Theatre company wrestles with knife crime in its first West End show

Minority-focused company the Upsetters says play Dismissed will challenge ‘ethical absolutes’ around problem

In a cramped rehearsal room tucked among the City of London’s gleaming towers last week, a new theatre company wrestled with an urgent contemporary dilemma: how should adults respond to children who carry knives?

Not far from the lodgings where William Shakespeare wrote his “problem plays”, a cast assembled by the Upsetters, a minority-focused drama company, workshopped a scene set in a secondary school office where teachers talked to a mother about allegations that her son had brought in a “zombie killer” knife. The atmosphere was tense.

Dismissed by Daniel Rusteau runs at the Soho theatre from 16 May to 3 June 2023