AWAKEN, the first full-length play by Cheryl Prince, will run at Playhouse East in London on 31 October and 1 November 2026 as part of The Lemon Festival.
AWAKEN has two performances, on Saturday 31 October and Sunday 1 November, both at 6pm. The running time is 110 minutes including an interval. The production is by 5D Theatre CIC, the company Prince founded and leads as artistic director.
The play is set in 2023. Its central character, Sarah Reynolds, is a palliative care nurse who is also a medium. Called to look after a dying man, she begins to recover memories that take her back to the witch persecutions of 1653, and to a different account of the women who were condemned.
Prince, a London actor, writer, producer and healer, drew on real cases, among them a cunning folk healer persecuted in East London. The script uses Canting, a historical language tied to marginalised communities, together with the East End speech that fed into Cockney.
The family link is personal. “Language carries memory,” Prince said. “My grandparents were from the East End of London. They grew up poor, but they were steeped in the beautiful, poetic language of Cockney and in a rich working-class culture that has been passed down through generations.”
On the women at the centre of the story, she said: “A woman who heals can be called a healer, a wise woman or a witch – and historically that word could be a death sentence. I wanted AWAKEN to challenge that narrative.”
It is the first part of a planned trilogy. The play was developed with support from Arts Council England, Park Theatre's Script Accelerator, Beacon Arts Centre and The Actors Temple. A site-responsive version of its 1653 storyline was commissioned for Luton Henge Festival 2026 by Revolution Arts and the Luton Create Fund, and Bedford Creative Arts is supporting a Bedford date on the Halloween tour.
AWAKEN is recommended for ages 14 and over. It contains references to sexual violence, abortion, suicide and the persecution of people accused of witchcraft.
