Bird Grove

'As long as you only have one sort of person telling the stories, well then our world will end up looking very like that one sort of person. It makes sense, doesn't it?'

1841. Mary Ann Evans is of marriageable age - just. Her father, Robert, has recently moved with her to Bird Grove House, with the sole purpose of finding her a suitable husband through the local church. But Mary Ann's remarkable intellect and growing self-confidence are forming progressive new ideas in her mind; ideas that challenge her father's most strongly held beliefs.

Fuelled by every new book she reads and a burgeoning friendship with local radicals, Mary Ann finds it increasingly difficult to accept the rules of the world around her - bringing her into direct and bitter conflict with the father she adores. But perhaps that is the only way forward: to break every societal convention expected of her, find her voice, and become the writer she has always dreamt of being. After all, who can suppress the astounding gifts of future literary titan, George Eliot?

Alexi Kaye Campbell's witty and topical new play, Bird Grove, questions how we can live alongside those we disagree with, and places centre stage the untold story of one of England's greatest writers, in a poignant exploration of family ties and self-determination.

It is premiered at Hampstead Theatre in 2026.