Punch Me Then.
Content warnings: References to sexual assault and physical assault.
Something is happening to young people, and we’re not talking about it enough.
When Lila challenges misogyny in her classroom, she is forced to confront a past she fought desperately to leave behind. The boys she teaches are bright, funny and often deeply kind, but as their behaviour escalates, so does her fear of what they might become.
PUNCH ME THEN is a timely and urgent exploration of trauma, consent, masculinity and the people tasked with shaping the next generation.
Written & performed by Nicole Abraham
Directed by Olivier Award-nominated Toby Clarke
Nicole Abraham
Writer/ Performer
Nicole Abraham is a London based actor and writer. Her debut play, PUNCH ME THEN, was developed on the Advanced Playwriting Course at City Lit and selected for production at the John Lyons Theatre in Covent Garden as part of Camden Fringe, in which it will be directed by Olivier Award nominee Toby Clarke. The play explores misogyny, masculinity and the role education can play in challenging harmful attitudes.
The first draft of PUNCH ME THEN reached the Producer Read stage of the BBC Writers’ Open Call, placing it in the top 0.9% of more than 5,700 submissions.
Nicole also co-wrote LIT, an anthology edited by Rikki Beadle-Blair, which was launched at the Bush Theatre. Her play Passing was also performed as a rehearsed reading at Ovalhouse Theatre as part of the Ovalhouse Young Writers Company.
She has also worked professionally as an actor, performing leading roles in productions at the Royal Court, Park Theatre and Theatre Royal Stratford East, as well as lead roles for the BBC in Casualty and Doctors. She was also achieved the runner up award for the BBC Norman Beaton Fellowship.
Toby Clarke
Director/ Writer/ Acting Coach
Oliver nominated Director, Toby Clarke, has worked in and across award-winning TV, Film, and Theatre Productions, with outstanding recognition, such as:
Writing Credits: SCIRE – final 1% of BBC Writers Room in 2021 (TV Pilot)
ME – Bruntwood Award Longlisted 2021
IMAM – Bruntwood Award Shortlisted 2013
Directing credits:
Warheads by Taz Skylar at Park Theatre (OLIVIER Nominated) 2018
Wasted by Kae Tempest at Broadway Catford (OFFIE NOMINATED) 2023
I Love you Now What? by Sophie Craig (OFFIE Finalist) 2024
Miraculous by Luke Stiles (Fringe Stage Awards Nominated) 2026
Screen Credits:
Toby works as an Acting Coach & Rehearsal/Performance Director and credits include:
My Father’s Shadow (BAFTA Winning) 2026
Christy (IFTA Winning) 2026
Get Millie Black (HBO/Channel 4) – BAFTA Nominated 2026
Death of Bunny Munro (SKY) – BAFTA Nominated 2026
Further credits:
Queenie (Channel 4), The Hack (ITV), Sherwood (BBC), Grief is a Thing with Feathers (Film Four), La Nuit (BBC), I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning (BBC). Most recently he has worked as Performance Director on ITV’s The Hack, BBC’s Sherwood (Season 3) and currently on Boys of Tommen (Amazon Prime)
Thomas John Roderick
Assistant Director/ Stage Manager/ Sound Designer
TJ Roderick is an upcoming theatre director and stage manager from the South Wales Valleys. He has a variety of skills across LX, SFX and Directing. After graduating Goldsmiths University in 2022, TJ has worked for their own production company Woodhouse&Roderick.
Directing Credits:
Plaything (2026) The Pen Theatre. Dir. Julia Sopher. Assistant Director, Sound Design In His Words (2026) The Bread and Roses Theatre. Director, Producer. Don (2026) The Golden Goose Theatre, Director Waterdweller (2025) hARTslane Gallery, Director Lightbulbs (2025) The Jack Studio Theatre, Director.
Stage Manager Credits:
ALT Showcase (2026) The Other Palace, Flowerface (2025) Riverside Studios, The 392 (2025) Brixton House Theatre, Beats (2025) Riverside Studios, PANACEA (2025) The Cockpit, I Love You, Now What? (2024) The Park Theatre
What is it all about?
