A new theatre initiative helping playwrights from underprivileged backgrounds overcome the cost of spending essential time in London has attracted support from Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Jack Thorne, alongside some of the country’s leading writers for stage and screen.
Writers’ Block has grown out of the work of the Adopt a Playwright Award and Omnibus Theatre, offering affordable accommodation to writers from disadvantaged backgrounds who need to be in the capital for meetings, rehearsals, performances and career opportunities. Among those making generous financial contributions to the pilot scheme are Waller-Bridge, who is also offering the use of the London flat she bought specifically for writers to use early in their careers, and Thorne, co-creator and co-writer of Netflix phenomenon Adolescence and playwright of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, who has added his personal experiences to highlight the importance of the scheme.
Thorne’s support has a personal resonance for the award-winning writer, whose work spans theatre and television, including Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Adolescence, which he co-created with Stephen Graham. Jack said:
“I was lucky when I started out, my brother lived in Croydon and was able to put me up. He did so, rather selflessly, for five years, before I moved to Luton and he got his peace. For many writers the need for a roof makes writing impossible which is why this pilot is so important. If we want stories told about our complicated world, we need writers of every background writing them. If you’re from privilege your biggest problem is what to fill a page with, if you’re not, so much of your struggle is about the need to survive.”
They are joined by financial backing from some of Britain’s best-known writers for stage and screen, including James Graham (Dear England, Sherwood, Standard of Living and the newly announced National Theatre play Major); Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley, Gentleman Jack); Peter Morgan (creator of The Crown, writer of Frost/Nixon); Lee Hall (Billy Elliot, Rocketman); Rebecca Lenkiewicz (Hot Milk, She Said, co-writer of Ida); Stephen Beresford (writer of Pride for the screen, and book and lyrics for the stage musical transferring to the Bridge Theatre this November); Caryl Churchill (Top Girls, Cloud Nine); Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, The Pillowman and upcoming Wild Horse Nine); playwright and producer, former Young Vic Artistic Director, David Lan; and the Estate of Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize-winning playwright behind The Birthday Party, The Caretaker and Betrayal.
The financial backing was crucial to sourcing the accommodation and administering the scheme as well as buying, building and equipping a Writers’ Cabin to help playwrights find a free quiet space to work.
James Graham has spoken particularly strongly about the class barrier facing writers saying:
“The industry’s urgent pursuit of representation is still letting down the biggest area of under-representation of all, which is class. When I first made it to London, I slept on friend’s floors and worked in call centres and bars while I wrote. Every spare room a scheme like this can give to writers starting out in London, not only helps them write but saves them from giving up completely. We don’t need grand gestures, just someone to open a door and help us keep going.”
A simple answer to an expensive problem
Writers’ Block was created by Sofie Mason and Diana Jervis-Read (the original creators of The Offies, the Off West End Theatre Awards, and campaigning listing site OffWestEnd.com) who originally launched the Adopt a Playwright Award in 2008, an annual award supporting emerging writers from underprivileged backgrounds.
So far, 55 writers have been supported as winners or runners-up of the Adopt a Playwright Award, including Ryan Calais Cameron (Retrograde, The Kiln 2023, transferring to the Apollo in 2025; For Black Boys, West End 2024), who credits the scheme as one of the main reasons he was able to establish his writing career, Sarah Grochala (winner of the 2024 Women’s Prize for playwriting) and Kenny Emson (BAFTA-nominated for The Last Hours of Laura K and currently touring The Disappearing Man)
Much of the £10,000 yearly Adopt a Playwright award often goes toward covering a winner’s rent in London – proof of just how central accommodation is to the problem the Adopt a Playwright Award was set up to solve.
But raising that kind of money for one writer a year is one thing; doing it for the scores of talented underprivileged writers locked out of a career in theatre by London’s cost of living is another. It was this gap that led Mason and Jervis-Read to a simpler idea – rather than raising more prize money, find somewhere to stay that they can afford – and Writers’ Block was born in partnership with Omnibus Theatre in Clapham.
