Director & Writer

Emily is a multi-award-winning writer and director. She has worked in the industry for nearly two decades and continues to write and direct across theatre and screen.

Bobby & Amy


*Fringe First winner and Show of the Week winner 2019*

A dark comedy about foot-and-mouth disease.

It's the late 90s: Take That, Tamagotchis and Pog swaps. When Bobby and Amy meet, hundreds of cows dot across the fields and the sun always shines.

But when the cows begin to burn, Bobby and Amy’s sleepy Cotswold town faces a catastrophe that will change their home forever.

Bobby & Amy explores friendship and what happens when our way of life is threatened by those who don’t understand it.

Written and directed by Emily Jenkins, produced by Emma Blackman productions

Vault Festival 2019
Pleasance Courtyard 2019
National Tour 202


Copies of the play text can be purchased online.

Purchase

"One of the best shows at the Festival"

The Times

"Gripping drama...brings riches"

The Guardian

"A bittersweet ode to the forgotten voices"

The List

Cookies


Now a key stage three drama resource.


Inspired by the true, heartfelt stories of students, COOKIES follows seven teenagers navigating the challenges of the digital age.

Sosa, a streetwise Londoner, finds solace in the music of her favorite rapper. However, her world is shattered when she finally meets her idol.

Eva, an aspiring vlogger, breaks up with her gamer boyfriend, Simon. She is then forced to confront the devastating consequences of sexting and relentless online abuse.

Selena, a fan of pop star Zayn, begins chatting with another anonymous superfan online. As their friendship grows, the young Muslim woman grapples with her faith and is persuaded to embark on a dangerous journey.

Haymarket Theatre, 2017

Written by Emily Jenkins, directed by Anna Ledwich.
Copies of the play text, published by Samuel French, can be purchased online.

Purchase
Outstanding Drama Resource (2020)

Theatre Royal Haymarket

"Electrifying"

Hive

"Inventive...visually stunning"

Everything Theatre

"Authentic and lively"

British Theatre Guide

Writer and Director

Emily has almost two decades of experience as a director and writer. She has won two Fringe Firsts for plays she has both written and directed (Rainbow; and Bobby & Amy), and has had work commissioned and produced in London’s West End (Cookies, Theatre Royal Haymarket.)

Her recent work as a director includes:

Bobby & Amy, National Tour; The First by Barry McStay, Vault  Festival ; Hot  by Richard Marsh, Vault Festival; Bobby & Amy, Pleasance  Courtyard and Vault Festival (FRINGE FIRST award  plus Show of the Week award at Vault Festival 2019); Serious Money by Caryl Churchill, Sainsbury Theatre; Quarantine, Greenwich Maritime  Museum; The Provoked Wife, As you Like It, and A Midsummer Night's Dream all for LAMDA; Vinegar Tom by Caryl Churchill, Royal & Derngate Theatre; Merry Wives of Windsor, Royal & Derngate Theatre; KCS by Caitlin Moran, Southwark Playhouse; Rainbow by E Jenkins, Zoo Southside  (FRINGE FIRST award); Mojo Mickybo by Owen McCafferty, The Old Red Lion (nominated for Off  West End Award).

Her recent work as a writer includes:

Bobby & Amy, National Tour 2021, and Pleasance Courtyard 2019 (Fringe First winner); Quarantine, Quarantine, Greenwich Maritime  Museum; COOKIES, Theatre Royal Haymarket; Dark Matter, Paines Plough; Bed, Traverse Theatre; Rainbow, Zoo Southside (Traverse Theatre).

Emily graduated from the National Film and Television School screenwriting course in 2022 and is currently working with Blue Horizon productions on the screenplay adaptation of Bobby & Amy. She has attended multiple invitation only writers' programmes including at the Criterion Theatre, Royal Court, Traverse Theatre, and RADA.

Selected awards

The Scotsman Fringe First
(2012)

Rainbow, Zoo Southside

Show of the Week, The Vaults (2019)

Bobby & Amy, Vault Festival

The Scotsman Fringe First (2020)

Bobby & Amy, Pleasance Courtyard

Outstanding drama resource (2020)

COOKIES, Theatre Royal Haymarket

Selected reviews

“Jenkins’ invention makes every minute hold.”
— British Theatre Guide (Mojo Mickybo).

“...exacting and meticulous direction...clever stuff.”
— London Theatre Guide (Mojo Mickybo).

“(Emily Jenkins) directs the show almost like a ballet, with lithe and tireless physicality from the two superb performers Will Howard and Kimberley Jarvis.”
The Stage (Bobby & Amy).

“Thankfully, we have plays like Emily Jenkins'
Cookies to remind us that we're not just screaming into the void. Over 80 electrifying minutes, we watch how small mistakes snowball into crises that threaten the lives of seven ordinary London teenagers."
—  Hive (Cookies).

“Cookies being a show that is unlike one I have seen before. It is inventive...it is a good play. More than this, it sets the very purpose of theatre in its responsibility to engage, and alight with the most visceral empathy.”
— Everything Theatre (Cookies).

Pay close attention to ‘Rainbow’; it will strike you as moving, smart, and powerful....Rainbow shines with brilliance and covers a spectrum of dramatic feeling and powerful truth.”
— Three Weeks (Rainbow).

"The writing, by Emily Jenkins (who is also the show's director and producer), is fantastic....I'd see Rainbow again, and I don't say that about many plays."
— Fringe Guru (Rainbow).