Sappho: The Poetess releases its EP ahead of Edinburgh and Young Vic dates
by Best of Theatre Staff on Tuesday 11 August 2026, 1:30 pm in Theatre News
Center Stage Records has announced the release of the EP for Sappho: The Poetess, the solo musical written and performed by Hayley Canham, which arrives on digital and streaming platforms on Wednesday 12 August. The show plays the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on 13 and 14 August before a date at London’s Young Vic on 27 September.
Center Stage Records has announced that the EP of Sappho: The Poetess will be released in digital and streaming formats tomorrow, Wednesday 12 August.
Sappho: The Poetess tells the untold story of Sappho — poetess, queer icon and history’s first great songwriter. The solo musical is written and performed by Hayley Canham, whose credits include The Hard Problem at the National Theatre and Matilda The Musical at the Cambridge Theatre, and is directed by Hannah Hauer-King, whose work includes The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs at the Kiln Theatre and The Swell at the Orange Tree Theatre.
The album is produced by Sam Young, Hayley Canham and Ramin Sabi, with Pierpaolo Demarchi as recording and mixing engineer.
Sappho wrote about the intimate world of human feelings — love, longing, friendship and beauty — and her verses were originally performed with music, creating a deeply personal style that inspired later generations. Though most of her work survives only in fragments, her influence remains: Plato called her “the Tenth Muse”, and her name and homeland gave rise to the modern words sapphic and lesbian. Today she is remembered both as a groundbreaking poet and as a symbol of female creativity and same-sex love in the ancient world.
Sappho: The Poetess will be performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on 13 and 14 August, and will also be presented at London’s Young Vic on 27 September as part of the Shedinburgh residency.
The show had its workshop run last October at The Other Palace, and joins Francesca Moody’s Shed this year in both Edinburgh and at the Young Vic. Hayley Canham was previously invited to Birmingham Hippodrome on a writing residency, and her first show, Medea the Musical, went to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2022 before being licensed internationally and featuring in concert at the Royal Opera House.