and important opportunities for the writers. It is very different for playwrights to have their stories be heard in this way in front of an audience. We want the writers to have that experience.”

The collaboration is an investment in the belief that there is value in the shared struggles of young playwrights, in shared discovery and the unique perspective that comes from living within and observing an era entirely one’s own.

This article was originally published in the January 2026 issue of ON Stage.