About me

Hannah is an award-winning Cumbrian writer, performer and comedian who is based in Newcastle. She has been writing plays since she was sixteen. She is particularly interested in writing bittersweet comedy drama and about her home county of Cumbria.

Her arts council funded one woman play ’10 Things to do in a Small Cumbrian Town’ ran at Alphabetti Theatre in 2021 for three weeks. This gained lots of positive reviews, including a review from the Guardian describing the show as ‘Delightfully deadpan’. In 2025, the Penrith Players put on a production of the show with an extended cast and a live band. The show sold really well, completely selling out on the final night.

Hannah, alongside co-writers Jamie McLeish and Lynne Patrick, was shortlisted for the Richard Jenkinson Commission (reaching the top 8 entries out of 750). This led to Laurels Theatre programming their dark comedy anthology ‘Doomgate’ for a week in 2024. The show was reviewed by NARC magazine as "a real treat for any dark comedy lovers". She was also the assistant director and a co producer on the project.

Hannah has had many short plays staged all over the UK, including at venues such as The Southwark Playhouse, Union Theatre, Northern Stage (as a part of ‘Playing Up’), Canal Café Theatre, Alphabetti Theatre, The Staveley Roundhouse and more.

She has also received audio play commissions from Alphabetti Theatre and Theatre by the Lake.

Hannah wrote and performed sketches for BBC Newcastle's comedy radio show Grin Up North for two years. She is part of a comedy collective with Grin Up North alumni, ‘Sun of a Gun’, who are in the early stages of producing their own live comedy sketch shows.

 

Her website is hannahsowerbywriter.co.uk

My Plays

10 Things to do in a Small Cumbrian Town


Synopsis:

All Jodie wants to do is kiss a woman, but the only one available in Penrith seems to be her friend’s Mam…19-year-old Jodie hasn’t gone to Uni like most of her friends, but has instead been forced into taking a job shelf stacking by her very sweary Nana.

 

Join Jodie as she attends therapy with her shit, but hot, counsellor; bumps into everyone she’s ever met in the local supermarket and is repeatedly invited to a very strange man’s static caravan…

 

The original show was a one woman play that ran for 80 minutes. The play has since been performed as an extended two act play with a cast of four actors and three musicians. You can do this with one actor or with an extended cast.


Number of Characters: 17


Minimum Number of Actors Required: 1


Length (in Pages): 30


Location: Penrith, Cumbria


Key Words: Comedy, Cumbrian, queer


Has the Play Been Produced? Yes


Are the Rights Available? Yes


Has the Play Been Published? No


Award nominations/wins:


Reviews:

Delightfully deadpan - The Guardian

Sharply written and with a hugely engaging performance at its core - Exeunt Magazine

 

Cleverly written and engagingly performed - British Theatre Guide

Well-acted subtly humorous - NARC Magazine

 

Will have you cracking up the whole way through - The Courier

 

The show was included in the article Exeunt Writers Favourite Shows of 2021

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Hannah Sowerby
@ hannahsowerby

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Newcastle

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