We are delighted to announce that Blake Friedmann client Paul Herzberg's award-winning play THE MOTH will have its London premiere at the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre for a strictly limited four-week season, from 27 October to 21 November 2026, following a triumphant Northern tour in 2025. The press nights will be held on Thursday, 29 October and Friday, 30 October 2026 at 7.30pm.
Micky Cochrane & Faz Singhateh in The Moth by Victoria Wai
THE MOTH tells the story of a chance encounter on a train between John, a Black British journalist, and Marius, a White South African ex-soldier. Their meeting sets in motion an escalating chain of events that reshapes their lives over thirty years, culminating in a confrontation before the nation's television cameras where they are forced to lay bare their conflicting truths.
Directed by award-winning theatre director Jake Murray Elysium Theatre Company. The play is presented by Andy Jordan Productions and Elysium Theatre Company in association with Neil McPherson.
Inspired by a true story, the play explores the themes of memory, identity, the legacy of Apartheid, and ultimately, what does forgiveness really mean. Paul, an accomplished actor and writer with nearly fifty years in theatre, television, and film, drew directly on his own experience of forced conscription into the army during the Angolan Border War. Having left South Africa in 1976, his lived experience of Apartheid and its continuing reverberations drive the narrative with profound authenticity.
ABOUT PAUL HERZBERG
An accomplished actor and writer, Paul Herzberg began his career at South Africa's first multi-racial theatre, The Space, before coming to the UK in 1976. As a writer, Paul's work has been produced by BBC Radio 4 and presented internationally. His previous stage play The Dead Wait was produced at the Market Theatre Johannesburg, the Royal Exchange Manchester, and the Park Theatre. It was shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award, nominated for three Manchester Evening News Awards, and adapted for BBC Radio 4, ABC Australia, and WDR Germany.
Paul is represented by Julian Friedmann.
The Northern tour reviews:
“Evocative and as deeply human as it is disturbing... A sure sign of a remarkable and powerful play is that it stays with you long after the curtain call. Like a moth, this play will linger and flutter in your mind.”
Northern Arts Review ★★★★★
“A political thriller which directly confronts its darkness... A piece of theatre which lodges itself deep inside you, demanding reckoning long after the evening is over.”
The Palatinate ★★★★★
“Gripping, stellar performances by Faz Singhateh and Micky Cochrane. A poignant reflection on race, war, history and identity.”
Love Manchester ★★★★★