Queer Play Reading Club: Feeling Afraid As If... with Marcelo Dos Santos

The Queer Play Reading Club is a monthly event from Queer Theatre, held in partnership with Nick Hern Books, celebrating LGBTQIA+ playwriting in a supportive, low-pressure, queer-run, social space. Each session begins with up to an hour of sharing brand-new queer writing from our members, giving LGBTQIA+ playwrights and writers the chance to share short scenes or monologues and receive supportive feedback. We then move into a group reading of a full-length published play from Nick Hern Books, with relaxed discussion and Q&A with the playwright, facilitated by Queer Theatre’s Artistic Director, Andrew Keates.

'I'm thirty-six, I'm a comedian, and I'm about to K*ll my boyfriend.'

A permanently single, professionally neurotic stand-up comedian finally meets his Mr Right – and then does everything wrong.

Is Mr Right quite what he seems? And just how far will the comedian go to get a laugh?

Marcelo Dos Santos's play Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen is a dark and bitingly funny one-man show about vulnerability, intimacy, ego and truth. It premiered in the Roundabout at the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, produced by Francesca Moody Productions, directed by Matthew Xia, and starring Samuel Barnett. The critically acclaimed, Fringe First-winning production transferred to the Bush Theatre, London, in November 2023.

We are delighted to announce that Marcelo Dos Santos will be joining us for this session to discuss the play and answer your questions.

Tea, coffee and snacks from 6:30pm
Session starts at 7pm (sharing new writing with the group and receiving supportive feedback)
We read the play together.
Q&A with Marcelo Dos Santos and Andrew Keates
Drinks and socialising until 11pm

The Railway, Clapham
18 Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UR

By Tube: A 1-minute walk from Clapham North (Northern line) and 5 minutes from Clapham Common.
By Overground: Clapham High Street Station is directly opposite the venue.
By Bus: Served by routes 50, 88, 155, 322, and 345.
By Train: Clapham Junction is a short bus ride away, with connections across London and the South East.

The event takes place in an upstairs space accessible only by stairs. If you have access needs or questions, please contact us in advance so we can support your visit as best we can.

This is not a performance but an informal exploration of the play’s text. Scenes will be read aloud by members of the group who wish to participate. Roles may therefore be read in ways that differ from their original casting intentions, including across gender, race, age, sexuality, and lived experience. We actively welcome this openness while also encouraging those with lived experience reflecting the characters to volunteer where appropriate.

If you are a writer wishing to have your own work shared aloud in the opening section, please bring an excerpt of no more than five minutes to allow space for others. We may not have time to include everyone’s work on the night. If you need excerpts printed, please email us.

This event forms part of Queer Theatre’s commitment to ensuring LGBTQ+ theatre-makers always have somewhere to go each week to connect, create, and be inspired – alongside our 2B: Acting Classes, OutCast showcases, theatre trips, social events, masterclasses, parties and shows.

Find out more at

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Queer Theatre Ltd