The producers of Hadestown have announced today that the acclaimed West End production will be filmed live at the Lyric Theatre across three performances, Friday 28 February and both matinee and evening performances on Saturday 1 March.
There will be 2,000 tickets in total available to purchase for the filmed performances, with tickets on sale tomorrow (Friday 31 January 2025) at 12pm noon at uk.hadestown.com.
Casting for performances between 11 February and 9 March, including the filmed performances, will feature the previously announced original cast members from the National Theatre and the Tony® and Grammy® Award-winning Broadway productions. Reprising their roles will be Reeve Carney as Orpheus, André De Shields as Hermes, Amber Gray as Persephone, Eva Noblezada as Eurydice and Patrick Page as Hades.
Completing the cast will be Bella Brown, Madeline Charlemagne and Allie Daniel as Fates, Lauren Azania, Tiago Dhondt Bamberger, Waylon Jacobs and Christopher Short as Workers, and Lucinda Buckley, Francessca Daniella-Baker, Winny Herbert, Ryesha Higgs and Miriam Nyarko as Swings.
To prepare for the filming, performances from 25 – 27 February have been removed from the performance schedule. The producers have noted that there are currently no set plans or dates for the release of the film version.
Hadestownopened to huge critical acclaim at the Lyric Theatre, London in February last year, five years after a sold-out engagement at the National Theatre in 2018 and is now booking in the West End until 28 September 2025.
Blending American songwriting traditions, from indie folk, to pop, blues, and New Orleans-inspired jazz, Hadestown has music, lyrics, and book by acclaimed Tony® and Grammy®-winning singer-songwriter and BBC Radio 2 Folk Award-winner Anaïs Mitchell whooriginated Hadestownas anindie theatre project and acclaimed album, before transforming the show into a genre-defying new musical alongside artistic collaborator and Tony® Award-winning director Rachel Chavkin.
Hadestowntakes you on an unforgettable journey to the underworld and back, intertwining two mythic love stories – that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of King Hades and his wife Persephone. A deeply resonant and defiantly hopeful theatrical experience, Hadestown invites you to imagine how the world could be.
The Hadestown creative team includes David Neumann (Choreography), Rachel Hauck (Scenic Design), Michael Krass (Costume Design), Bradley King (Lighting Design), Nevin Steinberg and Jessica Paz (Sound Design), Liam Robinson (Music supervision and Vocal Arrangements), Michael Chorney and Todd Sickafoose (Arrangements and Orchestrations), Ken Cerniglia (Dramaturgy), Maria Crocker (UK Associate Director), and Tarek Merchant (Musical Director & Associate Music Supervisor). Casting for the London production is by Jacob Sparrow. Original Broadway Casting by Benton Whitley CSA and Duncan Stewart CSA.
Hadestownis produced in London by Mara Isaacs, Dale Franzen, Hunter Arnold, Tom Kirdahy and the National Theatre in association with JAS Theatricals.
Reeve Carney, André De Shields, Amber Gray, Eva Noblezada and Patrick Page are appearing with the support of Equity UK, incorporating the Variety Artistes’ Federation, pursuant to an exchange program between American Equity and Equity UK.
The Roald Dahl Story Company today announces the return of their wickedly funny family musical based on Roald Dahl’s THE ENORMOUS CROCODILE. Following hit seasons at Leeds Playhouse in 2023 and Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in 2024, THE ENORMOUS CROCODILE THE MUSICAL will open at Windsor Theatre Royal on 8 August 2025 before returning to Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre from 15 August – 7 September 2025.
Director Emily Lim said today, “We can’t wait to bring our greedy Croc back to Regent’s Park and to Windsor this summer! It’s been so special seeing how the story and songs have landed with our audiences to date and we’re so glad we get to do it all again.”
Co-Director and Puppetry Designer Toby Olié said, “The Enormous Crocodile has been one of the most enjoyable and lively shows to create. So to continue sharing its mischievous glee and playful puppets with audiences in 2025 is an absolute thrill.”
‘For my lunch today I would like… a nice juicy little child!’
The Enormous Crocodile is weaving his way through the jungle in search of delicious little fingers and squidgy podgy knees… Only the other jungle creatures can foil his secret plans and clever tricks, but they’re going to have to find a large amount of courage to stop this greedy brute.
