Jessica Norman’s debut full-length play This Little Earth is set to premiere at Arcola Theatre this October. The gripping new drama explores truth, love, and survival in a surreal journey to Antarctica.
Directed by Imy Wyatt Corner and presented by 3 hearts canvas and Izzy Carney, the play was longlisted for The Women’s Prize and shortlisted for the Originals Playwriting Award. Norman’s writing delves into the dangerous pursuit of truth in a chaotic world.
This Little Earth runs from 22 October to 15 November 2025 at Arcola Theatre, with tickets available here.
Your debut play This Little Earth is coming to the Arcola Theatre – what can you tell us about the show?
This Little Earth follows Honey and Christopher, two Flat-Earthers, who journey to Antarctica to find the edge of the world. It’s an unconventional love story, with our production very much inspired by 90s off-beat rom coms like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
But it is also a gripping tale of survival and adventure at the ends of the Earth, which asks big questions about the post-truth world we’re currently living in.
What’s particularly exciting is that the play started life as a short play performed at the Arcola, so there is a nice circularity to that – it feels like it’s coming home.
This Little Earth explores truth, love, and survival in a surreal setting. What inspired you to write this story?
I began writing the play during Covid and Trump’s first term. The world felt scary and polarised, and conspiracy belief was on the rise. I was looking for an extreme belief to write about which wouldn’t alienate members of the audience – and I settled on Flat Earth.
There is (of course) something completely absurd about believing the Earth is flat, a theory that has been disproved for thousands of years. But, as with many conspiracy theories, I think it reflects a feeling that people have that there is something very wrong with the world around us and a human desire to make sense of that.
I wanted to ask: does it matter that people believe the Earth is flat if it helps them through something difficult? What are the dangers of believing it?
I should say that I take Honey and Christopher and their beliefs very seriously. The play is about creating empathy and understanding — something that theatre, of all storytelling mediums, is incredibly well placed to do.
The challenge for me as a writer has been to try and encourage audiences to understand Honey and Christopher and to love them, in spite of what they believe.
The play was longlisted for The Women’s Prize and shortlisted for the Originals Playwriting Award. How has that recognition shaped your journey with the piece?
Writing is a lonely business – and that was particularly true of playwriting during the pandemic, when I genuinely didn’t know if the play would ever see the light of day.
Getting recognition from the Women’s Prize and Originals Playwriting Award definitely helped me keep going and gave me confidence that it was a project worth continuing.
It’s also just a nice feeling to know that your writing is chiming and connecting with people you’ve never met.
The characters travel to Antarctica in search of the edge of the world. What drew you to this unusual and symbolic setting?
In researching Flat Earth, I discovered that Antarctica played a really important role in the conspiracy. Antarctica is quite an unbelievable place – a whole continent at the edge of the world covered in ice, with no indigenous people.
And like other unbelievable things, it’s become a canvas for conspiracy theories. Not just Flat Earth, but ancient pyramids, alien lifeforms, and many more.
Landscape often informs my writing and the more I read about Antarctica, the more obsessed I became. In This Little Earth, Antarctica becomes almost like another character in Honey and Christopher’s journey – it is beautiful and majestic and expansive and totally wild and terrifying, and forces them to confront hard truths that they don’t want to see.
I also hadn’t seen a play set there and I love the challenge it has created – of conjuring up Antarctica within the studio space at Arcola.
You’re working with director Imy Wyatt Corner and 3 hearts canvas. How has the collaboration influenced the final production?
It is harder than ever to get new work programmed and the collaboration has really been crucial for getting This Little Earth to this point.
Theatre is all about teamwork and it’s been really inspiring to see Imy’s vision for the play unfolding, working closely with the rest of the creative team, to bring Antarctica to Arcola Studio 2, and deliver some of my more unstageable stage directions (e.g. ‘they travel across Antarctica’).
We also have two incredible actors, Fanta Barrie and Ross O’Donnellan playing Honey and Christopher, and watching them embody and bring life to the parts has been so exciting to see.
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see This Little Earth?
I love theatre that takes you on a journey and This Little Earth definitely does that: both the physical journey that Honey and Christopher go on, but their emotional journey, as well.
It tackles some big themes, but like all my work, it’s also darkly, absurdly funny, entertaining and, ultimately, a very hopeful play.
There is also a penguin! But you’d better book your tickets now if you want to know more…
