THE RENDITION MEETS NAOMI DENNY
Image Credit - Alex Brenner
From a young age, playwright and actor Naomi Denny was drawn to performance. Her mother always knew she wouldn’t end up in an office job. It wasn’t until three years ago, when she received an ADHD diagnosis, that some of her experiences began to make sense. Though she had always loved reading and writing stories, Naomi never imagined becoming a writer—it simply didn’t seem like a viable path. But her mother, wasn’t surprised in the slightest.
Naomi's play All The Happy Things was born out of a desire to explore sisterhood and grief. Premiering at Theatre503 in 2022, the show blends humour with heartbreak, introducing audiences to Sienna, a young woman navigating the loss of her sister, Emily. Now, the play returns—this time on the stage at Soho Theatre, where Naomi once worked Front of House. It’s a full-circle moment she never saw coming.
Through her work, Naomi delves into the ways joy and sorrow intertwine in life’s pivotal moments. In this interview with The Rendition, she reflects on her creative process, the balance of handling tender themes within dark comedy, and the complex emotional terrain of sibling relationships and loss.
“Overall, I just want to bring more joy into the theatre scene.”
Would you rather only write plays for the rest of your career but never star in any, or only star in plays but never write them?
I would choose to only star in plays.
I love writing and getting into other people's work, but I am a social being and I have to be around people. A lot of the time writing tends to be a solitary experience, so if I had to choose, I would star in play and get around not writing them by writing poetry instead.
In the theatre, would you rather sit in the stalls or the circle?
Circle. When I was a kid, it felt so exciting going up the stairs to our seats in the theater. I love musicals and wanted to be in musical theatre for so many years. I love sitting at the front of the circle, especially for huge productions with lots of effects. It’s just so cool.
What was your journey into playwriting and acting? Were there any pivotal moments that made you realise that this was your calling?
From a very young age, I always wanted to be a performer. My mom always said that she never thought I was going to work an office job because I was too chaotic. I actually got diagnosed with ADHD three years ago, and she was like, this makes so much sense. I started off dancing, and then thought I was going to go get into music theater. So I did a Saturday school, and that made me realise that I just loved acting and getting into character.
So I always wanted to be an actor, but being a writer came as a very big surprise to me. It wasn't a surprise to my family, because, according to my mother, I've always been really creative. I loved reading and writing stories, but it was never something I wanted to do as a career. When I was at drama school, I had the opportunity to make a scratch piece version of a piece of work. I wrote a piece about protests and who has the right to protest, and really enjoyed it. After drama school, I decided to develop it into a full length play.
I always say that I'm an actor first, and writer second, writing influences my acting massively, and vice versa. I want to write plays that I would like to perform, and create characters that are interesting, complex and layered. As a writer, I have the actors in mind first and foremost.
Were there any pivotal moments that made you realise that this was your calling?
I vividly remember watching my first piece of writing on stage, and I was terrified. It's a weird experience, the first time you watch your own work, not knowing if people are going to like it. I literally curled up in a ball in the corner, just observing the audience's reaction, but I’ll never forget the feeling when I realised that people actually enjoyed it.
Acting-wise, there are so many moments that I reflect on and I think, that was really cool. I booked my first TV job a couple of years ago, off a 30 second casting tape; I was in Belfast for five weeks filming, and it was amazing. I am not a morning person at all, but every day our call was at 6am and I'd be bouncing down the stairs, ready to go, because I was having the best time.
That was the moment when I thought I really love this career.
What stories were you exposed to growing up, and how have they influenced your writing?
I've always said that I want to write stories about unheard voices. I love reading stories with themes that I haven't explored before. Growing up, I was in the fantasy realm for so many years.That has possibly influenced my writing, in terms of how I want to build a vivid world around the characters.
I worked at Soho Theatre for five years at Front of House; Soho [theatre] does a lot of comedy, and I genuinely stand by the fact that I think I'm funnier because I worked there for so many years.
I was exposed to so much comedic writing, and that was when I realised that I love adding comedy into my work. I saw so much new work there and it wasn't just the hard hitting performances that stuck with me, but also the pieces that brought in light. I really took that on board. I want to write stuff that is hard hitting but also brings in joy. There's so much darkness in the world, and I don't want to be a part of adding to that.
Image Credit - Alex Brenner
“Historically, theatre has been a very white space and it’s important to encourage diverse audiences to attend. We’re not saying you can’t come if you’re white, we’re just saying that we’d really like Black audiences to be able to experience this.”
All The Happy Things is a dark comedy about loss. How do you strike the balance between humour and deep, raw emotion?
