In today’s episode, we speak to Soria Hamidi and Christopher Adams-Cohen, whose respective plays - A Burst of Light and All the Beasts of the Earth - were highly commended by the Woven Voices Prize 2025.
Soria is Dutch-Afghan playwright, screenwriter and director based in London. They were selected for the Kiln Theatre Young Writers Programme, the Vineyard Theatre Literary Programme and Kali Theatre Workshops. They were also selected for the London Library Emerging Writers Programme in 2022-23. They recently had their play, The Moderator, shown at Theatre503 as part of the Landwrites project.
Christopher is a Los Angeles-born, London-based playwright of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. They write and develop plays that subvert and expand classical theatrical forms, platform interdisciplinary and underground performance practices, and centre Queer perspectives, history, spirituality, and pleasure. They are an alumnus of the 24/25 Soho Theatre Writer’s Lab, and hold an MA in Dramaturgy & Writing for Performance from Goldsmiths.
Soria and Christopher spoke with us about reclaiming one’s identity through writing, finding the bravery and support to write bold political work, and carving out space for newness and multiculturalism in what can feel like a risk-averse theatre industry.
Christopher’s play-text for The Mad Gay King is available via Playdead Press. For more information about Soria’s and Christopher’s work, check out the following links:
","author_name":"Woven Voices"}