This mischievous musical based on Roald Dahl’s snappy book has toe-tapping tunes by Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab, a rib-tickling book and lyrics by Suhayla El-Bushra, and additional music and lyrics by Tom Brady. Developed and directed by Emily Lim, it features a menagerie of puppets by co-director and puppetry designer Toby Olié, with set and costume design by Fly Davis and puppetry co-designed and supervised by Daisy Beattie.
The Enormous Crocodile musical was developed by Emily Lim, Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab, Suhayla El-Bushra, Tom Brady and The Roald Dahl Story Company, and originally co-produced with Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and Leeds Playhouse.
Multi-award winning family-friendly comedy musical makers Gigglemug Theatre are bringing back their two latest sell-out smash hit shows for Summer 2025: Scouts! The Musical, which was nominated for a WhatsOnStage Award, and A Jaffa Cake Musical, which accumulated over thirty 4 & 5 star reviews at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe.
Scouts! The Musical will embark on a UK tour throughout June to The Crescent Theatre in Birmingham, The Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester, Upstairs at the Gatehouse in London & The Egg Theatre in Bath. While A Jaffa Cake Musical will return to the Edinburgh Fringe in August with previews in Bath (venues TBA).
The Gigglemug Summer Season will also be the nal runs of Scouts! The Musical and A Jaffa Cake Musical, therefore this will be the last chance for people to see both productions. Scouts! The Musical, created in partnership with the Scouts, centres around the fictional Scout Games, whereas A Jaffa Cake Musical is inspired by the 1991 tribunal which determined the true identity of a Jaffa Cake!
As ‘Gigglemug’ means someone who is always smiling, Gigglemug Theatre want to give their audiences a chance to do just that. Their debut show was the Fringe hit Timpson: The Musical (sponsored by everyone’s favourite high street shop, Timpson) which won The Stage Edinburgh Award. Their follow up show was the critically-acclaimed RuneSical, an interactive musical based on the BAFTA-winning online game RuneScape and supported by the game makers themselves. Both productions are available to watch for free on YouTube and have gained tens of thousands of views!
Praise for Scouts! The Musical & A Jaa Cake Musical: ★★★★★ ‘An utter masterpiece’ BOX OFFICE RADIO ★★★★★ THREEWEEKS ★★★★★ ‘A comedic triumph’ WEST END EVENINGS ★★★★★ NORTH WEST END ★★★★★ THEATRE WEEKLY ★★★★★ INDEPENDENT ★★★★★ THEATRE & TONIC ★★★★ ‘A force to be reckoned with on the musical comedy scene’ THE STAGE
Savoy Theatre, Savoy Court, The Strand, London, WC2R 0ET
Acclaimed composer Drew Gasparini is offering aspiring performers the opportunity to make their West End debut in his new musical WE AREN’T KIDS ANYMORE. This unique competition is open to anyone aged 18 and over with no professional adult credits and promises to discover untapped talent. Opening this opportunity up to more aspiring performers, there will be a new matinee performance of WE AREN’T KIDS ANYMORE joining the evening show,giving two winners the chance to step into the spotlight on the iconic Savoy Theatre stage on Monday 28th April 2025
The new matinee performance not only doubles the opportunity for unseen talent to debut but also welcomes submissions from those working in the industry across the UK. In a bid to highlight and recognise the amazing theatre performers who are currently staffing ATG theatres, the matinee winner will be chosen from applicants who work at an ATG venue anywhere in the UK
With further star-studded cast and special guests still to be announced, the winners will share the limelight with the incredible Dylan Mulvaney (FAGHAG; Days of Girlhood), Sam Tutty (Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York); Dear Evan Hansen), and Aimie Atkinson (SIX The Musical), ensuring they take their place among a line-up of exceptional talent. The competition winners will be invited onstage to join Drew and friends for Act 2 which presents highlights from Gasparini’s celebrated musical career.
This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is open to all. Like the musical itself- which explores the many of life’s defining moments through diverse perspectives – the competition seeks to celebrate the breadth of human experience, offering fresh voices the chance to shine. To enter, artists aged 18 and over with no professional adult credits are able to submit a self-tape of themselves singing one of Gasparini’s songs captured in a full, single take. Submissions close at 11pm on 23rd February 2025, and Gasparini will personally select the winners
Drew Gasparini, whose credits include Smash and Broadway productions such as The Karate Kid and It’s Kind of a Funny Story, is passionate about breaking the mould of traditional musical theatre and uncovering fresh talent. This is a unique opportunity for new musical theatre voices to perform on one of London’s most prestigious stages and take their place alongside an exceptional cast and narrative.
