With the Third Year’s London Season in full swing, we thought it would be a good time to let you peek into some of the amazing things our soon-to-be grads have been up to since their move to the big smoke.
The first full week of their London Season was spent with Henry Waddon and Gabe Winsor, the New Writing Team behind their final performance as OSD students. This was their final week of workshops before moving into full rehearsals for the show, which is due to open at the New Diorama Theatre on the 25th of June.
Henry and Gabe aren’t new to our London Season. Last year, they joined us to lead a week of Research and Development work for another one of their projects with our 2024 Three-Year Course graduates. Following the successful development week in 2024, we were thrilled to have Henry and Gabe announced earlier this year as our first New Writing duo of the 2025 London Season.
The show they have been busy creating is The Gel.
Taking us inside the lives of ten couples involved in the final phase of a trial of a new male contraceptive, The Gel explores the inequality of responsibility in sex, masculine insecurity, and the transactional nature of the relationships we form with the people we love.
If you read our announcement blog in January, you will already know that the writer of The Gel, Henry Waddon, is a qualified Doctor working within the NHS. Drawing on his experience and the media attention surrounding the real trials developing a male contraceptive, Henry went to Gabe in 2023 with his idea for a play that looked at the lives of the people involved in testing a male contraceptive drug.
This idea is now a living, breathing piece of theatre, almost ready to be presented to the world by our company of 17 graduating students. As director Gabe Winsor puts it, “The characters you see on stage are written by Henry, but also shaped by the company members as theatre makers.
The Gel is a fantastic opportunity to see a piece of theatre that is in direct conversation with real-life events. If this has piqued your interest, you can book your tickets on the New Diorama website.
All of our New Writing productions are made possible by the generous and vital support of our partners at The Maria Björnson Memorial Fund and The Backstage Trust. OSD would like to thank them for their commitment to developing the careers of creatives in the UK theatre industry.
