Event Description

Meet Ryan. 19 (but young for his age). School drop-out (but smart). Turkey sandwich enthusiast (365 days a year). Absolute stunner (no addendum).

He’s new in town, and all he wants to do is check out. The hard part is coming up with an exit plan.

When the one person he thought he could rely on ups and leaves, Ryan finds himself adrift in a city he still hasn’t learned to like, looking for direction. Six months to kill, no money, no rules… surely this is the worst possible time to be alone?

That’s when he meets Richard, who seems to have all the answers…

A new British play exploring social isolation in young people and adolescent bisexual identity, Can’t Wait To Leave is a bitingly frank portrayal of loneliness and self-discovery.

Written and directed by Stephen Leach in his playwriting debut, Can’t Wait To Leave is set entirely in an A&E waiting room and told by a young man named Ryan. Finding the incident report provided inadequate to explain the reason for his visit, Ryan begins to reflect on the course his life has taken over the past six months following the unexpected departure of his older brother.

Can’t Wait To Leave had a short initial run at Waterloo East Theatre in February 2023 and enjoyed highly positive reviews, with LastMinuteTheatreTickets calling the show “a superbly written and performed piece of theatre” and LondonTheatre1 awarding it a five-star review. It subsequently ran at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe the same year. It was highly praised by critics and audiences, receiving a slew of highly positive reviews and going on to sell out its final performance. The show was subsequently nominated for an OffFest award.

A solo performance with an additional voice cast, the show addresses and explores themes of loneliness among young people, childhood trauma, family estrangement, and sexual identity. Particular praise has been given to both the writing and performance, with BroadwayBaby writing that the show is “[written] with impressive realism and deep connection to [its] founding concepts” and BroadwayWorld noting that the play’s star Zach Hawkins “does incredible work… he waltzes through the flowing stream of consciousness with ease, handling the final shift in tone with depth and reflection.”

“A highly accomplished monologue… [and] there’s plenty to laugh at.” The Quintessential Review

GUIDANCE: 16yrs +