Oliver Bennett

Oliver Bennett is a writer, actor, and director. He is the founder of HUNCHtheatre which blends European and British theatre aesthetics and practices. His celebrated adaptation of Mikhail Lermontov’s novel A Hero of Our Time was staged at the Edinburgh Festival, Arcola Theatre, and at theatres in St Petersburg, and Cologne. 

In 2023, Oliver launched The Base Creates, a project which presents rehearsed readings of classic European texts twinned with in-depth responses from scholars. These readings evoke the spirit of a literary salon close to Verdurin’s heart and encourage the appreciation of classic texts in a new generation of artists.

Oliver trained as an actor at RADA and has worked in film, theatre, and television. Some of his productions include Backbeat (West End, LA, Toronto), Worst Wedding Ever (Salisbury Playhouse), Ted Lasso (Apple TV), Becoming Elizabeth (Starz), SAS: Rogue Heroes (BBC), Miss Scarlett and the Duke (Alibi), and The Coroner (BBC). 

His first full-length play Europe After the Rain won the Mercury Playwright Award and was shortlisted for Out Of Joint’s WiT Award and the Papatango Playwright Award. Europe After the Rain premiered at the Mercury Theatre in 2018 and was described by The Stage as a “feverish, fiercely relevant satire” and “a darkly surreal, highly theatrical exploration of the world we live in now”. 

Oliver is twice the recipient of a Peggy Ramsay Bursary and has just written and directed his first short film.