It's September 2022. We're on WhatsApp going back and forth about a title for the new show we are making about Shakespeare's Henry V and Nationalism.
We're on a deadline; the theatre wants a title for their marketing ASAP. "What do we call it?" We volley a few titles between us. Up to this point we’d been using 'On and Off Henry' which kind of sounds like a bland will-they-won’t-they romance. "We need something punchy! Something with an edge." it agreed.
The post 2020 theatrical landscape is full of bold, brash titles — a wave of shows deconstructing identity and unapologetically de-colonising; the culture is still riding a woke-positive wave. Shows like 'untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play', 'seven methods of killing kylie jenner' (lower case intentional) and 'Slave Play' are setting the standard for boundary-pushing, conversation starting-theatre. We want to be like them.
"Something with Shakespeare in the title?" Phil suggests.
"No" Nina says, "it should be something you feel you shouldn't be able to say. Something exciting."
We ping ideas back and forth for another half hour. And then, there it is. "What about ENGLISH KINGS KILLING FOREIGNERS?". It's exactly what we wanted: bold, alliterative, makes you look twice. We get a bit giddy about it.
Nina: "I think this is it!"
Phil: "Let's sleep on it."
We met six years ago working on a production of Henry V at the Globe. We both have lived a large part of our lives outside the UK with intersecting identities. Phil is Turkish Jewish and Nina is Canadian with a St Lucian Dad and an English Mum. Both of us have done a lot of Shakespeare in our careers and enjoy the range and scale of his plays. But working on Henry V we started to have knotty conversations about what it meant to be English. These conversations became the starting place for English Kings Killing Foreigners and the founding of our theatre company Realfake Theatre.
Since deciding on the title, we've had every reaction imaginable. Some people, mostly London theatre people, love the title, and assume the show is selling really well because it's so provocative (not entirely true). Then there are the quiet responses; a raised eyebrow, a gulp, a strained smile. We've been trying to take the show on tour. One venue's Artistic Director really loved the show when he saw it but insisted the poster was not acceptable to hang outside his venue. We reached out to a theatre in Dublin; they thought the play was endorsing English kings killing foreigners and sent us back an accusatory rejection.
Nina attends a Quaker meeting, and finds herself sheepishly muttering the title when community members ask what she's working on. The feeling of having a show with a provocative title like ours is like wearing a daring outfit to the club. Once you're at the party it feels right. But the bus journey on the way over is uncomfortably drafty, and peppered with judgemental glances.
Our issues with the title don't stop at mild discomfort and misunderstandings. In July 2024 Nina was on her way to a rehearsal in south London. It was during the xenophobic riots in response to the Southport murders. Nina was planning on going to a Stop the Far-Right march after rehearsal in her local area where there had been reports that an immigration lawyer's office was going to be targeted. She was carrying a sign that read *strength in diversity* decorated with glittery fruit stickers. She was crossing the road when a man came up and yelled in her face calling her a stupid f*****g c**t. This interaction brought home the increased polarisation of the country in relation to multiculturalism. As anti-migrant and anti-DEI movements become more mainstream, the consequences of inserting yourself publicly into debates around national identity feel higher stakes. The angry comments under our Facebook ads feel more threatening. Were we putting ourselves at risk with this title? Were we engaging in clickbait-y violence escalating rhetoric ourselves? The algorithm thinks so. Our Instagram ads aren't reaching audiences because they may have been flagged for hate as a result of the title. We are now unable to name our own play in our marketing and are having to brainstorm social media-palatable alternatives.
We chose the title to provoke, but in the wake of the Unite the Kingdom Rally, we find ourselves questioning whether more provocation is what is needed right now. The title suggests an angry manifesto, but the show never tells people what they should think. To disagree and have a conversation is an intimate thing; you have to be invested in something to argue about it. We want to create a space in the culture to address the moment honestly, in a way that is rigorous and joyful. Our audiences love how we are able to keep the laughs coming as much as we are able to sit in uncomfortable moments and ask sticky questions. While the show plays hardball with Shakespeare and the legacy of Henry V, we're open to different approaches.
At the end of the day, we're a couple of politics and theatre nerds, always up for an animated debate in the pub after the show. We hope the title doesn't turn people off from that possibility.
English Kings Killing Foreigners is on at Soho Theatre till 18 October 2025, and has been called "overwhelmingly entertaining and raucous ★★★★★" and "astutely silly ★★★★★".
