Bush Theatre has announced full casting and creative team details for I’m Not Being Funny, a new play by Piers Black running from 7 May to 6 June 2026.
Presented by Prentice Productions in association with Bush Theatre, the production is directed by Bryony Shanahan, with design by Amelia Jane Hankin, sound design by Asaf Zohar, casting by Fran Cattaneo and production management by Harry Fearnley‑Brown for New Wolf Productions.
The two‑hander stars Tia Bannon and Jerome Yates.
The play follows a couple attempting to write a stand‑up routine together, locked in their living room as they mine their past for material. What begins as a creative exercise becomes an emotional reckoning as jokes reveal deeper truths.
Press night is on 12 May at 7pm.
Writer and director Piers Black, Artistic Director of Ransack Theatre, has work spanning the National Theatre, Almeida, Royal Exchange, HighTide and more. His previous play Catching Comets won an OffComm Award and was nominated for a Fringe First. His radio work includes the BBC Alfred Bradley Bursary Award‑winning Human Resources.
Director Bryony Shanahan is a former Joint Artistic Director of the Royal Exchange Theatre, with credits including Bloody Elle, No Pay? No Way!, Let the Right One In, and Nora: A Doll’s House, as well as productions for the National Theatre of Scotland, Traverse and Young Vic.
Tia Bannon’s credits include Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner (Woolly Mammoth / Public Theater / Royal Court) and Oresteia/Hamlet (Almeida/ Park Avenue Armory). Jerome Yates’s work includes Driftwood (Pentabus/ThickSkin), Pinocchio (Watermill Theatre) and screen roles for Netflix.
After its run at the Bush, the play will transfer to Bristol Old Vic from 23 to 27 June.
Tickets start from £10 during previews. From 13 May, standard tickets are priced £20 to £25, with all concessions set at £5. More £15 tickets are available than ever under the theatre’s updated pricing model.
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
