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Max Allen: When Mad is Rewarding

Richard Beck Richard Beck
20 Jun 2026

Max Allen talks about starting out and moving from his successful first play to his next venture.

Make work that challenges, entertains and sparks conversation

Max, let's start with your background and how you came to be in London forging a career in acting and writing.

I'm from Toronto, Canada. I studied acting at Concordia University in Montreal before moving to London to complete an MFA in Classical Acting at LAMDA.

Writing was always part of my life. My father is a playwright, so I grew up around theatre and storytelling. While studying acting, I started taking playwriting courses and gradually became interested in creating my own work alongside performing.

One of the things that drew me to London was the theatre scene. There are hundreds of theatres here and a real culture of artists creating and producing their own work. That opportunity was too exciting to pass up. Since graduating, I've been focused on building a career as both an actor and writer, and I've found that the more work you create, the faster you develop as an artist.

You founded Namesake Theatre shortly after graduating. How did that come about?

A piece of advice my father gave me was to find talented, creative people you genuinely enjoy working with and build things together. That's exactly what happened at LAMDA.

The actors in my first play, FRAT, and several members of the team for my new play Persona are people I met there. We wanted to create original work and tell stories we were passionate about, so we founded Namesake Theatre as a way of doing that. When you're starting out, there's something powerful about a group of artists simply deciding to put in the hours and make something happen.

FRAT was a major success. What inspired it?

FRAT grew out of my own experiences as a member of a fraternity during university in Canada. Fraternities are fascinating institutions. They're steeped in tradition and ritual, and they've shaped generations of people, yet much of what happens within them remains hidden from public view.

I was interested in the way institutions influence identity. Fraternities can produce extraordinary success stories, but they're also associated with controversies around hazing, alcohol and sexual misconduct. Rather than writing a piece that judged that world, I wanted to present it honestly and let audiences draw their own conclusions.

That's something I try to do in all my work. I don't want to tell audiences what to think. I'm more interested in creating a theatrical space where people can wrestle with difficult questions themselves.

Then you found yourself wrestling with more venues than you could have imagined.

I certainly did. At the time, none of us really knew what the standard path was. We had just graduated and wanted to get the play in front of as many people as possible, so I applied to almost every fringe festival I knew about. To our surprise, we were accepted into all of them!

We began at the Old Red Lion Theatre before touring to Brighton Fringe, Prague Fringe, Camden Fringe, the Comparative Drama Conference and finally the Edinburgh Fringe; a five-month journey of performing across the UK and Europe.

Looking back, it was a slightly mad thing to do, but it was also one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. We learned an enormous amount, and the friendships formed during that process will stay with us forever.

How important was the response to FRAT in giving you confidence as a writer?

Massively important. The sold-out performances, positive reviews, awards and audience reactions all helped convince me that there was something worth pursuing here. Creative work can often feel like you're throwing things into the void, so having that level of engagement gave me confidence to continue developing Namesake and writing new plays. Without that momentum, I'm not sure Persona would exist in the form it does now.

Tell us about Persona.

Persona shares some thematic DNA with FRAT, but it's exploring a different world. Where FRAT examined American fraternities, Persona focuses on a group of former students from an elite boarding school. I attended a boarding school in Canada, so once again I'm writing from a world I know.

The play follows four alumni, three men and one woman, who gather at a country house after the death of a close friend. As they argue over the contents of his will, old tensions begin to surface and carefully constructed identities start to unravel.

At its heart, the play is about performance. We all create versions of ourselves to navigate the world, but what happens when those personas begin to crack? The boarding school environment felt like a fascinating setting in which to explore those questions because it's a place where identity, privilege, belonging and social hierarchy are constantly being negotiated.

The title itself feels loaded with meaning.

Absolutely. The idea of a "persona" is something that fascinates me. We all perform versions of ourselves depending on who we're with and what environment we're in. Sometimes those performances protect us; sometimes they trap us.

The play places its characters under increasing pressure and asks whether the identities they've built are sustainable. It concerns itself with the gap between who people are and who they want others to believe them to be.

Before Edinburgh, you're previewing the show at the King's Head Theatre. Why was that important?

Last year was very grassroots. We were performing in small pub theatres and building everything from the ground up. The King's Head feels like a step forward. It's a respected venue with a strong reputation for new work, and it gives us the opportunity to present Persona in a larger space before taking it to Edinburgh Fringe.

It's also invaluable to hear audience reactions early. Theatre is a living art form. Every preview teaches you something, whether it's from audience feedback, reviews or simply watching how people respond in the room.

What excites you most about returning to Edinburgh?

Edinburgh is unlike anything else. For a month, the city becomes the centre of the theatre world. There are thousands of shows, huge audiences and an incredible concentration of artists and industry professionals.

We only performed for a week last year. This time we're doing a longer run, which is exciting but also demanding. By the time you arrive in Edinburgh, the work needs to be rock solid.

What's different now is that people are coming to see what Namesake does next. That's exciting, but it also creates a sense of responsibility. We want to build on the momentum of FRAT and continue to make work that challenges, entertains and sparks conversation. For me, that's ultimately what theatre is about.

Richard Beck

Richard Beck

A graduate in theology and education, Richard acted and contributed to dance, drama and music productions throughout his teaching career. He joined Broadway Baby in 2014 and is now our Editor-in-Chief. He usually disappears to warmer climes for the winter to pursue his passion for travel.

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