Drew Gasparini comments, There is so much untapped talent who think they won’t be given a chance, or be seen, or heard. All any of us need is one opportunity, big or small, for their life’s path to change. I’m so thrilled our team with WAKA are able to give this opportunity to my fellow artists out there.
WE AREN’T KIDS ANYMORE is an authentic and inspiring musical exploring the dreams we chase and the infinite choices we make to reach them, resulting in the perfect setting to help bring a West End dream to stage. The addition of a new talent underscores the spirit of discovery and opportunity at the heart of this uplifting new musical.
Whether have been waiting for their big break or chasing a dream of performing, WE AREN’T KIDS ANYMORE is a chance to take that leap. The stage is set for someone to take the chance and step onto it
UK PREMIERE OF BROADWAY HIT SHUCKED, BOOK BY ROBERT HORN, MUSIC & LYRICS BY BRANDY CLARK AND SHANE McANALLY, AND DIRECTED BY JACK O’BRIEN
MALORIE BLACKMAN’S NOUGHTS & CROSSES,ADAPTED BY DOMINIC COOKE AND DIRECTED BY TINUKE CRAIG
DREW McONIE DIRECTS LERNER & LOEWE’S BRIGADOON, IN A NEW ADAPTATION BY RONA MUNRO
RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN’S DREAM BALLETS: A TRIPLE BILL, CHOREOGRAPHED BY JULIA CHENG, SHELLEY MAXWELL AND KATE PRINCE
RETURN OF FAMILY MUSICAL, ROALD DAHL’S THE ENORMOUS CROCODILE
FOUR OPEN AIR THEATRE FESTIVALS THROUGHOUT THE SEASON ACROSS FAMILY, DANCE, COMEDY AND MUSIC
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre today announce Drew McOnie’s inaugural season, opening with the much-anticipated UK premiere of musical comedy Shucked (10 May – 14 June 2025), following its acclaimed run on Broadway and a US tour. Ben Joyce (Back to the Future the Musical)plays Beau, Sophie McShera (Downton Abbey) plays Maizy, and Georgina Onuorah (Hamilton) plays Lulu.
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Dream Ballets: A Triple Bill (19 – 22 June 2025) will see award-winning musical theatre choreographers Julia Cheng, Shelley Maxwell and Kate Prince re-imagine the dream ballets from Allegro, Oklahoma! and Carousel, with new arrangements by Simon Hale and live accompaniment by Sinfonia Smith Square.
This is followed by the stage adaptation of Malorie Blackman’smuch-loved novel,Noughts & Crosses (28 June – 26 July 2025), adapted by Dominic Cooke, and directed by Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s Associate Artistic Director, Tinuke Craig.
The season continues with Lerner & Loewe’sBrigadoon(2 August – 20 September 2025) with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. In a new adaptation by acclaimed Scottish playwright Rona Munro and directed and choreographed by Drew McOnie, the captivating Scottish Highlands come to the magical outdoor setting of Regent’s Park in this major London revival for the first time in over 35 years. Danielle Fiamanya (Mandela) plays Fiona, and Louis Gaunt (Bridgerton) plays Tommy.
Playing during the daytime for those aged 3+ and their families is the wickedly funny musical based on Roald Dahl’s, The Enormous Crocodile (15 August – 7 September 2025), with book & lyrics by Suhayla El-Bushra, music by Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab and additional music and lyrics from Tom Brady. Developed and directed by Emily Lim, with co-direction and puppetry design by Toby Olié, the production returns to Regent’s Park following its successful 2024 run.
The 2025 summer season also features four Open Air Theatre Festivals, including family, dance and comedy takeover days, and a week-long music takeover that will close the season, presented in partnership with Communion ONE. Further details will be announced in the spring.
Also launching this year is The Theatre Dance Lab, a new artist development programme that will offer early-career musical theatre choreographers a paid residency at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, culminating in a showcase performance of their in-development work on our main stage. Further details and application information will be announced later this spring.
Beyond Regent’s Park, the Open Air Theatre’s production of Fiddler on the Roofwill, following its sold-out run in 2024, transfer to the Barbican Centre for a strictly limited 8-week season (24 May – 19 July 2025) ahead of a 20-week tour of the UK & Ireland.
