The Jermyn Street Theatre Pre-Show Debates are free events for our audiences which bring together 3 leading thinkers to discuss fascinating questions and topics inspired by the theme of the play on our stage. 

In the past we’ve held discussions about artistic inspiration, our relationship to death, ageism, political change, the pursuit of happiness, and what it means to be a young person today.

Past speakers have included the author Alan Hollinghurst, journalist Nicola Tallant, political historian Dr Nigel Fletcher, and playwrights Roy Williams, Winsome Pinnock and Simon Stephens, actress Annette Badland, and comedian Jack Barry, to name but a few.

Next Pre Show Debate

Wednesday 21 October 5.45pm – 6.45pm
Free entry – reserve your seat Online here - Or via boxoffice@jermynstreettheatre.co.uk

David Edgar 

David Edgar is a British playwright and writer. More than sixty of his plays have been published and produced on stage, radio and television. He has had a long-term association with the RSC since 1976 and is known for his multi-award-winning adaptations of Charles Dickens’ novels.

Professor Belinda Jack 

Belinda Jack is a Professor of French and Literary Studies at the University of Oxford. She was Gresham Professor of Rhetoric from 2013 to 2017. Her books include a biography of George Sand and The Woman Reader and an OUP Very Short Introduction to Reading. She has just published the first of five translations of Colette, Claudine's House with Penguin Classics.

Rachel Rankin

Rachel Rankin is a Lecturer (Teaching) in Norwegian Language and Comparative Literature at UCL. Her research interests lie in Scandinavian literature and translation, with a particular interest in the translation of poetry. Rachel is also an award-winning translator of Norwegian literature, and her translations and poems have been published both nationally and internationally.

MaryAnne Stevens (BA Cantab., MA Lond., Hon. FRIBA)

MaryAnne Stevens is an Independent Art Historian and Curator. She specialises in British, French and Nordic art in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, lecturing and writing particularly on Impressionism, the origins of modern art and Nordic art 1814 – c.1920.