Susie McKENNA

At the Kiln Theatre, Susie directed the Olivier Award-nominated BLUES IN THE NIGHT, the critically acclaimed NW TRILOGY (with Taio Lawson) by Moira Buffini, Suhayla El-Bushra and Roy Williams, and the award-winning ES & FLO by Jennifer Lunn (Wales Millennium Centre).

Susie is widely known as the ‘panto queen’: she wrote and directed Hackney Empire’s first in-house pantomime, DICK WHITTINGTON (1998), going on to create their annual pantomime for over twenty years, culminating in the 21st-anniversary production OF DW (2020), set in post-war London 1948 as Dick arrives on the SS Empire Windrush, for which she won Best Director at the Great British Pantomime Awards. Since 2023 she has written and directed pantomimes at the Broadway Theatre Catford including JACK AND THE BEANSTALK (Great British Pantomime Award nomination for Best Script), the OFFIE-winning SLEEPING BEAUTY (2025), and the Windrush-inspired DICK WHITTINGTON AND HIS CATFORD CAT (OFFIE nomination 2025/26).

Susie’s theatre credits include BEAU JEST, SIT AND SHIVER (starring Steven Berkoff), A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S MADNESS (New York and Edinburgh), the musical adaptation of MACBETH, A MOTHER SPEAKS by Judd Batchelor (UK tour), Martin Smith’s KING, and ONCE ON THIS ISLAND (with Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Nottingham Playhouse). Susie directed Ha Ha Ha Hackney, a seven-show celebration of British comedy for the London 2012 Olympic Cultural Festival.

With composer Steve Edis she adapted A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Arts Theatre London, West End) and Ian Serraillier’s THE SILVER SWORD (Belgrade Theatre Coventry, UK tour). Other directing work includes JUNGLE RUMBLE (Fortune Theatre, West End), ONE NIGHT STAND about Sophie Tucker (London and tour), and the world premiere of ORANGES AND ELEPHANTS by Lil Warren and Jo Collins (Hoxton Hall), nominated for two OFFIES.