Most of us have had the chat at some point, usually around the third bottle of wine, about how we might one day make a family work. Two dads, a best mate, an arrangement drawn up with all the best intentions. HIM is Natalie Ekberg’s new play, opening at the Union Theatre in Southwark this month, and it takes that conversation right down the line to the bits nobody plans for.
When Jane unexpectedly falls pregnant with Charlie’s baby, she agrees that he’ll raise the child with his new partner, Osmond. It’s a loving, generous and slightly improvised deal, and for a while it holds. Then the years go by, and doubt, buried resentment and loyalties pulling in different directions all start to weigh on it. Billed as darkly funny, emotionally charged and painfully honest, HIM is about the truths and lies we build to protect ourselves and the people we love most. Ekberg calls it deliberately morally complicated, so expect to be arguing about it all the way to the bar afterwards.
The play means a lot to director Simon Fielding. He’s a father of two daughters through surrogacy, so he brings his own experience of building a family outside the traditional template to a story asking who gets to define parenthood, responsibility and family. He’s also an award winner. For 16 years he’s co-produced and directed the pantomime at the Towngate Theatre in Basildon, picking up Best Director at the 2024 UK Pantomime Awards, and his Offie-nominated A Little Night Music played Ye Olde Rose and Crown. So he can handle a big crowd and an intimate room.
Niall Sheehy plays Charlie and Gary Tushaw, last seen as Noël Coward in Noel & Gertie, plays Osmond. Hannah Chalmers, fresh from Coronation Street, plays Jane. Alan P. Jones (Waiting for the Out, BBC) plays Kit, and Julie Wood (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel UK tour) completes the family as Nana. Ekberg is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter whose film That Girl Peugeot is streaming on Prime Video now.
It runs 90 minutes with no interval. Plenty of time for a drink and a proper debrief after.
HIM runs 19 to 30 October 2026 at the Union Theatre, Arch 22 & 23 Old Union Yard Arches, 229 Union Street, London SE1 0LR (nearest Tube: Southwark). Performances are Monday to Friday at 7.30pm and Sunday at 2pm and 6pm, with tickets at £28 (concessions £25). Book now at uniontheatre.biz/show/him.
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