Sami Sumaria on FOXES
Running throughout January 2026, Write Club is The Hope Theatre’s premier festival of new writing, dedicated to showcasing bold stories and expansive ideas. Designed to breathe life into the London fringe during the winter months, the festival provides a vital platform for up to thirty selected shows to make their debut. Under the curation of Joint Artistic Directors Laurel Marks and Toby Hampton, Write Club fosters a collaborative community by offering playwrights and theatre-makers multi-night runs, professional venue support, and dedicated networking opportunities.
To celebrate and support this wonderful festival, we’re publishing a number of interviews with the creatives taking part this year. You can find all of the interviews already published here, and we’ll be adding more as the month goes on.
PinkMilk Theatre‘s Sami Sumaria is the next to slide into our interview chair, here to tell us all about her show Foxes, about two unlikely friends and one park bench. You can catch this whirlwind of humour, drama, and connection when it plays for Write Club on Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 January. You can find out more about this and other shows playing at the festival here.
What can audiences expect from the show?
FOXES brings together two people who you wouldn’t expect to get along, and through a whirlwind of humour, drama and acceptance an unbreakable bond forms. With deep and meaningful conversations around topics of queerness, religion, family values and relationships between two very unlikely friends FOXES looks to break down barriers and connect people.
What was your inspiration behind the show?
FOXES was inspired by the relationship I personally have with my extended South Asian family and the struggles I’ve had in both identifying and communicating their queer identity. In writing this play, I want to start conversations around breaking down barriers between different generations within the South Asian community, creating a space where we can put aside differences and focus on what brings us together rather than what pushes us apart. The idea of watching foxes play in a London park is from my lived experience living in Clapham many years ago, and ended up being the perfect setting to tell this story.
How long have you been working on the play?
It has probably been two years since I first had the idea for the play, and whilst working on the play it has grown and changed shape many times before becoming what it is today!
Being a fringe festival, we all know sets have to be bare minimum, how have you got around this with your set and props?
We’re lucky in the sense that the play is set at the same park bench for its entirety, allowing for easy minimisation in the scope of what we can do with set and props! We will be using sound as a major player in building our world for FOXES, and we can’t wait to show everyone the final world during the performances!
Are there any plans for what comes next after the show has finished its run– for you or the show?
We are hoping to use these performances as a launching pad for FOXES, with strong ideas to grow and expand the play, moulding it into a strong piece of theatre to bring to many more audiences over the next few years.
If you had to describe your show as a colour what would it be, and why?
Orange, because foxes!
If budget or reality was not an issue, what’s the one piece of scenery/set you’d love to have in your show?
If we had an unlimited budget we would create a real park on stage, and also have full-on fox puppetry!
What’s the most valuable piece of advice you’ve received during your career, and how has it influenced your work on this show?
Write what you know.
What words of advice/encouragement would you give anyone thinking about doing Write Club next year?
Just do it, work sat in a folder deserves to be seen!
Thanks to Sami for talking to us about Foxes. The show plays at The Hope Theatre for Write Club 2026 on Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 January
Further information about all the shows playing at the festival can be found by clicking the below button.
