Events Archive > Mercury Reads: To Be You & Self Control

Mercury Reads: To Be You & Self Control

Show Information

Showing on:

Tue 3 March 2026

Duration:

3.30pm-6pm

Price:

Genre:

Array

Venue:

Upstairs Bar

Show Bio
Cast & Crew

Join us for Mercury Reads a series of lively rehearsed readings celebrating local voices and fresh new writing. Each event spotlights an exciting playwright from our region, giving audiences the chance to see new stories take shape for the very first time.

In this session, join us in the Upstairs Bar on Tue 3 Mar from 3.30pm as we look at Mercury Reads: To Be You by Esohe Uwadiae and Self Control by Ted Marriott.

**3.30pm: To Be You by Esohe Uwadiae**

She’s dumped her fiancé, quit her job and packed her bags. Now what?

To Be You is a semi-autobiographical character study into black identity, chosen family and childhood. It follows an unnamed British Nigerian woman at the pivotal point of spontaneously moving to Nigeria to complete her youth service and how she got here.

While packing up her childhood room in preparation, our protagonist soon realises that secrets never lay dead. As photo albums and teenage memorabilia lead her down memory lane, something in the shadows won’t stay buried and she is forced to confront the worst thing she has ever done.

4.45pm: Self Control by Ted Marriott

“I thought I should come here today, because I reached a point where I wasn’t sure if I was here anymore. Or I was here to begin with.”

Self Control is a one-man show that follows the story of Matthew, who is on a quest to win back his boyfriend, prove to everyone he’s got his shit together, bury years of self-loathing and grief, and throw his mum the best birthday party anyone has ever seen – easy. But with every step he takes forward, he finds himself back in time, in a club, the ceiling of his flat, his childhood bedroom, or his flooded bathroom. He must do all he can to maintain some self control and get back to a reality of stasis and comfort before he loses himself forever.

Self Control is a funny, heartbreaking and time-travelling tragicomedy, exploring the contradictions and connections between men’s mental health and queer identity, family, love, loss and how these are experienced physically and temporally.

Ted Marriott is the writer and performer of this piece.

Esohe Uwadiae

Esohe Uwadiae is a multidisciplinary creative. Her debut play, the 5-star SHE IS A PLACE CALLED HOME, ran at VAULT Festival 2020 where critics hailed it as a “thought-provoking”, “powder-keg of a play”.

Her other work has featured at theatres including the Almeida, the Pleasance and the Duke of York’s. She has been shortlisted for awards including the Women’s Prize for Playwriting and the Alfred Fagon Award. Esohe has been part of several programmes, including with the Royal Court, the Almeida and the Old Vic.

Ted Marriott

Ted Marriott is a writer and performer from Suffolk. He is an alumni of the National Youth Theatre, Old Vic Theatre Makers, Bush Theatre Emerging Writers Group and the HighTide Writers Group.

He is currently working on a new play about the lives and times of African American GIs and white British communities in rural Suffolk during the Second World War with the help and inspiration of the heritage project Black USAF.