Writers’ Block connects playwrights with Omnihosts in the Clapham area and beyond – people who have a spare room or property and are willing to offer it at dramatically reduced rates. Accommodation costs no more than £30 a night or £500 a month, with many hosts charging considerably less; Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s flat is provided without rent, with the resident paying bills only.
During its pilot year, 15 homes have signed up to the initiative with writers using accommodation for periods ranging from overnight stays to longer-term placements. 12 writers had already found accommodation through the Omnihost network.
Among members of the Adopt a Playwright group, 41% live outside London – underlining just how central accommodation is to the barriers facing new writers. That difficulty is part of a much bigger picture: research from the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre and the Sutton Trust found that just 16% of people working in the creative industries come from working-class backgrounds. The study also found that class imbalances are more pronounced in the creative industries than in any other sector category – showing how hard it remains for talented writers without money or connections to break into the industry, let alone stay in it.
The financial difference can be considerable. Playwright Emma-Louise Howell estimates that Writers’ Block has saved her around £850 a month; Tommy Sissons around £600 a month; while Steve Hevey estimates that an Omnihost saved him between £4,000 and £6,000 over the course of a year. Shorter stays have also saved writers hundreds of pounds at a time – stays can range from a single night through to long-term arrangements.
For playwrights struggling with the cost of living in London, affordable accommodation does more than reduce financial pressure. Spending less on exorbitant rents means less need to take on long hours in low-paid work simply to cover living costs, freeing up more time and energy to write.
From sofa-surfing to having a London base
Among the playwrights to have used Writers’ Block is Ishy Din, the Middlesbrough taxi-driver-turned-playwright and screenwriter whose work includes Snookered and Approaching Empty. Din has spoken previously about coming to writing from a background where he did not believe people like him became writers. Before Writers’ Block, visits to London meant sofa-surfing or asking friends for somewhere to stay. He said:
“I used to sofa-surf, ask for favours or impose myself on friends. This was excruciating as one always feels like they are agreeing out of some sense of obligation and I felt I was taking advantage of their generosity. Also, because I live in Middlesbrough, there was no way of really returning the favour. It was one-way traffic. However, since having an Omnihost, those pressures are off. They have agreed to host me and others – that’s important, as it makes you feel part of a collective rather than an unwelcome guest. It is also a relief that if my usual host can’t help, there are alternatives that I can use. This makes the anxiety surrounding overnight visits to London no longer a factor. It makes planning and accepting meetings that will further my career much easier to accept and attend.”
For Emma-Louise Howell, a young playwright from the East Midlands, Writers’ Block has become a longer-term home base. Howell has been staying with Irish actor Alan Turkington in Camberwell, and the arrangement has been extended because both have enjoyed it so much.
Howell says the stability has changed both her finances and her ability to build a career. She estimates that she is now able to have face-to-face meetings with directors, literary managers or artistic directors around twice a month that she would otherwise have been unable to attend, and says two such relationships have already resulted in offers to house work of hers next year. She says:
“As a young writer from the East Midlands, the fight to get established in this industry has felt relentless: years of unpaid work, closed doors and extortionate living costs in London have frequently priced me out of a career that I felt I hadn’t even had a chance to begin. The Writers’ Block scheme has been a genuine lifeline. At a crucial time in my career, this scheme has offered affordable accommodation, an undisturbed place to write and an immensely supportive network that’s not only made me a better writer but given me the security, foundations and confidence to start building a viable lasting career. I quite honestly don’t know where I would be without it.”
Turkington adds; “I’m so happy that I became an early adopter of this scheme and I’m even happier to champion it. I was very lucky to afford a flat in the late 90s and have tried to pay some of that privilege forward, especially now when rents are abhorrently high. I have rented out my spare room for years, largely to creatives, and have come to realise that writers in particular have such a strong work ethic, with a huge respect for both their space, mine and our shared home. When I first signed up as an Omnihost, it was only on a 3-to-5-month short lets basis but living with Emma-Louise has been so successful it will continue as long as it still suits us both. To me, being an Omnihost is the most decent and worthwhile way to rent out a room if you have one.”
