Cranes

It’s 2010. Summer has just turned eighteen. She's lucky enough to have the rest of her life to look forward to. She has always dreamed of being a photographer - but it's hard to dream about the future when the world around you is on fire. What is there to look forward to exactly? The solution? Change the world. Duh. By going to a protest increasing student fees, obviously.

Armed with a brand-new camera, her oldest friend, and her favourite Maya Angelou quote, Summer throws herself into her first ever protest, and has the best day of her life, literally. She knows this one will go down in history. This has got to change things - she can feel it.

And she's right. It changes everything. Just not in the way she expects.

A moving depiction of the personal cost of activism. Cranes, is inspired by Demi’s true story about the suppression of protest, the brutality of the criminal justice system, and the heroes who don't get commemorated by statues. At least not at first. This debut play by writer and performer Demi Wilson-Smith received its first showcase last year at SEEN Festival. Now, with further development work, Cranes returns as a fully-realised show.

Cranes is directed by Merle Wheldon, a London-based theatre director and winner of the John Fernald Award for Emerging Director 2025 and the 2025 Bitesize Award for Best Director. She was also nominated for Best Director at the 2025/26 BroadwayWorld UK / West End Awards. Previous work includes Two Little Pigs (Pleasance, Edinburgh), FLUSH (Arcola, Pleasance, Edinburgh) Da Vinci's Laundry (Riverside Studios) and The Watch (The Glitch).

Cranes is written and performed by Demi Wilson-Smith, an actor-writer born and bred amidst the colour and chaos if South London. As an actor Demi has trained with Identity School of Acting, Middleweek Newton, and Alt-Club with director Toby Clarke. Her work is drawn from the personal and the political; stories that explore society's underbelly, the taboo and questions of power and injustice.