This summer, the re-imagined version of the 2022 Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre musical production of Dodie Smith’s classic book 101 Dalmatianswill play a limited 6-week engagement (18 July – 30 August 2025) at London’s Eventim Apollo; and Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar continues its tour of Australia through to the end of July 2025.
Drew McOnie, Artistic Director said today, “After what has without doubt been one of the most thrilling incubation periods of my creative career, I am so proud of the season we are now able to announce. Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre offers its own unique opportunity to engage with stories under a shared sky and my ambition is to honour that legacy as we move into this new artistic chapter. Every member of the Regent’s Park team and the many artists that are coming together to share their imaginations with us, will put our audiences, both new and returning, at the centre of their process and it’s an honour to work alongside them in delivering my debut season for this much-loved venue.”
James Pidgeon, Executive Director said today, “Following the huge success of our 2024 season, which saw record-breaking audience figures of over 180,000 people, we are delighted to now be launching our 2025 season of exhilarating live performance. I am particularly thrilled that we have been able to continue our commitment to £15 tickets (36,000 of which will be available throughout the season), and that our productions continue to reach audiences across the world as we tour more of our work than ever before. Heartfelt thanks, as ever, to our staff, stakeholders, producing partners and funders for their valuable support.”
Full creative teams and casting for all productions to be announced.
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre Memberships are now on sale, and Members’ priority booking for the 2025 summer season opens at 12pm today, with public booking opening at 11am on Thursday 6 February 2025.
Creatives include Lucy Adams (Associate Lighting Designer); Myles Brown (Associate Choreographer); Nathanael Campbell (Associate Director); Ben Davies (Associate Set Designer); Aundrea Fudge (Voice & Dialect Coach); Jill Green CDG (Casting Director); Tilly Grimes (Costume Designer); Carol Hancock (UK Wigs, Hair & Makeup Designer & Supervisor); Jason Howland (Music Supervisor, Orchestrations & Arrangements); Olivia Laydon (Casting Associate); Ingrid Mackinnon (Intimacy Support); Caity Mulkearn (Associate Costume Designer); Mia M Neal (Original US Hair & Wig Designer); Jack O’Brien (Director); Sarah O’Gleby (Choreographer); Scott Pask (Set Designer); Michael J Passaro (US Production Supervisor); Greg Pink (Associate Sound Designer); Katy Richardson (Musical Director); Tom Shiels (Casting Associate); John Shivers (Sound Designer); Japhy Weideman (Lighting Designer).
Saturday 10 May – Saturday 14 June 2025
‘Corn, yes, we said corn,
Just as sure as the day that you were born.’
Tony Award-winning musical comedy Shucked makes its much-anticipated UK premiere, landing at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre for 5 weeks only, following an acclaimed run on Broadway and a US tour.
Featuring a book by Tony Award winner Robert Horn (Tootsie), a score by the Grammy Award-winning songwriting team of Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, and directed by Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien (Hairspray), this corn-fed, corn-bred American musical is sure to satisfy your appetite!
Maizy and Beau are getting hitched, when the corn that protects their small community starts to die. The town needs answers. But who will dare to venture beyond the borders of Cob County?
Including the knockout songs ‘Woman of the World’, ‘Somebody Will’ and ‘Independently Owned’, this Broadway hit about an unlikely hero, an unscrupulous con artist, and a battle for the heart and soil of a small town, is not to be missed.
Presented in association with Mike Bosner, Jason Owen, AEG Presents/Jay Marciano, and Michael Harrison.
Cast includes Monique Ashe-Palmer (Storyteller 1); Ben Joyce (Beau); Sophie McShera (Maizy); Georgina Onuorah (Lulu); Keith Ramsay (Peanut); Matthew Seadon-Young (Gordy); Steven Webb (Storyteller 2).
Robert Horn | Book
Theatre includes: Shucked, Tootsie, Disney’s Hercules, 13 the musical, Moonshine The Musical, Lone Star Love, Dame Edna: Back With A Vengeance (Broadway).
TV includes: Designing Women; Living Single, High Society (CBS); Football Book Club; The Jenni Rivera Show; Partners; Bette Midler’s Divine Intervention tour; RuPaul Christmas Special (BBC).
