World premiere of ILFORD BOY by Danny Lee Wynter comes to the Donmar Warehouse 10 October – 28 November 2026
What is it about?
The boy lives in Ilford, of course he’s depressed.
Mixed-race teenager Ted Martin is growing up in 90s East London in a house full of chaos, laughter and tough love.
One day Patrick arrives, shaking the foundations of Ted’s life with his sense of style, humour and love of show tunes. Another way to live explodes into view. One filled with art, possibility and people who see him clearly for the first time.
Directed by Donmar Artistic Director Tim Sheader, Danny Lee Wynter’s Ilford Boy is a funny, moving drama about the ghosts that follow us, the families we choose, and the Streisand that helps us survive.
The Creative Team
Director: Tim Sheader
Set Designer: Peter McKintosh
Costume Designer: Ryan Dawson Laight
Choreographer: Ebony Molina
Voice Director: Barbara Houseman
Dialect Coach: Hazel Holder
Casting Director: Lotte Hines CDG
Danny Lee Wynter‘s debut play Black Superhero opened at the Royal Court Theatre in March 2023. As an actor, he has worked extensively in theatre, film and TV – he most notably received an Olivier Award Nomination for his role in The Normal Heart (National Theatre). He was the founder of Act For Change, the UK campaign group that helped change representation across the live and recorded arts.
Tim Sheader is Artistic Director and Joint Chief Executive of the Donmar Warehouse where he has directed When We Are Married and Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 which was nominated for six Olivier Awards.
He was previously Artistic Director of Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre where he directed over 20 productions, including the Olivier and Evening Standard Award-winning musicals Into the Woods (also Central Park’s Delacorte Theater), Hello, Dolly!, Crazy For You (also West End), and Jesus Christ Superstar which, following two sold out seasons at Regent’s Park and a transfer to the Barbican, has been touring the US for three years, and is currently on tour in the UK and Australia.
His critically acclaimed production of To Kill a Mockingbird also toured the UK ending with a sell-out run at the Barbican. Committed to taking the company’s work to as wide an audience as possible, he oversaw further UK tours of productions including Pride and Prejudice, Lord of the Flies and Running Wild. His other stage work includes The Monstrous Child (Royal Opera House), My Fair Lady (Aarhus Theatre), Barnum (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Magistrate (National Theatre), Don Pasquale (Opera National de Lorraine, Lausanne and upcoming in Nice and Toulon).
