Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller
Playwright | Director | Filmmaker | Editor | Performer
Author and director of In Everglade Studio, Press, Chagos 1971, Port City Signature and more.
About Nathaniel
Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller is a mixed-race and Jewish writer, published playwright, award-winning performer, and director for stage and screen. He is based in London, and originally from Washington, DC.
He has directed more than thirty theatrical productions, and has written fifteen plays, including six acclaimed premieres at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (★★★★★ “Genius” - Broadway Baby, ★★★★★ “Fringe theatre does not get much better than this” - The Violet Curtain), and multiple London runs with his production company Black Bat Productions, which he founded in 2017.
He has been nominated for the BBC Writersroom’s Popcorn Award for Best New Writing, the Ilfeld Prize, an OffFest Award, and the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwriting, and won a Bursary Prize at South of the River Pictures’ and SISTER Global’s writer-performer competition Screenshot.
His recent works include theatre-industry satire The Kindness of Strangers, darkly comedic story of Black and Jewish life Blood Red Apples & Deep Gold Honey (developed with the Almeida Theatre and nominated for the George Devine Award in 2022), 1960s-set fashion industry drama Nines, and 1970s-set psychological thriller In Everglade Studio (★★★★★ “Masterpiece” - The Student), for which he also wrote original lyrics. In Everglade Studio was published by Methuen Drama and Bloomsbury Publishing in 2024, and was included in The British Blacklist's Best of 2024.
His 'Pinter-McDonagh lovechild' noir thriller Port City Signature was selected as the first play to reopen The Hope Theatre's new era, received unprecedented press attention for the theatre and enjoyed a critically acclaimed run nominated for an OffWestEnd award for its design (★★★★ "Brilliant" - RatedReviewed). The play became Nathaniel's second published piece of 2024, also through Methuen Drama.
He has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and London’s Old Red Lion Theatre, among other London venues. His plays have been performed at the Almeida Theatre, The Hope Theatre, The Old Red Lion, The Canal Café Theatre, The Lion & Unicorn, Mountview Academy, and more.
Nathaniel is also a film editor, screen actor, audio producer, graphic designer, screenwriter, and horse rider.
Honours / Awards
BBC Writersroom Popcorn Award (Longlisted)
for In Everglade Studio
Bursary Prize (Won)
for The Nomineers
Screenshot 2023
Monologue adaptation of 'Press'
George Devine Award (Shortlisted)
for Blood Red Apples & Deep Gold Honey
Ilfeld Award (Longlisted)
for The Spare Room
Best Short Film (Nominated)
for Evening Plans
Edinburgh International Film Festival
First Prize - Monologue Writing (Won)
for The Mission of Harper's Ferry
Studio Theatre Monologue Contest
Education
Master of Arts with Distinction, Film Studies
King's College London, 2020
Master of Arts, Theatre Directing
Mountview, 2022
Scottish Master of Arts, International Relations
The University of Edinburgh, 2019
Plays
Written by Nathaniel.
In Everglade Studio
Published by Methuen Drama
Longlisted for BBC Writersroom Popcorn Award for Best New Writing
'Best of 2024' - The British Blacklist
Three-Week Run at The Hope Theatre, London, Spring 2024
Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2023
Premiered at Mountview Academy, 2022
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ "Masterpiece" - The Student
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ "Not a moment is wasted" - Lothian Life
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ "Fierce and intense" - Butterwort
★ ★ ★ ★
"Genuinely breathtaking... richly written and observed"
- The New Current
★ ★ ★ ★
"Brilliantly written in both the music and script"
- The British Blacklist
★ ★ ★ ★
“Tuneful, tense and entertaining… Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller’s most impressive piece to date"
- AllEdinburgh Theatre
★ ★ ★ ★
A “well-written and well-acted thriller... that truly earns its claim to the genre”
- Flora Gosling
★ ★ ★ ★
"Smart and distinctly sinister"
- Theatre & Tonic
★ ★ ★ ★
"Excellent... clever and creative"
- Everything Theatre
Press
London Run, 2023
Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2022
London Run Two, 2022
London Run One, 2022
Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2021
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
"Genius… pleasurably wicked… it is a joy to spend an hour watching Press.”
