A play which focuses on the issue of unwanted childlessness is scheduled for a week’s debut run at London’s Drayton Arms Theatre on 7-11 July.

Empty, a two-hander by journalist and playwright Robert Nurden, examines the trauma experienced by millions who never become the parents they long to be.

The voices of the childless not by choice are seldom heard. And when the issue is discussed, it is usually seen through women’s eyes. Empty turns this view on its head and considers the loss from the man’s perspective, too.

‘Men who never achieve their dream of becoming dads experience the same levels of pain and regret as women do but we hardly ever hear the words of this unrecognised minority,’ says Nurden. ‘Infertility and being childless by circumstance are taboo subjects. I want to change the way we see this.’

The 60-minute play was staged and enthusiastically received before full houses during its research and development stage at the Cockpit Theatre, London and at Storyhouse, Chester, in September 2025.

In one section of the play a couple, their hopes of becoming parents dashed, perform a satirical song and dance routine which mocks society’s stock responses to other people’s childlessness. They ridicule expressions such as ‘Have you thought of adopting?’, ‘Why don’t you get a dog?’ and ‘You only understand the real meaning of love when you have kids’.

The team behind Empty emphasise the play’s educative role. It is revealed that 20 per cent of women over 42 are childless while for men it is 25 per cent – and the number is growing, with massive consequences for government-funded healthcare. It also shows that the success rate for IVF is low at 27 per cent.

Nurden’s first play comes directly out of his 2023 book, I Always Wanted To Be A Dad: Men without Children, which looks at the theme from a raw, personal standpoint, along with testimonies of other childless men.