Soft Play (Maria Telnikoff and Vidya Divakaran) is a new double act and co-hosts of East London alt-night Soft Play Area - a space dedicated to childhood nostalgia. They recently opened for Sophie Duker at Bloomsbury Theatre and, as solo artists, have performed at venues including Soho Theatre and Earth Hackney.
Maria Telnikoff (she/they) is a queer, East London based actor, writer and comic performer.
She is the creator of five-star one-person show “My Dad Wears A Dress” about her experience of growing up with a trans female parent (Camden People’s Theatre, Underbelly, Nottingham Playhouse, Greenwich Theatre and the Vagina Museum).
Their second solo show “All The Men Are Going To Hate Me” (about their attempt to write The Great Novel of the 21st Century) was part of Soho Rising Festival 2025 and had a sold out run at Riverside Studios, where it received Best Stand Up Show Award 2024, and had a sold out run at Underbelly, Edinburgh.
Vidya Divakaran (she/her) is a stand-up/musical comedian/slug-masked clown.
She has been a rising star on the London stand up circuit for 3 years, notably opening for Vidura BR at Earth Hackney and for Lachlan Werner at Brighton Komedia. Vidya recently brought her debut solo clown show, ‘Slug in the Club’, to Soho Theatre as part of the London Clown Fest 2025.
