The Institute of Nuts

New Play 2019

By ​Mark Daniels

Co-produced with Matchstick Theatre

Where people come to grow some balls.

“a powerful commentary on toxic masculinity in modern society”

★★★★ The Spy in the Stalls

★★★★ Everything Theatre

Matchstick Piehouse - We proudly present our second collaboration with Director-Writer team Edwina Strobl and Mark Daniels. This otherworldly dark comedy was part of Matchstick Theatre’s Spring Season showcasing emerging London playwrights in their innovative new performance space in Deptford/New Cross.

Welcome to ​The Institute of Nuts​, a crazy school-cum-retreat-cum-prison where people’s names are letters and their reasons for being there are... well... mysterious. Here, E and M run the show and O, P and B do whatever they’re told. Until a rebellion begins.

B arrives for his first day, ready to learn how to be a success in the wider world. Gradually things go from funny to farcical, and the skills he learns, such as strength and bravery, go from important and desirable to ridiculous and even threatening. The students protest and discover what The Institute is really all about.

“I am strong. I am powerful. I am the best.”

This darkly comic play tackles toxic masculinity and whether even the most woke amongst us are calling it out in the best way. It questions our current narratives and societal setups and the unnecessary pressures placed on both men and women by the patriarchy. ​The fact that The Institute is really a training ground for masculinity won’t be revealed to the audience until the latter part of the play.

Matchstick Theatre have been producing new writing across London’s fringe scene since 2015. In July 2018, we created a full-time home, Matchstick Piehouse, a bar/restaurant and multi-use arts space in a converted railway arch. Off the back of their sell-out immersive comedy set on a London night bus ​N89​, Strobl and Daniels (a South East Londoner himself) are two of our favourite up-and-coming innovative theatremakers.

Photos by Oli Sones