"It's OK, I Still Think You're Great" London Run Fundraiser

When I was 20, I left my home country to move to the UK. For a long time, I tried to capture on paper the experience of being a young immigrant in the UK during Brexit. The result was “It’s OK, I Still Think You’re Great”: a play about home, identity, belonging, not belonging; friendship, friendship breakups, breakup breakups; and, of course, Shakespeare.

In Nov 2023, “It’s OK” debuted with a sold-out 5 star run in Cambridge. In August 2024, we had the privilege of another 5 star run at Edinburgh Fringe. Now, "It's OK, I Still Think You're Great" is coming to London, as part of the VOILA! festival of migrant theatre-makers ... but I need your help to make it happen!

Anyone who works in the arts knows the emotional cost of telling stories that matter: of creating something close to your heart, and sharing it with the world, for other people to see, relate to, judge. Even harder to accomplish are the practicalities of putting a show on its feet: finding a venue, rehearsal spaces, costumes, marketing… all of these things, and of course, paying my brilliant cast and crew, require, well, money.

To pay my team a token amount, cover cost of set, theatre hire, rehearsal space, and break even after box office, I need £2500. To pay everyone Equity Rates, invest in decent promotion, and keep our box office profit to reinvest in future productions and support my future writing, I need £5150.

This money is something, as a PhD student and writer/director at the start of her career, I just don’t have. It takes a village to raise a child - and this play is my baby. So if I’ve ever made you pasta; if you’ve ever felt the urge to buy me a coffee; if you love the arts and want more young creatives to keep, well, creating it; please consider donating to our “It’s OK, I Still Think You’re Great” London Run fundraiser. Even the smallest contributions will help me bring this story to an even wider audience!

Thank you so much even for your time in reading this far; If you’d like some more information about the play, you can read on below. And if you decide not to donate – even if all you can really afford right now is giving us a cheeky follow on instagram and reshare this campaign – it’s OK, I still think you’re great!

Love, Raff xxx

"It's OK, I Still Think You're Great"

Baron's Court Theatre, 19-21 Nov @19:30 and 23-24 Nov @21:30

Find Tickets

Instagram: @itsokistillthinkyouregreat

More About the Play

It’s Tibby’s 25th birthday party and her old friends are coming to celebrate … and they are all doing better than her. Except Gin, Tibby’s best friend and former flatmate, whose return from her native Italy for the party makes old tensions hard to hide - especially from Anika, Tibby’s new, perfect, Polish flatmate. Deep feelings are revealed and new secrets are untangled in this ode to kitchen conversations and the joys and insecurities of life in your twenties.

“It’s OK” unpicks queer migrant identity for the "anxious generation”, interspersing Shakespearean references into a raw, relatable story that jumps easily from making you laugh to moving you deeply.

Where we want to go…

The intimate atmosphere of “It’s OK” makes it a wonderful fit for fringe theatre: all of the venues that have hosted the show so far have contributed to the play’s naturalistic evocation of a real-life kitchen. But reality famously is – and certainly feels – stranger than fiction … particularly when you are a creative trying to escape the reality of your mid-twenties!

We want the next stage in the life of “It’s OK, I Still Think You’re Great” to take more space, under the bright lights of a larger venue with our same commitment to making new writing shine. One day, I’d love to see my work somewhere like Soho Theatre and the Royal Court… But, given the significance of Shakespeare in the play, my absolute dream venue is none other than His Globe: we want to enhance life rather than mirror it, to build a dream kitchen for dream conversations.

But what really matters is to keep telling the story to new audiences, in London and beyond. As “It’s OK” raises questions of identity and of what it means to be a creative practitioner in the UK, we are particularly keen on sharing the show with fellow theatre-makers across the country; we would love to take our dream kitchen (and Shakespeare cutout) on the road! Offering workshops, opening discussions on Shakespeare and the role of new and old writing in our industry and in our lives, we want to start conversations, questioning ourselves and our audiences about the complex but deeply human issues at the heart of the show.

Every journey starts with a first step: this first step is the wonderful Barons Court Theatre at the Curtains Up pub, which has kicked off so many careers of playwrights I love. Please help me become one of them!