- Broadway Baby
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
"Fringe theatre does not get much better than this"
- The Violet Curtain
★ ★ ★ ★ ½
"Hilarious… some of the loudest laughs of this year’s Fringe… laced with tongue in cheek political undertones and thoroughly engaging from start to finish.”
- Theatre Scotland
★ ★ ★ ★
"A timely piece of satire if there ever was one… a fantastically entertaining and thoughtful play with real social bite… an outstanding piece of theatre”
- The Wee Review
★ ★ ★ ★
“Incisive and entertaining… contains as many genuine laughs as anything you will see this year… thoroughly impressive… an unqualified hit.”
- AllEdinburgh Theatre
Port City Signature
Published by Methuen Drama
Selected as the first play to re-open The Hope Theatre
Three-Week Premiere Run at The Hope Theatre, London, Autumn 2024
★ ★ ★ ★
"A timeless, tense and tenacious tale"
- Broadway World
★ ★ ★ ★
"A brilliant homage to Hitchcock and the film noir genre"
- RatedReviewed
★ ★ ★ ★
"Original and very exciting"
- The Deskbound Dramatic
★ ★ ★ ★
"Oodles of tension right from the start"
- London Pub Theatres
★ ★ ★ ★
"Incredibly well acted, casual and convincing"
- A Shiny Life for Me
Chagos 1971
London Transfer, 2019
Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2019
Bedlam Theatre, 2019
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“The most intelligent piece of theatre I have seen at the Fringe… I would give it more stars if I could… a blistering exposé of how power operates… Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller’s tour de force of a script… full of zingers, and far more quotable lines than I can put down here.”
- EdFringe Review
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“Captivating, shocking and brutal in its honesty… an utter triumph… a masterpiece of theatre that I wanted to go back and watch immediately after it was over.”
- EdFringe Review
The Kindness of Strangers
VAULT Festival, London, 2023
Canal Café Theatre, London, 2022
★ ★ ★ ★
- LondonTheatre1
And I Mean That Sincerely
The Lion & Unicorn, London, 2023
Nines
Canal Café Theatre, London, 2022
Blood Red Apples & Deep Gold Honey
Anthem Live, Almeida Theatre, London 2022
Nominated for the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright
Oklahoma June '74
Katzpace, London, 2020
Fear of Roses
Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2021
★ ★ ★ ★
“A masterclass in character development… a profundity that I have rarely witnessed in a fringe show… the writing by Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller was consistently stellar… a thoroughly enjoyable production; a top recommendation”
- The Violet Curtain
★ ★ ★ ★
”Anyone who has seen one of {Black Bat's} previous productions will recognise several of the elements on display in the first of them – a noirish sheen, taut and snappy dialogue, a clever script with well engineered twists, an almost miraculous cool.”
- AllEdinburgh Theatre
★ ★ ★ ★
“A punchy, effective ride… an impressively staged piece from its opening moments”
- Culture Fix
★ ★ ★ ★
“A show you can bank on to entertain… Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller is certainly one to watch.”
- EdFringe Review
★ ★ ★ ★
“An inventive new take on a familiar genre.”
- Broadway Baby
★ ★ ★ ★
“Delicious tinges of a 1940s film noir”
- One4Review
Technicolor
Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2018
★ ★ ★ ★
"Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller’s script and direction crackle with fun and an apparently effortless cool... A remarkably enjoyable piece of theatre."
- AllEdinburgh Theatre
Mack The Knife
Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2017
★ ★ ★ ★
- The Student
★ ★ ★ ★
- EUTV
Direction
The directing process and some of its results.
More about Black Bat Productions
Acclaimed production company, with more on the way.
