Soho Theatre in association with Berk’s Nest and Curtis Brown today announces the return of Jack Rooke with JACK ROOKE’S GOOD GRIEF: A DECADE RETROSPECTIVE OF CAPITALISING ON MY DEAD DAD TO VARIED LEVELS OF FAILURE AND SUCCESS, as he looks back on his relationship with grief and building a career out of personal tragedy. Featuring snippets and stories from his 2015 debut GOOD GRIEF, Jack explores ambition, public sympathy, and the innocent joy of just writing for himself. Also returning to the show 10-years on is director, Gabriel Bisset-Smith.
An alumnus of Soho Theatre’s Stand-Up Labs programme and creator of Channel 4’s Big Boys, Jack Rooke’s GOOD GRIEF debuted at Edinburgh Festival Fringe before going on to headline Soho Rising Festival in 2015, a platform for emerging artists and companies coming out of Soho Theatre’s Labs programme. The show was later adapted for BBC Radio 4 broadcast in March 2017, before Jack then returned to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with the Soho Theatre-commissioned show HAPPY HOUR, a critically-acclaimed follow-up that earned a nomination for The Scotsman’s Mental Health Award. Since then, Jack has gone on to create the BAFTA-winning sitcom Big Boys, a tender exploration of friendship, grief and coming of age part-inspired by GOOD GRIEF, HAPPY HOUR and his 2020 memoir Cheer The F**k Up.
Now, ten years on, Jack returns to Soho’s stage.
Jack Rooke says ‘As a comedian the most exciting bucket list tick is doing your first run at Soho Theatre. I’m both thrilled and nervous to return and perform, on the exact 10 year anniversary, a decade retrospective of my debut hour ‘Good Grief’, a sweet and silly comedy-theatre show which I co-wrote with my Nan in 2015 and has inspired most my work since. Thankfully for me the subject of grief never goes out of fashion, because people constantly die!! [insert confetti party emoji]. But this show has always had two optimistic key messages: grief is better shared AND you can always milk your dad’s death fully to your own advantage. Come along and learn how!
Tue 9 – Sat 13 Dec 2025, Soho Theatre, buy tickets here.
