Bloodsport - After Helen of Troy
Theatre Royal Stratford East
- Opens: Thursday, 3 September 2026 -
Booking until: Saturday, 3 October 2026
Bloodsport - After Helen of Troy description
It's more than just a bit different. Bloodsport is extraordinary.
Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy is on stage at London's Stratford East theatre, marking Artistic Director Lisa Spirling's directing debut at the venue. Billed as a 'fierce' new piece of drama, it comes from the brilliant Ava Pickett. Her debut play was the critically acclaimed 1536, winner of the 2024 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize along with a special commendation from the George Devine Award and The Stage Debut Award for Best Writer.
Pickett's stage work includes The Manningtree Witches and Emma, and she has wowed audiences on the small screen with Brassic, The Buccaneers, How to Get to Heaven from Belfast and The Great. She is also involved in co-writing Baz Lurhmann's Warner Bros movie about Joan of Arc. Lisa Spirling's work on The Boys Are Kissing, Wolfie, Milk and Gall, In Event of Moone Disaster and the Oliver nominated Vardy v Rooney: The Wagatha Christie Trial have made her a rising theatreland star.
The plot asks a vital question: what happens when the woman who started a war in her own name, deserting her family in the process, finally comes back to finish it ten years later? Helen's brutal war lasted an entire decade. When she gets home her husband is delighted, unlike her best friend Cee. On the first night that blessed peace reigns, the old wounds open, loyalties fall apart, and the real reasons behind Helen's homecoming surface.
A world premiere of a brand new play by a writer with a reputation for brilliance, Bloodsport tickets explore themes of friendship and motherhood in a unique way that'll leave you breathless.
