18 – 28 Oct 2023

Beautiful Thing

18 – 28 Oct 2023

Venue
Running time
150 mins
Age guidance
Content Advisories

Find out more

Content Advisories

This production contains very strong language, references to and sounds of domestic violence (not shown on stage), threats of violence, drug use (not shown on stage), fatphobia and homophobic language. It also contains haze, flashing lights and actors smoking herbal cigarettes on stage.
Group bookings

Find out more

Group bookings

Please contact our Box Office on 0113 213 7700 or email groups@leedsplayhouse.org.uk to book in your school or group (10 tickets or more) to come and see a production.

School prices for Beautiful Thing are £15 per ticket. To help support your visit, every 11th seat will be free of charge. When booking, please provide the total number of seats required including staff.

Groups of 10+ get £5 off tickets on the top 2 price bands.

All offers are subject to availability.

A touching, urban love story, full of warmth and humour.

Teenage boys Ste and Jamie are neighbours. Both are being bullied, Jamie at school and Ste at home by his violent father and brother. One night, when things get too much, Ste seeks refuge in Jamie’s flat and, sharing a bed, the boys strike up a new relationship. Together they come to terms with their sexuality and explore their feelings alongside their Mama Cass loving, rebellious friend Leah and with the much-needed emotional support of Jamie’s lioness mother, Sandra.

This 30th-anniversary revival of Jonathan Harvey’s iconic, coming-out and coming-of-age story, Beautiful Thing is about community, friendship, rites of passage and what it is to be sixteen and in love.

A Leeds Playhouse, Theatre Royal Stratford East and HOME Manchester production. Written by Jonathan Harvey.

TRAILERS

Beautiful Thing: Production Trailer

Beautiful Thing: Audience Reaction

Beautiful Thing: In Conversation with Jonathan Harvey and Russell T Davies

Beautiful Thing: The Cast Play 'Guess the Song'

'one of the funniest, most uplifting, and wonderfully optimistic queer love stories ever'

Attitude

'this play truly is beautiful, and as resonant as it has ever been'

All That Dazzles

'a brilliantly refreshing and tender revival'

The Telegraph

'a tender-hearted triumph'

The Guardian

'renews the play’s claim to gay greatness'

The Evening Standard

'this production is quite the beautiful thing'

Time Out

GALLERY - PRODUCTION IMAGES

Photography by The Other Richard

GALLERY - REHEARSAL IMAGES

Photography by The Other Richard

Rapahel Akuwudike

Ste

Rilwan Abiola Owokoniran

Jamie

Trieve Blackwood-Cambridge

Tony

Shvorne Marks

Sandra

Scarlett Rayner

Leah

Kojo Quainoo

Understudy Jamie

Jonathan Harvey

Writer

Anthony Simpson-Pike

Director

Rosie Elnile

Set and Costume Designer

Elliot Griggs

Lighting Designer

Xana

Sound Designer

Isabella Odoffin CDG

Casting Director

Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster

Movement and Intimacy Coordinator

Robert Awosusi

Associate Director

Bret Yount

Fight Director

Jackie Orton

Costume Supervisor

Joel Trill

Voice and Dialect Coach

View All

BSL flyer

Audio Flyer

Beautiful Thing

Content Advisories

Group bookings

TRAILERS

Five beautiful things about playwright Jonathan Harvey

Rob: ‘a reflective reminder of where I’ve come from, at a time when I can also celebrate who I am today’

Dalton: ‘I was ready to give up on love. Ready to forget what I was looking for.’

Eden: ‘True failure is to shut yourself off from the possibility of love’

Kirsty: ‘Feeling completely at home in my skin and in my community is a massive deal’

Bean: ‘It’s never too late to fight for your happiness and find yourself.’

GALLERY - PRODUCTION IMAGES