The winner of the International Award at The Stage Awards 2026 returns to the stage next spring with Rædsel, a Danish play by Anna Bro, and is asking for £10,000 to keep the UK's only theatre translator mentorship running.
Foreign Affairs will have a production on a stage again next spring, for the first time in three years, and it is going home to do it. The Hackney company, which won the International Award at The Stage Awards 2026, returns to the Rose Lipman Building with Rædsel — working title Horror — by the Danish playwright Anna Bro, translated by Paul Russell Garrett. No dates beyond the season have been given.
The play had its premiere at Teater Grob in Copenhagen in 2020, at the house now called Blaagaard Teater, and was well received there. Foreign Affairs bills it as a darkly comic study of anxiety, which the writing turns into a character in its own right: a chaotic voice that breaks into the protagonist's head and takes over what happens next.
The return arrives with less comfortable news attached. The company has launched a £10,000 appeal to put its Theatre Translator Mentorship on a sustainable footing, having failed to secure foundation funding this year. The seventh edition of the scheme is on hold — in the year it turns ten.
It is the only programme in the UK given over to developing emerging theatre translators, and it has a record behind it: 23 translators supported since 2016, working from 16 languages, with alumni going on to the Royal Court and to companies in the United States. Donations would pay for specialist application writers, advice from consultants and producers, and regular check-ins with mentees.
Trine Garrett, Co-Artistic Director of Foreign Affairs, said: "This year, without foundation funding, we've had to put our Theatre Translator Mentorship's 7th edition on hold – a hard decision to sit with as we mark its 10th anniversary, and a sharp reminder of just how fragile the structures supporting this work really are."
Garrett put the case in numbers, citing The Migration Observatory: "Nearly 16% of the UK population was born abroad, and in London that figure is closer to 40%. Yet less than 5% of the productions on our stages are in translation. That gap tells you that translated theatre is still hugely undervalued, even though it's one of the most direct ways theatre has to bring other cultures and perspectives into the room."
Nothing else the company does is pausing. On Thursday 1 October it takes over Jermyn Street Theatre for an afternoon marking International Translation Day, which falls on 30 September. This one is aimed at the industry rather than at audiences: a practical workshop built on the company's own methods, a panel on what staging a translated play in the UK actually involves, and a networking session to finish. Sessions start at 15:00 and 17:30, and admission is free.
The free Hackney workshops run on through the autumn, for 18 to 30-year-olds with experience of migration: Mondays from 18:00 to 21:00 between 5 October and 23 November, at Centre 151 on Whiston Road, ending with a community sharing in December. They are supported by the TNL Community Fund. Like the Translation Day event, this is a participation programme rather than a show.
In 2027 the company works again with the Italian production company PAV on the London edition of Playground, a European development scheme for emerging playwrights that brings writers, translators and theatre-makers together for workshops, rehearsals and public showcases. After a first collaboration in 2026, the coming edition concentrates on Italian playwrights and ends in a shared reading. Dates are to be confirmed.
Foreign Affairs is led by Camila França and Trine Garrett, and stages international plays in translation from a base in Hackney, east London. Details of the appeal, and of what the money would pay for, are on the company's own Theatre Translator Mentorship page.
