Hannah Maxwell is a writer, performer & storyteller

Her autobiographical work offers a unique blend of influences from theatre, performance art, stand up, spoken word and musicals. It crosses into solo shows, performed essays, podcasts, television and radio. It is hyperspecific, playful and idiosyncratic. Accessibly radical, it remarks on the unremarkable. It is nonchalantly queer, because she is. There’s a bit of song and dance. Your mother would love it.

Maxwell’s debut show, I, AmDram (2017- 2022), about queer identity and growing up amongst amateur musical theatre, was developed through the Starting Blocks Artist Development Programme at Camden People’s Theatre. Supported by Arts Council England, the show premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2019 with The Pleasance (★ ★ ★ ★ ★ To Do List, ★ ★ ★ ★ Scotsman, ★ ★ ★ ★ The List), before touring to Adelaide Fringe 2020 (★ ★ ★ ★ ★The Adelaide Show - see Press page for full reviews), around the UK (with various Rural Touring Networks, around the South East in association with house, and to Germany and Norway, with Menagerie Theatre Company). The playtext is published by Bloomsbury/Oberon Books and a piece on the show was featured in the Guardian in 2019.

Her second storytelling show, Nan, Me & Barbara Pravi (2022-present), exploring care, crisis and the Eurovision song contest, was commissioned by Camden People’s Theatre and supported by Arts Council England. The piece was created collaboratively with an incredible technical and design team, dramaturg Annie Siddons and performance director Len Gwyn. Premiering with Summerhall at Edinburgh Fringe 2023, the show received critical acclaim (★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Time Out, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The Financial Times, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Scottish Field, ★ ★ ★ ★ Scotsman - see Press page for full reviews), was nominated for the BBC Writers Popcorn Award for New Writing at the Edinburgh Fringe and won the Summerhall Lustrum Award for unforgettable theatre. A minor tabloid media storm was incited by the unexpected attendance of Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Nan, Me & Barbara Pravi continues to tour the UK and internationally (see Events page for touring dates).

Maxwell’s other work includes collaboration with international lesbian performance company Split Britches as co-writer of Unexploded Ordnances, a part-performance, part-roundtable discussion on age, hope and ideas of ‘doomsday’, which premiered at La Mama Experimental Theatre Club in New York in January 2018, with a UK premiere at the Barbican in May 2018.

As an actor, Maxwell appeared in the role of ‘General Lee’ as part of the drag-cabaret spectacular Mulan Rouge by ShayShay Konno at the Vaults Theatre 2021-22, and as understudy ‘Mole’ in Figs in Wigs’ Wind in the Willows Christmas show at Cambridge Junction 2019. She has also appeared in various commercials (television and online), short films, audioguides and other media as both actor and voiceover artist.

In collaboration with her uncle, playwright and poet Glyn Maxwell, she has designed a storytelling card game called Best Day Ever, illustrated by artist Frances Gibson and due to launch in 2024. Live gameplay shows with special guests (including Poet Laureate Simon Armitage) were recorded and launched as the Best Day Ever Live podcast in 2019-20.

Maxwell graduated from Queen Mary, University of London in 2014, receiving a 1st class BA Hons in English and Drama, and the Westfield Award. She is a member of the Croydonites Festival Artist Advisory Board. She co-runs Karaoke-Dokey with Rachel Porter at the Karaoke Hole in Dalston. She has different coloured eyes and lives in a disused mortuary in South East London.