About me

I am Jordana Belaiche, a British-Algerian writer and performer based in London. I began my career in musical theatre performing professionally as a child on the West End in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (London Palladium), Les Miserables (Sondheim Theatre) and Mary Poppins (Prince Edward Theatre).I have been writing for stage since 2017 when my first play, Knowledge is Power won Best New Writing at the London Student Drama Festival in 2017. I have been writing for stage ever since. I have twice been awarded residencies with Theatre Deli in 2020 with W*nkers, a two hander about demonic women and wine and Abigail’s Adventures in Boston! In 2023, a queer retelling of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. During the pandemic I wrote radio cabarets for No Bounds Radio, showcased my two hander Beneath set at Hampstead Ladies Ponds with Multistory Productions, and developed a climate crisis comedy music video Apocalypse Boyfriend as part of the W*nkers project. My one man semi autobiographical play Blue Eyed Hag, based on the Algerian witch Sycorax from The Tempest debuted at the Almeida Theatre in 2022 as part of their Under 25 Festival. I was book writer and lyricist for the climate musical 2.4 Degrees! In 2022-2023, which received a residency in Falmouth in collaboration with Impossible Producing and the Young Vic. My play get if off yer chest about sleep paralysis demons, inspired by Henry Fusili’s The Nightmare debuted last autumn at the New Playwriting One Act Festival in Canada. I regularly perform as my drag character Little Lord Fondleroy, whom I developed on the Soho Drag and Cabaret Lab in 2020. I am developing a second draft of my play Vine Press about the 20th century obscure queer poet and occultist Victor Neuburg in collaboration with Thalia Arts. I co-wrote The Regulars with working class cabaret collective Common as Muck and Pure Imagination this year at Pleasance Theatre as part of Futures Festival and I am developing Summoning Sondheim a cabaret-seance with Queens of Cups, which is headed back to VAULTS this Spring, after successful runs at Edinburgh Fringe last summer and 7 Dials Playhouse in the autumn.

My Plays

Abigail\'s Adventures in Boston!


Synopsis:

On the outskirts of Boston runaway rebel and instigator of the most slay girl cult Salem will ever see, gaslighting girlboss Abigail Williams makes a run for it. With a rudimentary grasp of witchcraft learned from Instagram reels, a single Lost Mary vape pen, two gal pals and the all powerful presence of the Goddess Babylon she has only her former identity to lose- which should be easy, right? Featuring REAL witchcraft performed by REAL witches, this is 'The Crucible' as you've never seen it before.

Performed and Developed with Rene Jean-Marie for Theatre Deli's SHIFT + SPACE residency in 2023.


Number of Characters: 5


Minimum Number of Actors Required: -1


Length (in Pages): 26


Location: Boston


Key Words: crucible, witchcraft, audience participation


Has the Play Been Produced? Yes


Are the Rights Available? Yes


Has the Play Been Published? No


Award nominations/wins:


Reviews:

https://substack.com/home/post/p-103499082?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Beneath


Synopsis:

It's hot. Ivy wants to swim. Holly wants to poeticise. Something's watching and waiting for the cracks to grow.

We follow Holly and Ivy's relationship over the course of one summer at the Ponds where they are accompanied by shadows of former events and shades of violence that lurk beneath the mossy waters.


Number of Characters: 3


Minimum Number of Actors Required: 3


Length (in Pages): 38


Location: Kenwood Ladies Ponds


Key Words: queer, ghost story


Has the Play Been Produced? No


Are the Rights Available? Yes


Has the Play Been Published? No


Award nominations/wins:


Reviews:

Blue Eyed Hag


Synopsis:

Sycorax finds herself in a strange new land, separated from all she's known. As she navigates this intractable isle, with its unseen inhabitants, her powers grow and she begins to shed the skins of her former lives.

Based on the Algerian witch Sycorax from Shakespeare's 'The Tempest', this piece speculates on the nature of belonging and decolonial magic.

It was created for the Almeida's U25 Festival in 2021.


Number of Characters: 3


Minimum Number of Actors Required: 1


Length (in Pages): 17


Location: The Island


Key Words: Tempest, Shakespeare, Sycorax


Has the Play Been Produced? Yes


Are the Rights Available? Yes


Has the Play Been Published? No


Award nominations/wins:


Reviews:

get it off yer chest


Synopsis:

In the middle of the night she can't breathe. Maybe it's all the cigarettes.
Or maybe it's the demon sitting slap bang in the middle of her chest wanging on about how she should stop smoking cigarettes.

get it off yer chest is a play about sleep paralysis and awful disgusting nasty habits.

It was produced for the Newmarket One Act Play Festival, Canada in 2023.


Number of Characters: 3


Minimum Number of Actors Required: 2


Length (in Pages): 33


Location: A bedroom


Key Words: sleep paralysis, demons


Has the Play Been Produced? Yes


Are the Rights Available? Yes


Has the Play Been Published? No


Award nominations/wins:


Reviews:

Knowledge is Power


Synopsis:

In a dystopia run by Instagram, Kay and Em attempt to decipher what is hashtag real. A dystopian satire focusing on image, flex-culture and female friendship.


