Theatre
Our Town
The inaugural outing for Welsh National Theatre relocates Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer prize-winning classic about everyday lives in a fictional American town to Wales. This touring production stars Michael Sheen as the drama’s central character, the Stage Manager, with Russell T Davies contributing as creative associate.
• Swansea Grand theatre, 16-31 January. Then touring
A Grain of Sand
This one-woman production, performed by Sarah Agha, reflects on war from a child’s-eye perspective, blending Palestinian folklore with real testimonies from children living in Gaza today. Written by Elias Matar and produced by Good Chance, it was commissioned to open the 2024 London Palestine film festival.
• Arcola theatre, London, 21-31 January. Then touring
My Brother’s a Genius
The work of playwright Debris Stevenson has ranged from a grime musical at the Royal Court to co-writing credits on the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Cyrano de Bergerac. Stevenson’s new play is about brother-sister twins living on a high-rise estate and will bring together her passions for grime, dance and poetry.
• Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, Sheffield, 28 January-14 February
Dracula
Cynthia Erivo swaps the role of Elphaba on screen for the evermore wicked vampire count in this “cine-theatre” reimagining of Bram Stoker’s novel. She will play all 23 characters in the gothic drama, adapted and directed by Kip Williams, who brought his one-woman reworking of The Picture of Dorian Gray to the West End, starring Sarah Snook. This play, too, was first staged in Sydney. The fang-toothed mother of all gender- and genre-bending classics?
• Noël Coward theatre, London, 4 February-30 May
Broken Glass
Artistic director Nadia Fall’s inaugural Young Vic programme brings exciting new work, including Alexander Zeldin’s Care. But before that, there’s this rarely revived play by Arthur Miller. Set in 1930s Brooklyn, it was written in response to the rising tide of European fascism and its revival seems like a warning for today. It is directed by Jordan Fein, who brought the sensationally respun Oklahoma! to the same theatre in 2022.
• Young Vic, London, 21 February-18 April
The Manningtree Witches
Ava Pickett won the Susan Smith Blackburn prize for 1536, her keenly observed drama about three Tudor-era Essex women and the insidious nature of misogyny. That was one of the most striking debuts of 2025 and transfers to the West End this year. Meanwhile, Pickett has adapted AK Blakemore’s novel about the 17th-century witch trials in Essex for a drama considering the history of silenced women.
• Mercury theatre, Colchester, 28 February-14 March
Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Lesley Manville has proved she can do no wrong on screen and stage alike. After a magnificent performance in the West End’s Oedipus, she returns as the manipulative Marquise de Merteuil in Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s novel about love, power and deceit in 18th-century France. Directed by Marianne Elliott and co-starring Aidan Turner, it is a seductive proposition.
• National Theatre, London, 21 March-6 June
Stand & Deliver: The Lee Jeans Sit-In
A seven-month sit-in at the former Lee Jeans factory in Greenock in 1981 inspired Frances Poet’s play. This National Theatre of Scotland and Tron co-production about the power of collective action comes with a live 80s soundtrack and was partly developed with women from the sit-in.
• Tron, Glasgow, 24 April-9 May. Then touring
Under the Shadow
Babak Anvari’s Bafta-winning Persian-language horror film, on which this production is based, features a mother and daughter plagued by supernatural hauntings in 1980s Tehran, during the Iran-Iraq war. Carmen Nasr’s adaptation stars Leila Farzad (of Kaos and I Hate Suzie fame) and is directed by Nadia Latif, whose London production of Fairview caused a stir in 2019.
• Almeida theatre, London, 2 June-4 July
The Cherry Orchard
The joint star wattage of Helen Hunt and Kenneth Branagh fires an RSC makeover of Anton Chekhov’s 1903 tragicomedy about the dying days of the Russian aristocracy (Branagh is also playing Prospero in The Tempest in Stratford earlier in the year). Directed by the RSC’s co-artistic director Tamara Harvey, this new version is written by Laura Wade.