Film include: 13 The Musical (Netflix); Teen Beach Movie, Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure, Wildlife (Disney); Good Advice (Emmett/Furla Films).
Robert is a two-time Tony nominee, two-time Drama Desk nominee, two-time Outer Critics nominee, winner of the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards.
Brandy Clark | Music & Lyrics
Theatre includes: Shucked (Broadway).
Music includes: Dear Insecurity, A Beautiful Noise (performed by Brandi Carlile and Alicia Keys); Follow Your Arrow (performed by Kacey Musgraves).
Brandy won Best Americana Performance at the 66th Grammy Awards and Song of the Year at the 2024 Americana Honors & Awards with her acclaimed song, Dear Insecurity, featuring 11x Grammy-winner Brandi Carlile. Brandy also won Outstanding Music at the 67th Drama Desk Awards and was nominated for Best Original Score at the 76th Tony Awards, where Shucked received nine nominations overall.
Shane McAnally | Music & Lyrics
Theatre includes: Shucked (Broadway).
Music includes: Fancy Like (performed by Walker Hayes).
TV & Press includes: Songland;NYTimes; Billboard; Rolling Stone; The LA Times; The Kelly Clarkson Show; NPR Tiny Desk.
Shane McAnally has received three Grammy Award wins (with 11 total nominations), been nominated for more CMA Awards than any other songwriter in history, and been named ACM’s Songwriter of the Year twice. He received Billboard’s Trailblazer Award for his work both in country music and in championing voices in the LGBTQ community. In 2012 McAnally founded SMACKSongs and is co-president of Monument Records, a joint venture with Sony Music.
Jack O’Brien | Director
Lincoln Center Theater includes:Ghosts, Tom Stoppard’s The Hard Problem, The Coast of Utopia (Tony Award), The Invention of Love (Drama Desk Award; Tony nom.), Hapgood (Lucille Lortel Award), Macbeth The Nance, Henry IV (Tony Award), Pride’s Crossing, The Little Foxes, Two Shakespearean Actors (Tony nom.).
Broadway includes:The Roommate; Shucked (Tony nom.); Hairspray (Tony Award); Carousel; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; The Front Page; It’s Only a Play; Dead Accounts; Catch Me If You Can; Impressionism; Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Tony nom.); The Full Monty (Tony nom.); How the Grinch Stole Christmas; Porgy and Bess (Tony nom.); Imaginary Friends; Getting Away With Murder; Damn Yankees.
National and Global tours include:The Sound of Music; Hairspray; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Opera includes:Il Trittico (Metropolitan Opera); Porgy and Bess.
Other NY theater includes:Guys and Dolls (Carnegie Hall); Much Ado About Nothing (The Public).
UK theatre includes:Hairspray; The Full Monty; His Girl Friday (National Theatre); Love Never Dies.
TV includes:Becoming Mike Nichols (HBO, Emmy nom.); American Playhouse Great Performances.
Memoirs include:Jack Be Nimble, Jack in the Box (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).
Jack is a Theater Hall of Fame inductee, Artists Director of The Old Globe Theatre (1981–2007) and received the 2024 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Monique Ashe-Palmer | Storyteller 1
Training: Bird College.
Theatre includes:Standing at the Sky’s Edge (Gillian Lynne Theatre); £1 Thursday’s (Finborough Theatre); SIX (Vaudeville Theatre); Waitress (U.K. Tour); Waitress (The Adelphi Theatre); Associate Choreographer on Madagascar the Musical (U.K Tour); Madagascar the musical (U.K./International Tour); Pinocchio (Bradford Alhambra); Sleeping Beauty (Camberley Theatre).
Training: Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts (First Class BA (Hons), 2021).
Theatre includes:Back to the Future (Adelphi Theatre); Jersey Boys (Trafalgar Theatre).
Workshops include:Catch Me If You Can; The Little Big Things.
TV includes:The Power (Sister Pictures/Amazon Prime).
Ben was nominated for Best Takeover at the 2023 WhatsOnStage Awards for Back to the Future and Best Performer in a Musical and Best West End Debut at the 2022 The Stage Debut Award for Jersey Boys.
Sophie McShera | Maizy
Theatre includes: The Entertainer (The Garrick, London); Jerusalem (The Apollo Theatre); Annie (West End); The Goodbye Girl (No 1 Tour); A Month In The Country (Salisbury Playhouse); Cinderella (West Yorkshire Playhouse).
