Touched

About us

Pilots Thumb Theatre Company are returning to the Barbican Theatre with their new, revitalised show Touched!

After an incredible run of their powerful show Our Secret's Safe back in 2024, Pilots Thumb: known for their thought provoking stories are heading to the stage once more with a show close to their hearts.

Forming in 2009, Cassie, Beth, and Danny joined forces to pursue authentic storytelling with compelling narratives, empathetic characters, and pithy humour. They have kept their fingers firmly on the pulse of modern theatre, evolving their practise with experimental ideas and daring to tell stories that often get overlooked.

The company has expanded significantly in recent years, following the success of their show 'Our Secret's Safe', an ensemble piece focusing on the lives of modern-day sex workers, and now includes a variety of performers from across the South West.

Original Script by Danny Strike. Adapted and rewritten by Beth Scott-Hewlett. Touched was inspired by a short play by Laura Quigley. Originally performed as a three hander 12 years ago; now with a revitalized script, new characters and actors we are bringing the thought-provoking production about how we touch one another's lives, from the biggest moments to the smallest acts of kindness.

Britain didn't collapse overnight—it slowly came apart. Jobs disappeared, trust eroded, and people stopped looking each other in the eye. Then the Urban Regeneration Programme arrived. Not a government. Not a revolution. Just a system that slipped quietly into people's lives and called itself order.

Some welcome it. Some fear it. Most are simply trying to survive it.

K.C. has a past no one cares to understand, so they label her unstable. Dangerous. "Touched." Yet she still sees things worth holding onto—things others gave up on long ago.

Thomas stopped feeling years back. Grief hollowed him out, leaving him to move through life unnoticed—until K.C. notices him.

Jessica, his daughter, is sharp and ambitious. To her, emotions are a luxury she can't afford.

Mason believes in the Programme. Rules are safe. Rules keep the dark away.

Marly says she wants a new life, but what she really wants is to feel something real before she goes numb for good.

In a world designed to keep everyone apart, they find something rare: connection. Not quite love. Not quite friendship. More like the quiet ache of being altered by another person.

The Programme claims it can fix society. But to fix something, you often have to strip it down—remove the messy, human parts first: fear, pain, hope, longing. The need for one another. And if we lose those things, what's left of us?

Touched is about people who should have stayed strangers but didn't—and the cost of feeling in a world that tells you not to.

Suitable for 16+

Contains strong language and adult themes such as childhood abuse/neglect, riots and death

'Our Secret's Safe' is a strong ensemble performance that opens up the discussions around sex work in the ever growing online world and takes the audience on an emotional journey through modern issues we face today.' Review by Ami Philpott/Plymouth Theatre Review

'To all at Pilot's Thumb, well done everyone! Most impressed by your 'Protest'. I came with high expectations after our previous encounters, and left with them all fulfilled – and more. I wish you could present this to a much wider audience, and not just locally but maybe on the national stage one day. You hit all the right buttons for me – in a most telling way. Too many of us are too complacent these days, especially in this country, knowing little and often caring even less about issues which affect the lives of so many but just don't happen to touch us personally. Keep up the good work.' Review by audience member

'Several years ago some members of our society saw a performance of 'Playing with Daisy' at the Bike Shed Theatre, Exeter. This small venue ideally suited the play, and the atmosphere created by the fledgling 'Pilot's Thumb' company was electrifying!' Review by John Miles, Director at Brixham Theatre

Tickets are now on sale via Barbican Theatres website for their performance on the 13th June 2026, so you better grab your tickets for a show that helps you laugh, think and ask, how can we 'touch' others peoples lives in the grandest or smallest of ways.