My mum always says "you tend to write about really depressing things, but in a very funny way". I don't ever want to cheapen someone's experience. I don't want someone to come to the theatre and feel like their experience has been exploited, taken advantage of, or not been portrayed accurately. So that's my first priority. I'm not going to shy away from hard hitting moments, but I also want to make it realistic, because life is not all 100% happy or 100% sad.
You can find light in the dark moments.
With this show, I was keen on focusing on the sibling relationship because it's such a unique and weird but also universal experience. You can be fighting with each other one minute, and the next, you're a team and you've got to fight together against someone else. I wanted to explore that, and portray a sibling relationship authentically. I did a lot of research into people who had lost siblings. I interviewed people, I looked at every piece of media I could find and listened to podcasts of people talking about losing their siblings.
All The Happy Things starts from the sibling relationship, and then I wanted to layer this with my research and explore the things that you lose when you lose that sibling. For Sienna in the play, this is where all of her struggle comes from. She doesn’t want to lose her sister, she doesn’t want to miss her and she doesn’t want to lose their relationship. But she has, and she can't cope with that.
What was your approach to exploring such intimate and personal themes like grief and sisterhood, and turning them into a story that resonates universally? What were the challenges around doing this?
With grief and siblinghood, both experiences are personal and unique, yet so universal in the same breath. I'm not saying all siblings are like Emily and Sienna. I'm not saying all siblings hate each other. I'm not saying all siblings love each other. But if you have a sibling, I feel like you will see elements of your relationship in these two. Similarly, with the topic of grief, at first I felt like I had to present it in exactly the right way. But the problem is everyone experiences it differently. I'm not trying to replicate or duplicate any person's particular experience.
Grief is so unique and there is no rule book for how to deal with it. But there are themes that people spoke about constantly in my research that are relatable: the loss of memories - not only of your own childhood, but also of your parents, because your sibling has memories and experiences involving them. There’s also the loss of language and being able to talk about certain things in a way that only siblings can, through silly inside jokes or being able to discuss family dynamics. I focused on the recurring themes of losing siblings, without trying to replicate one version of grief.
All The Happy Things is told through a Global Majority lens. In what ways do you think Black perspectives on grief and family differ from mainstream narratives?
First of all, I think no one talks about grief enough. As a writer and as an actor, it feels like we are only allowed to tell stories about race. That really frustrates me, because we are so much more than that. With this story, I wanted to write a story about sisters and loss, and I was very clear that I wanted the sisters to be Global Majority.
I've seen casting calls for things that are human stories, but it's only calling for white actors. I get so frustrated. My work is going to be told through a Global Majority lens, by virtue of the fact that every single person in the show is black or mixed race.
There are going to be references that not everyone will instantly get, and that is fine. I don't think at any point in the show we actually refer to the characters' race, because it's not their central storyline. I love that it's not, because it doesn't need to be.
Why was it important for you to offer a Black Out Night for All The Happy Things? What impact do you hope it has on those who attend?
There is a very special thing that happens whenever there is a majority Black audience. The blackout night was a no-brainer. Our producers asked if I wanted to do one, and I said yes. Do you want to do one? I think there's just magic that happens in that kind of environment. The reactions are different, the laughs come at different places. Historically, theatre has been a very white space and it’s important to encourage diverse audiences to attend. We're not saying you can't come if you're white, we're just saying that we'd really like Black audiences to be able to experience this.
What advice would you give to emerging Black writers who are struggling to get their stories heard?
This industry is really hard.
All The Happy Things is wonderful, but it has taken five years of so much work to get to where we are, and it is still hard, and it will continue to be hard. I would say don't try and write for anyone in particular. Write the stories that you want to write, because if you don't care about the story you're writing, it's going to translate. Care about the people and stories that you're writing about, and don't try to write for a specific theatre, audience or demographic. Remember that no one can write the way that you can, and I mean that in the most wonderful way. Write like yourself.
Also, even though it is terrifying, especially at the beginning, don't be afraid to stand up for yourself. A lot of the time, people will say that you should be grateful that you're in this room, and you need to remind yourself that you're in that room because you deserve to be there.
So looking forward, what kind of play would you like to write or star in next?
Writing-wise, I have a play that I'm currently working on which I am so excited about. It's about queer relationships and relationships between Global Majority women, and it is a joyous explosion of happiness. That's something that I'm really excited to carry on writing and working on. I don't really have a niche in terms of acting, which I really love. I would love to work on some new writing. I'd love to do Shakespeare. I would love to do more screen work. It's so much fun to discover a new character, so I’m open to working on anything and everything, really.
Overall, I just want to bring more joy into the theatre scene.
All The Happy Things is showing from the 8th April - 26th April 2025 at Soho Theatre