TV includes: The Gallows Pole (ITV Studios Limited for BBC One); The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix); London Kills (Acorn TV); Porters 2 (Dancing Ledge for Dave); Timewasters (ITV2/Big Talk); Murdered for Being Different (BBC); Drunk History (Comedy Central); A Job Lot (Series 1-3, Big Talk Productions); Inside No.9 (BBC); Survivors (BBC); Galavant (Series 1-2, ABC); Downtown Abbey (Series 1-5, Carnival for ITV); Harry and Paul (BBC One); Waterloo Road (Shed Productions/BBC); Doctors (BBC); Emmerdale (Yorkshire TV).
Film includes: Downton Abbey: A New Era (Universal Pictures, Carnival Film & Television); Downtown Abbey (Castle Pictures Limited); David Copperfield (GEM Entertainment, FilmNation Entertainment); Cinderella (Walt Disney); Highway to Dhampus (Fifty Films).
Georgina Onuorah | Lulu
Training: ArtsEd where she was awarded the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation Scholarship.
Theatre includes:Little Shop Of Horrors (Sheffield Crucible); Kiss Me, Kate (Barbican); Hamilton (Victoria Palace Theatre); Oklahoma! (Wyndham’s Theatre); Dick Whittington (National Theatre); Bad Cinderella (Gillian Lynne Theatre); MILLENNIALS (The Other Palace); The Wizard of Oz (London Palladium).
Workshops include:The Children’s Inquiry (National Theatre Studio); The Enormous Crocodile (Roald Dahl Story Company); Mandela (The Young Vic).
Film includes:Wicked: Part 2 (Universal Pictures).
Keith Ramsay | Peanut
Training: Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
Theatre includes:The Play That Goes Wrong (Duchess Theatre); Eve: All About Her (Soho Theatre); Young Frankenstein (English Theatre Frankfurt); Preludes (Southwark Playhouse); Amour (Charing Cross Theatre); The Cereal Cafe (The Other Palace); Portia Coughlan (Old Red Lion); Julius Caesar (Shakespeare’s Globe); Doctor Scroggy’s War (Shakespeare’s Globe); Lost In Yonkers (Watford Palace Theatre); Billy (Union Theatre); Peter Pan (Qdos).
TV includes:Shetland; Dylan Moran’s “The Awkward Age”; Pistol; New Tricks; Doctors; Casualty.
Keith won The Stage Edinburgh Award for Acting Excellence & David Johnson Award for Emerging Talent for Eve: All About Her.
Matthew Seadon-Young |Gordy
Theatre includes: The Baker’s Wife (Menier Chocolate Factory); Rockets and Blue Lights (National Theatre, Royal Exchange Theatre); Death of a Salesman (Young Vic / Piccadilly Theatre, West End); Company (Gielgud Theatre, West End); Assassins (Gate Theatre, Dublin); Big Fish (The Other Palace); Beautiful (Aldwych Theatre, West End); Billy Elliot (Victoria Palace, West End); Sweeney Todd (London Coliseum); Urinetown (Apollo Theatre, West End); The School for Scandal (Theatre Royal Bath); She Stoops to Conquer (National Theatre); The Architects (SHUNT); Les Miserables (Queens Theatre, West End); The Laramie Project (Wild Oats Productions).
Film includes: Pride; Les Misérables.
Other credits include: BBC Proms 67 (2015); John Wilson Orchestra (Royal Albert Hall); Vocalist for the Les Misérables Ensemble at the 85th Academy Awards ‘Oscars’ (Dolby).
Steven Webb | Storyteller 2
Theatre includes:Here You Come Again (UK Tour, Riverside Studios); Book of Mormon (Prince of Wales Theatre); I Want My Hat Back (National Theatre); As Is, Betwixt, Sh*t-Mix (Trafalgar Studios); Secret Theatre, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, Aladdin (The Lyric Hammersmith); After the Turn (Courtyard Theatre); The Lakeboat (The Arcola); Dick Whittington (The Lyric Theatre); Sons of York (Finborough Theatre); The Long Road (Soho Theatre); The History Boys (Royal National Theatre, West End); Chatroom/Citizenship (Royal National Theatre); On the Shore of the Wide World (Exchange Manchester/Royal National Theatre); Kes (Exchange Manchester); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Sheffield Theatre); The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek (Southwark Playhouse); Dark of the Moon (Kings Head Theatre); Oliver! (London Palladium).