Reviews from our Previous Runs

From Edinburgh:

“Witty, incredibly well-written and emotional in parts, It’s OK, I Still Think You’re Great is something I wish I had seen in my twenties and is the show I’m recommending to people for the rest of the Fringe[... ]they have crammed the experience of being in your twenties into a fifty-minute show. It’s astounding.” Broadway Baby, ★★★★★

“Raffaella Sero’s writing is seamlessly real and feels natural throughout[... ]A deeply human piece of theatre[...] I did not feel as if I was sitting in a theatre but instead in the characters' flat [...] “I implore you to see this show.” EdFringe Review, ★★★★★ and ★★★★

From Cambridge:

“It touched me in a way that I struggle to squash into a typical review” Varsity, ★★★★

“[It’s OK] captures perfectly what it feels like to be alive in your twenties[...]The show was so authentic, so intimate; it didn’t feel like watching a play at all, but rather witnessing someone’s life unfolding right before your eyes” The Tab, ★★★★★

From Our Audience:

“A sweet, funny and heartwarming story. I related to its depiction of female friendships, romantic relationships, and trying to find your place (work and home) in your 20s… I loved it” - Sara Echeverry

“Like Normal People, but better” - Anon

“This show deserves a bigger audience! It's so lovely, about being kind to ourselves and each other as we navigate a difficult world” - Rosie

“Really enjoyable comedy drama about 3 twentysomethings finding themselves. Warm, funny and kind.” - Neil Coburn

About This Run

It’s OK, I Still Think You’re Great comes to Barons Court Theatre in November 2024 for VOILA! Theatre Festival. Produced by Arianna Rabin (George, Omnibus Theatre) and with Assistant Director Elliot Aitken (Company, Mother of Pearl), this run will see Dominika Wiatrowska (Four Cut Sunflowers, Liminal Space) reprise her role as Anika, and introduce Naphysa Awuah (Second Temple, When We Were Normal) as Gin and Anna Marks Pryce (4 girls the first letter e, Alma Mater) as Tibby.

About VOILA!

Relaunching this year as a multi-venue festival across London, VOILA! has championed for over ten years the work of immigrant theatre makers in London. Dealing with complex themes of identity and intersectionality, It’s OK, I Still Think You’re Great perfectly embodies the ethos of this “essential festival, platforming emerging artists and theatre that might be considered too political or uncomfortable for bigger venues." (The Stage)

More about Raffaella:

Informed by her experience as a queer immigrant woman, writer Raffaella Sero’s work frequently explores the intersection between these identities. Developed with actor Evie Florence and director Ariella Como-Stoian, her one-person show The Other (Drayton Arms, King’s Head Theatre, and Edinburgh Fringe 2023) followed a multigenerational Italian family through their relationship to their home, making for “a heart-wrenching yet light-hearted show” (★★★★, North West End). As a director, Sero is drawn to original stories and to Shakespeare, who is also the subject of her PhD at Newnham College, University of Cambridge. Her directing credits include Made of Light (rehearsed reading at The Cockpit Theatre; Riverside Studios 2024) and assisting Josh Seymour’s production of Romeo and Juliet for the Marlowe Society (Cambridge Arts Theatre, 2024).

The Money…!

Here’s how £2500 (if we raise it!) will be spent…

Total: 2485

Paying cast and creative team: 2200

Audition and Rehearsal space for 1 week's rehearsals: 450

Theatre Hire: 385

Set: 100

Other (Contingency, insurance): 150

Box office income if we sold 50% : -1800

...And here is how we’d spend the full £5150 if we raised it:

Total: 5150

Paying cast and creative team Equity rate: 3600

Audition and Rehearsal space for 1 week's rehearsals: 450

Theatre Hire + full tech: 535

Promotion: 150

Set and costumes: 200

Other (Contingency, insurance): 215

Box office profits: Kept to reinvest in future productions, and take "It's OK" to bigger and better spaces!

We are a small team, and we know this campaign will mainly reach our nearest and dearest - £5000+ seems incredibly ambitious to us! But the more we raise, the more likely we are to either break even and save Raff’s bank account, or, the dream, make a profit to invest in future productions.

Thank you so much for reading this far! Please donate and reshare this campaign to help us make “It’s OK, I Still Think You’re Great” ’s London run a reality! <3