Number of Characters: 2


Minimum Number of Actors Required: 2


Length (in Pages): 70


Location: Interrogation cell


Key Words: dystopia, satire, female friendship


Has the Play Been Produced? Yes


Are the Rights Available? Yes


Has the Play Been Published? No


Award nominations/wins: Best New Writing, London Student Drama Festival, 2017


Reviews:

**- The Scotsman

Summoning Sondheim


Synopsis:

Summoning Sondheim is a musical comedy séance that uses the power of musical theatre to summon us theatre kids’ Lord & Savior, Stephen Joshua Sondheim (the Joshua is important).

Co-written and performed by Jordana Belaiche and Grace O'Keefe. Directed by Bel Parker.


Number of Characters: 3


Minimum Number of Actors Required: 2


Length (in Pages): 30


Location: A seance


Key Words: seance, Sondheim, comedy


Has the Play Been Produced? Yes


Are the Rights Available? No


Has the Play Been Published? No


Award nominations/wins:


Reviews:

****- Lost in Theatreland
****- The Scotsman
****- Broadway Baby
****- Theatre and Tonic
****-Fringebiscuit
****-Loureviews
*****- London Theatre Reviews
*****- Tab in the City

TBC


Synopsis:

It's all TBC, the title, the script, the funding, the actors and whether they will survive their producer's entirely reasonable yet also murderous tendencies by the end of the night. Inspired by the hazardous world of student theatre, this fast paced farce is a cathartic joyride through the latent violent and sexual currents at the heart of every creation process.


Number of Characters: 5


Minimum Number of Actors Required: 2


Length (in Pages): 30


Location: An auditiorium


Key Words: Farce, student theatre, backstage play


Has the Play Been Produced? Yes


Are the Rights Available? Yes


Has the Play Been Published? No


Award nominations/wins:


Reviews:

The Man Who Coined the Term


Synopsis:

John Dee has a dream. It's a big dream, huge. It's a dream which will eventually transform the world, reshape it, remake it. He just needs to convince a new young hungry monarch and a couple of angels it's worthwhile.

Based on the lives of Dr John Dee, Edward Kelley and Elizabeth I, this play charts the intricate relationship between occultism, politics and power.


Number of Characters: 3


Minimum Number of Actors Required: 3


Length (in Pages): 58


Location: A study, Elizabethan court


Key Words: Dr John Dee, Edward Kelley, Elizabeth I, magic, british empire, occult


Has the Play Been Produced? No


Are the Rights Available? No


Has the Play Been Published? No


Award nominations/wins:


Reviews:

The Regulars


Synopsis:

The Old King's Knee is dingy, filthy and crumbling. The council hate it, the new Gore-Tex cloaked Aesop-huffing residents hate it, even the pub's resident ancient overweight mongrel hates it and the late night boozers who spill onto Clacker Street long after closing.

That hasn't stopped it being Dodgy Dave's favourite spot to chug back a couple of lagers, play a few pranks on his pals and siphon off the assortment of pirate DVDs he's got clogging up his shed to anyone who'll have them. He's got 10 copies of Taken 2 starring that Liam Neeson fella on him now, if you're interested. Are you? Interested?

With the siren call of gentrification pounding in their ears night and day, the Regulars are determined to keep The Old King's Knee as vile as it always has been, but is Lady Luck on their side?

The Regulars is a raucous love letter to pubs, pub culture and the importance of community in the face of overpriced Guinness.

Developed and performed by Common as Muck x Pure Imagination for Pleasance Future's Festival 2024.


Number of Characters: 8


Minimum Number of Actors Required: 6


Length (in Pages): 29


Location: The Old King's Knee


Key Words: pub, regulars, comedy, drag


Has the Play Been Produced? Yes


Are the Rights Available? Yes


Has the Play Been Published? No


Award nominations/wins:


Reviews:

Triumph of Pan


Synopsis:

Vickybird has given up magick. He's turned domestic. He's got a brand new printing press venture and it's going really really really well. He definitely won't be tempted back to a life of debauchery and demons following a spontaneous visit to his new country idyll by his ex, the occultist and addict Aleister Crowley. He definitely wouldn't give up the suffocating sanctuary of Sussex for an adventure across the Algerian desert. Or would he?

Triumph of Pan is a play about discovering one's own True Will, breaking out of addiction cycles and recovering from unrequited love. It's about Queerness in the early C20th, and brings to life the untold story of the obscure Queer occultist poet Victor B. Neuburg.

It is currently in development with Thalia Arts Theatre Company.


Number of Characters: 8


Minimum Number of Actors Required: 6


Length (in Pages): 70


Location: Vine Cottage/ The Sanctuary/ Algeria


Key Words: occult, poetry, Aleister Crowley, Victor Neuburg, Leila Waddell, Queer, 20th Century


Has the Play Been Produced? No


Are the Rights Available? No


Has the Play Been Published? No


Award nominations/wins:


Reviews:

W*NKERS


Synopsis:

House White and House Red aren’t exactly
human and they aren’t entirely demonic
either. They're well up for a night on the town though, and you should definitely bring your mum with you, she's well fit and she at least knows the pain of creation.

Drawing on non-Western and Arab
mysticism, they are agents of chaos, entities
that pierce the veils to many worlds with no
explicit or definite aims, except to feed on the
mayhem they create.


Number of Characters: 2


Minimum Number of Actors Required: 2


Length (in Pages): 28


Location: The Primordial Soup


Key Words: demons, Bulgakov


Has the Play Been Produced? Yes


Are the Rights Available? No


Has the Play Been Published? No


Award nominations/wins:


Reviews:

Location

London

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