TV includes:Beautality; The Inbetweeners; Miranda.
Podcast incudes:Brain Rot: An 80s Horror podcast.
A Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s
DREAM BALLETS: A TRIPLE BILL
Choreography by Julia Cheng (Allegro), Shelley Maxwell (Oklahoma!)& Kate Prince (Carousel)
Creatives include Simon Hale (Orchestrations & Arrangements); Joshie Harriette (Lighting Designer); Nick Lidster for Autograph (Sound Designer); Yann Seabra (Costume Designer); Sinfonia Smith Square (Orchestra).
Thursday 19 June – Sunday 22 June 2025
‘Then out of my dreams I’ll go Into a dream with you.’
A timeless celebration of dance and music from three of the UK’s leading musical theatre choreographers, accompanied live on stage by the 26-piece orchestra of the Sinfonia Smith Square, and set to the magical scores of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s dream ballets.
In this enchanting triple bill, the dream ballets are re-imagined for the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre stage by award-winning musical theatre dance makers Julia Cheng (Fiddler on the Roof) who choreographs the rarely performed Allegro, Shelley Maxwell (Get Up Stand Up!) who choreographs Oklahoma!’s dream ballet and Kate Prince (Message in a Bottle, Zoo Nation) who choreographs the dream ballet from Carousel, all with extended new musical arrangements by Tony Award winner Simon Hale (Girl from the North Country).
A unique opportunity to experience Rodgers & Hammerstein’s music brought to life through dance like never before.
Generously supported by The Thistle Trust.
Presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals.
Julia Cheng | Choreographer
Training: Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies (University of Surrey); Dance & Drama (Université Lumière Lyon 2, France).
For Regent’s Park:Fiddler on the Roof (2024).
Theatre/opera/dance work includes:The Legend of 1900 (Shanghai Grand Theatre, China); Cabaret (The Kit Kat Club, West End and Broadway); These Violent Delights (Scottish Ballet); Macbeth (RSC); Untold (Theater Rotterdam, Belgium and Holland); Warrior Queens (for House of Absolute, Sadler’s Wells); The Seven Deadly Sins/Mahagonny Songspiel (Royal Opera House); The Importance of Music to Girls (Kings Place).
Shelley Maxwell | Choreographer
As Choreographer:Starter for Ten (Bristol Old Vic); The Time Traveller’s Wife: The Musical (Apollo Theatre); The Secret Life of Bees (Almeida); The Ballet Boyz “England on Fire” (Sadler’s Wells); Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical (Lyric Theatre); Equus (Stratford East/Trafalgar Studios); ‘Master Harold’ …and the boys (National Theatre); Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith).
As Movement Director:After Life, Hansard, Antony & Cleopatra, Twelfth Night (National Theatre); Nine Night (National Theatre/Trafalgar Studios); Love’s Labour’s Lost and Tartuffe (RSC); Macbeth (Donmar Warehouse/Harold Pinter); Barcelona (Duke of York Theatre); Mlima’s Tale (Kiln); Beneatha’s Place, Untitled F*ck m*ss S**gon Play (Royal Exchange Manchester & Young Vic ); Winter, Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere and Cuttin’ It (Young Vic); Best of Enemies (Young Vic/Noel Coward Theatre); Shifters (Bush/Duke of York Theatre); Alma Mater (Almeida); August in England (Bush); J’Ouvert (Harold Pinter); Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe); King Hedley II (Stratford East); Cougar and Dealing with Clair (Orange Tree); Faustus (Headlong at Lyric & Birmingham Repertory Theatre); A Streetcar Named Desire (Nuffield, Southampton); Apologia (English Theatre Frankfurt); Grey (Oval House); Rules for Living (Royal & Derngate/ The Rose, Kingston).
TV & Film includes:Anansi Boys (Amazon); Joan (ITV); The Marvels (Disney); Romeo and Juliet (Sky Arts/PBS/National Theatre); ear for eye (BBC/Fruit Tree Media).
Shelley Maxwell won the award for Best Choreographer at the inaugural Black British Theatre Awards in 2019 for her work on Equus.
