A new musical from an Irish producer/ director comes to the Brockley Jack this week.
10K? Jog On is produced and directed by Hannah Lochhead.
The play’s story centres around Nick and Charlie who have procrastinated their 20s away, rotting on the sofa and ghosting everyone else in their lives until the day they receive some shocking news about their old friend, Jamie.
Determined to honour Jamie’s memory, the boys decide to do something radical. Something that terrifies them… exercise.
What begins as a reluctant challenge becomes a test of friendship and willpower (or lack thereof). 10k? Jog On! is a buddy comedy musical about the world of fitness and masculinity with a little bit of showbiz pizazz added to really get the blood pumping.
After a successful debut at the Camden Fringe in 2025, 10k? Jog On! Is back for a limited London run with fresh production and original songs.
From Lucan, Hannah trained in the Conservatory of Music and Drama in Dublin where she got her BA in acting.
She then spent some years in Hong Kong before coming to London.
Hannah took time to chat to the Irish World.
On how she got involved in 10K? Jog On, Hannah says: “The writer and lyricist (Tom Watson) is my partner of nine years.
“Two years ago, he started working on this play, Jog On.
“He and his friend just wanted to write a farce comedy, completely outrageous, makes no sense, very niche audience and then gradually, as time went on, we realised, ‘Oh, there’s actually a story here. There’s actually something we could flesh out into a full musical’.
“His collaborator ended up stepping away from the project so then I stepped in as a producer, director so Tom could focus on the script and the lyrics.
“Then he started collaborating with Sam Wells who is a musical director and composer.
“The two lads are an absolute dream working together.
“I’ve seen them sit down and go, ‘What do we want this song to be about?’
“And an hour later, they’ve got a fully fledged song.
“The way they work is just absolutely amazing.
“They had worked on a few shows together and now myself and Tom and Sam have been kind of the creative team for about a year and a half.
“The script has evolved so much since then.
“We’ve added characters, taken away characters and now there’s five new songs from last year so it’s ever evolving.
“Tom’s been working away on the script while I’ve been behind the scenes getting everything together.”
The story takes influence from things like Run Fatboy Run with Simon Pegg.
“The show kind of developed when Tom and his original collaborator Bradley were planning on running a half marathon together.
“They were training for the marathon, they were also writing the script so that’s kind of how all that came about.
“It is a buddy comedy but it evolved into a story about running the race.”
There is a supporting cast but it is basically a two hander, isn’t it?
“It was a two-hander to start with and then we have three members of the ensemble that are multi-rolling and this time around we’ve tried to really flesh out the other characters.
“There is Nick and Charlie training for the race (played by Nicholas Southcott and Tom Watson), Jamie’s sister Megan (Scarlett Irish), Pilly Plonker (Chloe Way) and Trey (George Deller) who is the personal trainer at the gym.
“He was just a tool to get from A to B in the last run but all the feedback said ‘We love Trey, we want more of Trey, we want more of these gym lads’.
“Originally the three ensemble members were three women who were all basically in drag and this time around we have a man playing the role of Trey.
“The actress who played Trey last time was just sublime.
“Everyone came out singing the song that she sang even though that wasn’t even the final song.
“Everyone was like, ‘She’s brilliant, where did she come from?’
“And our new actor, he’s fabulous as well.
“We didn’t really know that Trey was a main character until we saw her take on it and we were like, ‘Oh, this is something here, we can definitely develop this’.
“Now we’ve really kind of pulled the character Trey out and he’s got a major role now but it’s still essentially about the two main characters.”
We don’t see you onstage, is it strange for you as an actress to be more behind the scenes?
“It’s 90 minutes long and nobody gets a break so I’m definitely more useful on this side to keep everything together.
“I would love to be a part of it if I wasn’t doing this job but I actually kind of prefer the producing on this occasion.”
Are producing/ directing newer strings to your bow?
“When I was living in Dublin, I used to do courses in the Gaiety School of Acting and it was very eclectic so you would be in someone’s show and you might be directing another show at the same time so I think I’ve really carried that experience throughout my career.
“I’ve always kind of taken dips in and out of directing and performing.
“This is the first time I’ve been directing and producing at the same time so I’m definitely juggling chainsaws but I think I’m going to be really proud of it when it’s all over because it’s actually such a fabulous show.
“So even though it’s a hard job, the actors are so amazing, it’s just a pleasure to be honest.”
