Core Values Comes to The Hen & Chickens Theatre This May
What do you want to say out loud?
What is your best-kept secret?
What are you afraid to leave unsaid?
InHouse Theatre Productions brings a new piece of intimate, emotionally charged theatre to Islington this spring with Core Values, a devised play written and directed by Alice Dempsey. The production runs for two nights only — 2nd and 3rd May at 7:30pm — at The Hen & Chickens Theatre, offering London audiences an early look at a rising creative voice.
Blending fiction with lived experience, Core Values explores the fragile, often contradictory ways we form, hold, and sometimes lose our relationships. Rather than following a single narrative, the piece unfolds as a series of intersecting moments — memories, confessions, and conversations that collide to reveal the messy, human truth beneath them.
Dempsey, an Australian actor and writer who relocated to the UK in 2023, makes her writing and directorial debut with the production. She is joined onstage by performers Cécile Fayter and Nikita Aang Campbell, both of whom contribute their own perspectives and creative material to the show’s development. The result is a collaborative work shaped by three distinct voices, each bringing depth and nuance to the play’s shifting emotional landscape.
“We don’t remember days, we remember moments.”
— Core Values
The production moves fluidly between humour and vulnerability, with scenes ranging from sharply observed comedy to quiet, introspective reflection. Themes of closeness, distance, accountability, and the weight of memory run throughout, creating a piece that is as unsettling as it is recognisable.
Core Values also reflects InHouse Theatre Productions’ commitment to accessible, community‑focused theatre. The company specialises in intimate performances designed to exist in a wide range of spaces — from pubs and living rooms to care homes and soup kitchens — with the aim of bringing meaningful storytelling directly to audiences who might not otherwise encounter it.
With only two performances scheduled, Core Values offers a brief but compelling opportunity to experience a new work from a company dedicated to honest, immediate theatre‑making.
Performers
Cécile Fayter
PLAYER A
A London‑based actor, writer and queer creative with training from ArtsEd. With a background in clowning and a passion for complex female characters, she brings sharp emotional detail to the devised work. Writer of Am I Horrible, she contributes both performance and text to Core Values.
Alice Dempsey
PLAYER B
An Australian actor, writer and director who relocated to the UK in 2023 to continue her training at ArtsEd. Core Values marks her debut as a writer‑director, blending her interest in accessible, authentic storytelling with a collaborative devising process.
Nikita Campbell
PLAYER C
An Indonesian‑Australian actor and graduate of Federation University’s Music Theatre programme. Recently moved to London, she brings a fresh perspective to the ensemble and is excited to help shape new, accessible theatre through this devised production.
Cast & Creatives
- Showing: 2nd – 3rd May 2026
- Venue: The Hen & Chickens Theatre, 109 St Paul’s Road, London N1 2NA
- Buy Tickets: https://unrestrictedview.co.uk/events/core-values
- Writer & Director: Alice Dempsey
- Featured Writers: Cécile Fayter, Nikita Aang Campbell
- Devised By: InHouse Theatre Productions - https://www.instagram.com/inhousetheatreproductions/
- Producer: Alice Dempsey
- Additional Support: Catherine Hill, Honor Forrester, Miriam Botzenhardt
- Cast:
Alice Dempsey as Player B
Nikita Aang Campbell as Player C
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