Coventry-born West End star Declan Bennet returns to hometown with playwriting debut ‘Boy Out The City’

Coventry born Declan Bennet (EastEnders’ Charlie Cotton) will bring his one person show to Belgrade Theatre this spring after a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and a successful week on London’s West End. 

Boy Out The City will be performed by Declan from 25 to 28 March 2024 at the Belgrade’s B2 studio, with a press performance on Tuesday 26 March. Based on his own private journals, Declan reflects on surviving the streets of Coventry in a NAF NAF jacket, confronting his Catholic school days at Cardinal Newman and discovering Sister Act 2 for the first time at the local cinema.

This raw autobiographical play humorously explores toxic masculinity, homophobia and mental health. Declan is an actor, songwriter and now an emerging playwright. He gained prominence as a member of the 1999 band Point Break before going on to perform in the West End, Broadway, and national and international tours.

He has also had a plethora of television and film roles including Charlie Cotton in EastEnders and Jonathan in ITV detective drama The Long Call. Declan’s previous work in theatre includes Boy George’s Taboo (2002, West End), Rent (2006 – 2007, United States tour, 2007 – 2008, Broadway), Once (2013, West End), Jesus Christ Superstar (2016, Open Air Theatre Regents Park) and more recently, he played Duke in Moulin Rouge! on Broadway.

Declan says: “Bringing my one man show Boy Out The City to Coventry is huge for me. It wasn’t the easiest of places for a young gay lad to grow up in in the 90’s but it taught me strength and resilience in spades.

“I wouldn’t have written the show were it not for my experiences here as a kid so I’m really proud to be able to share my story with the city I grew up in and with a community of people who have given me such solid support throughout my career.” Boy Out The City premiered as a work in progress at the 2021 Westival Music and Arts Festival followed by a short London run at the Turbine Theatre, Battersea. Prior to the Edinburgh Fringe, the play was previewed at Coventry’s LTB Showrooms (LTB) for one night only in July 2023.

The play follows Declan from childhood to adulthood and after moving out of London to wait out the final months of the pandemic, Declan finds himself alone in the Oxfordshire countryside. In his isolation, he is forced to face the demons of his past on a messy journey through the turbulent world of toxic masculinity, homophobia, and men’s mental health.

From the lonely aisles of Hobbycraft to the bright lights of New York city, this is the story of a man in desperate search of identity when confronted with sudden unexpected solitude.