Danny Lee Wynter's second play, a coming-of-age drama set in nineties east London, receives its world premiere at the Donmar Warehouse.
Danny Lee Wynter’s second play, Ilford Boy, receives its world premiere at the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden from Saturday 10 October to Saturday 28 November 2026. Tim Sheader, the theatre’s artistic director, directs.
Wynter was born in Barking in 1982 and spent twenty years as an actor before he became a playwright. In 2007 he took the lead in Stephen Poliakoff’s Joe’s Palace and Capturing Mary.
He also founded Act For Change, the campaign that spent a decade pressing British television and theatre to account for who was and was not on their stages. His first play, Black Superhero, opened at the Royal Court in 2023. It is about desire, fandom and being a gay Black man in the industry.
Ilford Boy is set in nineties east London, the part of the city where Wynter was born. Ted Martin is a mixed-race teenager growing up in a house of chaos, laughter and tough love. Then Patrick arrives with a sense of style, humour and a love of show tunes, and another way to live opens up.
Leo Whitfield Harris plays Ted and Craig Stein plays Patrick. The cast also includes Lindsey Coulson and Jodie McNee.