The Hand of Sarah Nelmes by Martin Lytton has been announced as the winner of the 2026 Three Counties Talent Hub (3CTH) playwriting competition and will tour venues in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire. 

The Three Counties Talent Hub (3CTH) 2026 playwriting competition brought together Malvern Theatres, the Everyman Theatre Cheltenham and Worcester Theatres to produce a new play performed at their venues. The joint venture aims to identify and support emerging writers, providing a platform for new work to reach wider audiences across the region.

Inspired by the UN’s designation of 2026 as the International Year of the Woman Farmer, this year’s competition explored the theme ‘women in rural communities’, inviting writers to uncover untold stories from across the three counties (Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire). The judging panel included Sarah-Jane Morgan (CEO & Artistic Director of Worcester Theatres), Fred Moroni (CEO of Malvern Theatres), and Paul Milton (former Creative Director of the Everyman Theatre Cheltenham, now a freelance theatre director). 

The Hand of Sarah Nelmes is a bold, witty, sometimes irreverent, time-shifting drama that reclaims the forgotten story behind one of the greatest medical breakthroughs in history. Moving fluidly between rural Gloucestershire in the 1790s and a world locked down by a modern pandemic, the play weaves together past and present to ask urgent questions about science, sacrifice, memory and who gets written into history. At its heart is the milkmaid Sarah Nelmes - observant, curious, and uncredited - whose courage and insight helps lay the foundations for vaccination, while others take the fame. 

The Hand of Sarah Nelmes tours to Malvern Theatres (Thu 23 April, 2.30pm & 7.30pm), the Everyman Theatre Cheltenham (Fri 24 & Sat 25 April, 7.45pm), and concludes at the Swan Studio in Worcester (Mon 27 & Tue 28 April, 7.45pm).

Tickets for performances at the Swan Studio are priced at £10 and can be purchased via the Worcester Theatres website by calling the Box Office on 01905 611427 or in person at Huntingdon Hall.