As conversations around online radicalisation and
gender politics dominate the national discourse, a powerful new theatrical voice
emerges. Paper Picture Productions (Arya Landers), in association with Jackson Ryan,
today announces the world premiere of PUNCH ME THEN, a blistering one-woman play
written and performed by Nicole Abraham, coming to the John Lyon’s Theatre at City Lit
for a strictly limited run as part of the Camden Fringe this August.
Directed by Olivier Award-nominated director Toby Clarke (Warheads – Park Theatre),
Punch Me Then offers a searing examination of the front-line battle against misogyny.
The play follows a young English teacher as she attempts to confront increasingly
harmful attitudes voiced by her students. As the rhetoric in her classroom escalates, it
begins to echo the teacher’s own hidden trauma, pushing her to the very edge of what
she can hold together. The production dares to ask the urgent question: can education
truly stop the tide of misogyny in teenagers, or is it already too late?
“This play is a response to the growing sense of powerlessness we feel when
confronting these attitudes,” says writer-performer Nicole Abraham. “I wanted to explore
what happens when the classroom, a space that’s supposed to be a sanctuary for
change, becomes a place where personal trauma resurfaces.”
Abraham is a London-based actor and writer whose work is already making waves in
the industry. The first draft of Punch Me Then reached the prestigious Producer Read
stage of the BBC Writers’ Open Call, placing it in the top 0.9% of more than 5,700
submissions. She is also a co-writer of Lit, an anthology edited by Rikki Beadle-Blair,
which launched at the Bush Theatre, and has performed leading roles at the Royal
Court, Park Theatre, and Theatre Royal Stratford East, with screen credits including
Casualty and Doctors for the BBC. The play draws directly on Abraham’s lived experience
as a teacher in London schools over many years, grounding the story in an unflinching
authenticity that only comes from having been in the classroom herself.
At the helm is director Toby Clarke, whose recent work includes the critically acclaimed
Warheads at Park Theatre, which earned an Olivier Award nomination, and the
OFFIE-nominated Wasted by Kae Tempest. Clarke’s expertise in navigating complex,
high-stakes emotional territory makes him the ideal collaborator for this intense
character study. He is joined by T.J. Roderick as Assistant Director, Stage Manager, and
Sound Designer.
“Nicole has crafted a piece that is both deeply personal and universally resonant,” states
Producer Arya Landers. “In a cultural moment defined by ongoing conversations around
the ‘manosphere’ and works like Inter Alia that interrogate the fault lines of modern
masculinity, Punch Me Then feels less like a play and more like a mirror held up to
society. It asks the questions we are all avoiding. We are proud to bring this vital story to
London audiences.”
The production marks a significant moment for the City Lit Theatre Company, with the
play developed on the institution’s Advanced Playwriting Course and selected for
production in the newly refurbished John Lyon’s Theatre in Covent Garden.
Camden Fringe Punch Me Then – Premiere
When: 14th/15th/16th August.
Where: John Lyon’s Theatre, City Lit, London.
Duration: 60 mins
Price: Full £15 | Conc £12
Age Suitability: 16+ (Contains mature themes and strong language)
Genre: Theatre / Drama
Writer & Performer: Nicole Abraham
Director: Toby Clarke
Producer: Arya Landers (Paper Picture Productions)
Associate Producer: Jackson Ryan
Assistant Director / Stage Manager / Sound Designer: T.J. Roderick
Additional Sound Design and Composition: Katia Q. Shi
Production Assistant: Jade Liu
The Punch Me Then Team
Producer Arya Landers – Paper Picture Productions
Arya Landers
Producer | Actor | Director | Playwright | Artistic Director, Paper Picture Productions
Arya Landers is an award-winning producer, actor, director, playwright, and painter whose work is driven by a passion for bold storytelling and championing new voices. Originally from Canada and now based in London, she is the Founder and Artistic Director of Paper Picture Productions, an independent theatre company dedicated to producing original work, mentoring emerging artists, and creating meaningful opportunities within the performing arts.
