Zoe Cooper Boeken

A play about resistance and dignity in the face of global exploitation. Winner of Theatre Uncut's Political Playwriting Award.

Six short plays exploring estrangement and loneliness, moving towards redemption and hope. First performed and livestreamed from the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in 2021.

Seventeen-year-old Asha is an emphatic rebel, unafraid of pointing out the hypocrisy around her but less sure how to actually dismantle it. Her younger sister, Bettina, wide-eyed and naïve, is just trying to get through the school day without getting her pocket money nicked. Between essays, homework and bus journeys home the two sisters meet outside the school gates each afternoon, smarting at the injustice of the world around them. Bouncing with wit, Sonali Bhattacharyya’s mesmerizing play  Two Billion Beats  is an insightful, moving and tremendously funny coming-of-age story about the unfairness of growing up in a world where you don't make the rules. It premiered at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in February 2022. An earlier version of the play was performed as part of the Orange Tree's  Inside/Outside  season, livestreamed in 2021.

And we are watching the huge grey waves crashing and this is the moment when I say I have to tell you something. Claire and her wife Kit have moved from the confines of London to the wide open coasts of South Shields. To be nearer family, to be nearer the sea, to put down roots. To have a baby. Claire’s new job at the local school is a step up, and she wants to make a real difference, but she soon discovers that she has as much to learn from her students as they have from her. A tender new play about gender, wild swimming, and how we define who we are.

Though Northanger Abbey is one of Jane Austen's earliest novels, it was not published until after her death--well after she'd established her reputation with works such as Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility. the novel is modeled after the day's popular romances and Gothic thrillers, which it then proceeds to ridicule. The heroine is Catherine Morland, who encounters upper-crust society at Bath, falls in love, and becomes targeted by misinformed fortune-seekers. After moving to Northanger Abbey, her imagination goes to work and dreams up mysteries that lead to various social disasters.

The story revolves around Jess and Joe, two teenagers from different backgrounds navigating the complexities of adolescence. Joe, a Norfolk local, contrasts with Jess, who visits with her au pair and struggles with self-image. As they face the challenges of fitting in, secrets, and budding romance, their journey highlights the importance of friendship amidst the trials of growing up.

A riotous stage comedy about sisterhood, freedom of speech, and dissent in the face of institutionalised Islamophobia.

Cecil Rice - Venice, Sunlight and Water is to be published as a prelude to a travelling exhibition of Cecil Rice's original work and silkscreen prints around the UK in the Summer of 2006 through to the end of the year.