The Brockley Jack is an award- winning venue that has showcased Irish stories in the past.
“Kate and Carl, who run the Brockley Jack, have been so amazing.
“They’re so involved, are constantly asking us, ‘What can we do to help?’
“They’re always telling us what is working and they’re just brilliant.”
Is there plans to give the show another run (or maybe I should say jog) after this one?
“Well we’re kind of thinking, because this is our second go around, we wanted to invite as many industry people as we possibly could.
“Ideally someone likes it, someone believes in us and then someone wants to take it further.
“If that doesn’t happen, we’re probably going to put Jog On to bed for a little while because we’re completely self-funded, it’s been quite costly so at least until we earn enough money again to put it on, this is probably going to be at least a hiatus for Jog On unless we get someone else on board that wants to contribute financially or direct it, produce it, whatever that may be.
“At the moment I’m in post-production for a feature film that I made in 2024.
“It’s been a long post-production but we’re hoping to get that out by spooky season because it’s a horror film so as soon as this wraps, I’m going to be head in the computer getting this film out.”
Can you tell us more about that film, sounds interesting..
“The film’s called Esoteric.
“It’s a kind of folky, culty, supernatural horror film.
“It’s about five people who have gone to Iverness to live in this haunted house for six months that Alistair Crowley, the famous occultist, lived in.
“He tried to do a ritual back in the early 20th century and never finished it and so the story goes that the area is haunted because he never finished the ritual.
“The idea is these five characters are taking six months off to isolate themselves and do this ritual but in their isolation, they aren’t eating, they’re not sleeping because that’s all the requirements of the ritual, they’re all losing their minds and when the supernatural stuff starts happening, you’re kind of questioning, Is this actually happening? Are they hallucinating? Is any of this real?
“So we’re hoping that it feels like a fever dream basically.
“We also filmed everything in the house that everyone was staying in so it was one of those things where you like wrap for the night, go to bed, wake up first thing, get into makeup: Super intense but it kind of fed into the story because we were all kind of losing our minds so we were able to bring that on screen.”
It was in Hong Kong that your career in musical theatre took off, wasn’t it?
“It was in Hong Kong that I got involved in musical theatre.
“I’d always loved musical theatre but there isn’t really any musical theatre training in Ireland, or at least there wasn’t when I was training from 2009 to 2012.
“And then I got to Hong Kong and the opportunities were everywhere because the English language drama is obviously a niche and that’s when I got involved in musical theatre.
“I did Footloose the Musical.
“I was in a musical burlesque version of Julius Caesar for a Shakespeare festival and then I was in Legally Blonde.
“Legally Blonde was definitely the highlight.
“It was just absolutely fantastic and it was a huge theatre, massive audience and I remember when we wrapped I was like, ‘Oh my God, I could just do this for the rest of my life’.
“And then that’s when I decided, ‘I’m going to move to London because that’s where the musical theatre opportunities are’.”
Have you got involved with Irish creative groups in London?
“I have gone to script writing meetups with other Irish writers where you bring a sample of your script and we all give each other feedback which I thought was super valuable because there’s something about the Irish, we all understand each other’s voices.
“We all know where the other one is coming from so it was a really good audience.”
Back to the play, it is very much a buddy comedy at heart, isn’t it?
“I think there isn’t enough bromance out there.
“I think there’s something to be said about male on male relationships.
“We really wanted to explore all of that, like when you’ve been friends for a long time and how your relationship develops.
“Obviously when you’re in your early 30s, it’s super hard to make friends so if you’ve got friends for a long time and you kind of cling to them, what does that mean for your growth if you’re holding on to the past or you’re always trying to recreate what you had?
“We’re really exploring all those friendship themes from the male lens but it’s been super fun having all the girls playing men as well because then we can like really draw out these stereotypes.
“We really just want people to feel good.
“When we did the Courtyard Theatre run, we set up a camera outside the door so we could catch people’s reactions and the people that wanted to give us their feedback were practically screaming the feedback because there’s something about the energy.
“It’s so high that people walk out really, really happy and so we just really, really hope we can create that again and we’re hoping even more so now that we’re in a more intimate space.
“We almost want them to feel like they’ve gone on the journey with us.
“We want people to be as tired as we are, but happy.”
10K? Jog On is at Brockley Jack until Saturday 13 June.
For more information and to book, go to brockleyjack.co.uk.