Under Arya’s leadership, Paper Picture Productions was named Ottawa’s Best Theatre Group at the 2025 Ottawa Awards, presented by Faces Magazine, recognized for its commitment to artistic excellence and community impact. As a producer, she has brought numerous original productions to the stage while developing work that ranges from contemporary drama to immersive theatre.
Arya is also a published and produced playwright, best known for her debut full-length play, Grey Ghost: Prisoners of Souls and Masts, which enjoyed a successful multi-performance run in Canada. As an actor, her career has taken her across Canada, the United Kingdom, Greece, and India, with stage credits including Great Gatsby! It’s Murder at Canada’s National Arts Centre, From Antigone to Medea at Hydrama Theatre in Greece, and television credits including Undercover Detectives.
Beyond theatre, Arya is an award-winning visual artist, recognized as one of Ottawa’s leading painters for her imaginative and emotionally evocative work. Her multidisciplinary background informs her approach as a producer, combining artistic vision with practical leadership and a deep commitment to developing courageous new writing and supporting the next generation of artists.
Punch Me Then marks Paper Picture Productions’ London producing debut and reflects Arya’s commitment to creating theatre that challenges, inspires, and sparks important conversations.
Associate Producer – Jackson Ryan
Jackson Ryan is a Bow Street Academy-trained actor, writer, and producer with a prolific track record across screen and stage. Joining the industry in 2023, he has quickly amassed strong TV/Film and Stage credits, including a guest star role in Harry Wild (AMC/Channel 4), the lead in the upcoming feature Oceanna Bay and a supporting role in Girls and Boys as Hugo (Dir. Gearoid Gilmore)
Equally at home on stage, Jackson has starred in multiple sold-out international theatre runs, including The Last Incel in London, Edinburgh and Dublin (Dir. Jamie Sykes) The Rabbit Hole (Dir. Gerard Lee) and The Dead Monks (Dir. Jamie Sykes).
Upcoming work includes short film ‘Coin Laundry Dreaming’ (Dir. Jade Kong) and ‘William Street’, an Edinburgh Fringe show by Chloe Downes.
Acting Credits Include:
- Harry Wild Season 5, Derek Robinson, AMC, Acorn, Channel 4. (2026)
- Oceanna Bay, Chris, Dir. Kari McCarthy (In Post)
- Girls and Boys, Hugo, Dir. Gearoid Gilmore (2025)
- The Last Incel, Lon, Edi, Dub – SOLD OUT Runs. – Dir. Jamie Sykes
- The Dead Monks, Dub – SOLD OUT Runs. – Dir. Jamie Sykes
- The Rabbit Hole, Dub. – Dir. Gerard Lee
- Dissonant – Dir. Conor Lewis
- FLIRT – Dir. Louis Flanagan & Aisling Kane
Plus many more.
Katia Q. Shi – Sound Design
Katia Q. Shi is a London-based composer, sound designer and sound operator whose work sits between theatre, music and sound art. Her practice explores sound as a means of shaping space, memory and human connection, often informed by London’s rich cultural landscape. Trained at King’s College London and the Central Conservatory of Music, she has sound designed for plays at Riverside Studios, Camden People’s Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, and Lion & Unicorn Theatre, as well as programmed and engineered sound for Keep It Fringe Award and IC Award-winning productions such as The Light Catcher (Ritika Shrotri), and Here Comes Gudong (Roarrr Theatre).
Upcoming sound design credits include The Crucible for KATS at Greenwood Theatre.
Jade Liu – Production Assistant
Contact Details:
punchmethen@gmail.com
paperpictureproductions@gmail.com
For Media Enquiries, Press Tickets, and Interview Requests:
Arya Landers, Paper Picture Productions, paperpictureproductions@gmail.com
BTS stills and shots done by CHAMARA SKG
