Q&A with After Sunday Writer Sophia Griffin

1. Tell us about After Sunday. Who are the characters, where is it set and what makes it special?

After Sunday is set in a Caribbean cooking group inside a medium secure hospital. It follows the journey of four characters – staff member Naomi and three service users, Daniel, Leroy and Ty and explores the challenges of finding healing within mental health and criminal justice systems.

I’m a character driven writer, so for me it’s the characters and their journeys that make it special. It’s a play that meets these people where they are, in their messy, funny, tender, complex ways. We approach the storytelling with empathy and truthfulness and give insight into a world that is often misunderstood and into people who are rarely heard in wider society.

2. What inspired After Sunday? Particularly the idea of combining Caribbean cooking with the setting of a medium-secure hospital?

So many things have inspired the play, personal experiences of people I know who have been in secure hospitals and people who have worked in these systems. And also the poem, ‘A Portable Paradise’ by Roger Robinson, which speaks about paradise being an internal refuge.

Food is so central to Caribbean culture – it’s home, comfort, love, healing. When your connection to home and culture has been severed, there’s something very powerful, but also painful, about reconnecting with it. Food allows us to connect to, and explore, the joy and pain that’s living side by side within these characters.

Darrel Bailey (Daniel) & Amiee Powell (Naomi)

3. The play explores memory, trauma, healing, identity, institutional life and men’s mental health. Why did you want to include these themes in the story and what do they mean to you?

Listed like that it looks super heavy but I promise there’s light and tenderness in the play too! I don’t think you can set a play in a secure hospital and not delve into these themes, it wouldn’t be doing the world and the characters justice. I think for a lot of people secure hospitals are relatively unknown places. Portrayals can be sensationalised, so it was really important to me that we approached the story of After Sunday with sensitivity. But it was also important that we didn’t sanitise things either, these are complex places and we haven’t shied away from the reality of them.

4. After Sunday is your first produced play, how are you feeling about your words being brought to life on stage?

Having my first play on at the Belgrade and the Bush feels like a bold move and it’s quite exposing as a writer. If you’d asked me a few weeks ago I would have said I’m running on anxiety and adrenaline but my part is (mainly!) finished now so I can breathe out and really enjoy the process. The cast and creative team are making magic in the rehearsal room and I’m so excited to see it all come to life! The characters and their stories have lived with me for such a long time now, it’s incredible to see a whole team care about them just as much as I do.

Amiee Powell (Naomi), Corey Weekes (Ty), Darrel Bailey (Daniel) & David Webber (Leroy).

5. Tell us about you as a writer. What started your passion, and how have you got where you are today?

I thought I wanted to act when I was younger and had got into drama school but for a few reasons I didn’t end up going. I then took a really long break from anything creative before starting to write as a way to process my own emotions. I properly got into writing through spoken word and development programmes like Birmingham REP’s Foundry and Bush Writers’ Group. I’ve been really fortunate to have been mentored by some brilliant artists and grown alongside a great group of peers. Corey has been instrumental in my development too. We worked together on SeaView and it was during this process that I knew I wanted to write a play for him to direct.

Sophia Griffin – After Sunday Writer

6. Why do you think Corey Campbell is the best person to take on the direction of After Sunday?

I was a fan of Corey long before we worked together, he’s a visionary artist so I’m feeling very blessed that he’s directing After Sunday. He’s very rooted in character which is useful for my process as that’s where my initial ideas come from.  Corey is also one of the most authentic people I know and I think that’s an important trait for this project as we have a big responsibility in how we’re portraying the world.

This is a pretty ambitious debut and it’s been a massive learning process for me so having Corey to challenge and champion me has been invaluable. I also have to mention dramaturg, Grace Barrington, who has been working with me on this from the beginning – having her clarity and calm approach has been just what I’ve needed!

Corey Campbell – After Sunday Director & Belgrade Theatre Artistic Director

7. There is going to be live cooking on stage during each performance. Why have you chosen to incorporate this and what sort of food should we expect to be cooked? Do audiences get to taste it?

I don’t want to give too much away but lots and lots of dumplings!  I’m not sure whether the audience will get to taste anything. They’ll certainly smell a lot of good food being cooked so they might get hungry but at least they’ll leave artistically nourished!

8. What do you hope audiences walk away thinking about or feeling seeing After Sunday?

I think people will leave thinking and feeling a variety of things and that multiple things can be true at once. We’ve been working with an amazing group of people with lived experience of secure hospitals who have worked as consultants on the show. When we asked them what they’d like the show to say one person said – ‘yes I have a diagnosis, yes I’m under a section, but I am human’ and I don’t think I can put it any better.

9. The most important question… what is your favourite Caribbean dish?

This might be the hardest question, my list could go on and on.  If we’re talking singular food item it has to be plantain. My love for plantain is unmatched, second only to the love I have for my children. Side dish, main dish, snack – I could eat it all day, every day.

After Sunday runs at the Belgrade from Fri 10 – Sat 25 Oct 2025. Ticket can be booked HERE.