Spy Movie: The Play!

A hilarious new comedy – a mega Hollywood blockbuster on a shoestring budget

We are thrilled that Spy Movie: The Play! is coming to The Swallow Theatre as part of an extensive UK and international tour, following its astonishing success at the Pleasance Courtyard in the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe.

Agent Jane Blonde has 24 hours to save the world. The only things standing in her way are dastardly villains, an outrageous plot and… a lack of funding.

When Hollywood rejects her script, a frustrated screenwriter invites you, an audience of producers, to a presentation of The Greatest Spy Movie (n)Ever Made!

From two of the minds behind The New Musketeers (Trinity Theatre) and directed by Katie-Ann McDonough (Comedy About a Bank Robbery, Fanny), Spy Movie: The Play! enjoyed a smash-hit run at The Pleasance Courtyard (Ed Fringe 2024), with multiple sell out shows, rave reviews and raucous audience responses. Following in the footsteps of Police Cops (This Theatre Company) and Crunch (Tangram) the play has been chosen by the English Theatre Company of Poland as part of its 2025 touring season, selected as one of only four chosen from last year’s fringe.

Featuring ski chases, death defying stunts, groundbreaking (non) CGI effects and a real (remote control) helicopter, the show delights audiences in its attempt to present a mega budget Hollywood blockbuster on a shoestring budget.

Spy Movie: The Play! is written by Matthew Howell & Jack Michael Stacey.

Matt and Jack met whilst performing The Play That Goes Wrong in London’s West End. Collectively they have worked with Mischief Theatre since 2016, becoming regular company members. They have been writing together for stage and screen since 2019. Their first collaboration for stage was The New Musketeers (2023), commissioned by Trinity Theatre as their Christmas production; it was published by Methuen Drama. Other work has been shortlisted for commission by BBC Radio 4 and won the Verity Bargate Award.

Their love of comedy, genre movies and theatre is what led them to create Spy Movie: The Play! It is produced under the banner of Cabbage Production Limited and forms the first in their “…Movie: The Play!” series.