• Swan theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 10 July-29 August
Dance
Michael Keegan-Dolan: Mám
Irish choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan and his Kerry-based company Teaċ Daṁsa have performed this spirited show around the world but it’s now, happily, getting a tour of England and Scotland. The piece is an invitation into a community where tradition and modernity jostle alongside each other and life is in full swing. A wonderful meshing of music and dance, featuring concertina player Cormac Begley.
• Lowry, Salford, 3-4 February. Then touring
Northern Ballet: Gentleman Jack
This savvy commission from Northern Ballet tells a Yorkshire story popularised by Sally Wainwright’s TV show – in fact Wainwright is a consultant on this ballet about landowner, diarist and lesbian Anne Lister. It’s choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, who has previously brought Frida Kahlo to life in ballet form, and created a memorable version of A Streetcar Named Desire.
• Leeds Grand theatre, 7-14 March. Then touring
Shechter II: In the Brain
A new piece from Hofesh Shechter for his junior company, Shechter II. The company recruits a new lineup of young dancers every two years, with only eight chosen from 1,200 international auditioners – always buzzing with energy. In the Brain is billed as “part rave, part ritual”, in tune with Shechter’s trademark intense and immersive style.
• The Riley, Leeds, 10 May. Then touring
Dada Masilo’s Hamlet
The acclaimed South African choreographer died in 2024 aged 39. This is the UK’s first chance to see her final work, a reinvention of Shakespeare’s tragedy that puts Ophelia at the centre of the story. Masilo explored themes of power, misogyny and the descent into madness, using her unique combination of classical ballet and African dance.
• Sadler’s Wells, London, 25-26 May
This Is Rambert
This year marks the centenary of Britain’s oldest dance company, founded by Marie Rambert. The current artistic director is Benoit Swan Pouffer and he has eschewed nostalgic celebrations, instead staging a night of ultra-current contemporary dance, all in bite-size pieces, featuring Dutch choreographer Emma Evelein and French collective (La)Horde.
• Sadler’s Wells, London, 10-13 June. Then touring
Comedy
Bridget Christie: Jacket Potato Pizza
She has had more attention in the last few years for her TV work – Channel 4’s menopause comedy The Change, most notably – but standup is Bridget Christie’s home, and she is consistently one of its most exciting, trenchant and delightfully daft proponents. Expectations for her 14th solo show – her first for five years – are accordingly high.
• Corn Exchange, Stamford, 14 January. Then touring
John Kearns: Tilting at Windmills
His last show Varnishing Days was a career best, bouncing oddball-but-old-school comic John Kearns out of Taskmaster celebrity and into the standup big league. Since then, he has teamed up with Adam Riches in the novelty crooner parody Ball & Boe – but in this new show he returns to solo standup. Not to be missed.
• The Theatre, Chipping Norton, 11 February. Then touring
James Acaster
He has taken a circuitous route to get there, via Edinburgh fringe nearly-man status, a trilogy of brilliant and eccentric Netflix specials, and a chart-conquering food podcast. But James Acaster is now undeniably one of our best-loved, least compromised and most thrilling standups – from whom the promise of a new tour in 2026 can’t help but make the mouth water.
• Clapham Grand, London, 4 March. Then touring
Phil Wang: Uh Oh
Having made his movie debut in Wonka, one wonders whether Phil Wang snuck off set with a golden ticket in his back pocket: he has the standup career of a man who has won life’s lottery, with a new, biggest-ever tour just announced off the back of a previous globe-trotting, Netflix-bothering hit show. This latest offering promises more wit and wisdom from the self-described “only cool millennial left”.
• Barbican, York, 11 September. Then touring
Flo & Joan: With Feeling
The Dempsey sisters’ last offering, One Man Musical, was a show for the ages, a musical theatre pastiche gloriously sending up (and celebrating?) Andrew Lloyd Webber. Now Rosie and Nicola return centre-stage with another suite of the dotty but deadpan comedy songs with which they made their (pretend) names.
• Gala theatre, Durham, 19 September. Then touring