Kate Prince | Choreographer
Theatre includes (with ZooNation):Sylvia (Old Vic); Into the Hoods (Novello, West End); Some Like it Hip Hop (Sadler’s Wells Peacock & UK tour); Message in a Bottle (Sadler’s Wells & Universal Music, World Tour); The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party (Royal Opera House Linbury Studio & The Roundhouse); Groove on Down the Road (SouthBank Centre).
TV includes:Imagine: Kate Prince – Every Move She Makes (BBC); Strictly Come Dancing; So You Think You Can Dance; The Royal Variety Show; Top of the Pops; CD:UK.
Film includes:Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Warp, Film 4, New Regency & Amazon); Message in a Bottle (PBS America); StreetDance 3D (BBC Films & Vertigo); The Holloway Laundrette (writer & co-directed, BAFTA/Channel 4).
Other theatre includes:Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Sheffield Crucible & West End); Ballyturk (National Theatre); Shoes (Sadler’s Wells); I Can’t Sing: the X-Factor Musical (Palladium); A Mad World My Masters (RSC).
Kate is a writer, director and choreographer and the Artistic Director of ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company which she founded in 2002. She is an Associate Artist at both The Old Vic and Sadler’s Wells, where ZooNation is also a Resident Company.
Kate’s work has been nominated for five Olivier Awards, a South Bank Sky Arts Award, a WhatsOnStage Award and three Critic’s Circle National Dance Awards – winning the latter in 2024 for best Mid Scale Dance Company. She has an MA from the University of Edinburgh, an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Winchester and an MBE for services to dance.
A Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production
NOUGHTS & CROSSES
Based on the novel by Malorie Blackman
Adapted by Dominic Cooke
Creatives include RC Annie (Fight Directors); Phillippe Cato (Associate Director); Tinuke Craig (Director); Hazel Holder (Voice Coach); Ingrid Mackinnon (Movement & Intimacy Director); Max Pappenheim (Sound Designer); Joshua Pharo (Lighting Designer); Colin Richmond (Set & Costume Designer); Jacob Sparrow (Casting Director); DJ Walde (Composer).
Saturday 28 June – Saturday 26 July 2025
‘All our lives criss-crossing but never really touching.
A world full of strangers living with all that fear.’
Widely considered to be one of the 21st century’s greatest novels, Malorie Blackman’s best-selling Noughts & Crosses, a bittersweet love story with echoes of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, is revived for the London stage in this brand new production.
By a secluded beach Callum and Sephy meet in secret; life-long friends living on separate sides of a divided world. When Callum, from a Nought family, is accepted to Sephy’s prestigious Cross school, will it bring them closer, or will the hate and fear that surrounds them drive them apart?
Dominic Cooke’s ‘excellent adaptation’ (The Independent) of this epic story set against the political backdrop of a deeply divided society, is directed by Associate Artistic Director Tinuke Craig (A Raisin in the Sun) in her Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre debut.
Malorie Blackman | Novel
Malorie is one of the UK’s most popular authors and has written over 70 books for children and young adults, including the Noughts & Crosses series, Thief! and her science fiction thriller Chasing the Stars. The sixth novel in her Noughts & Crosses sequence, Endgame, was published by Penguin Random House Children’s in 2021. In 2023, Noughts & Crosses was named one of The 100 Greatest Children’s Books of All Time in a BBC Culture Poll.
Malorie wrote for the eleventh series of Doctor Who starring Jodie Whittaker, co-writing the episode Rosa with Chris Chibnall which was honoured at the inaugural Visionary Honours Awards for making ‘a positive social impact’. Her work has also been adapted for TV with the six-part adaptation of Pig-Heart Boy winning a BAFTA and a major production of Noughts + Crosses launched by the BBC in 2020. Noughts & Crosses has been adapted for the stage by Dominic Cooke for the RSC and, most recently, by Sabrina Mahfouz for Pilot Theatre. In 2005, Malorie was honoured with the Eleanor Farjeon Award in recognition of her distinguished contribution to the world of children’s books. In 2008 she received an OBE for her services to children’s literature and, between 2013 and 2015, she was the Children’s Laureate.
Malorie’s autobiography Just Sayin’ – My Life in Words was published by Merky Books in October 2022. Full of life lessons, this is a deeply personal and vividly compelling look at an incredible life which defied expectations and inspired a generation. In November 2023, The British Library opened a free exhibition, Malorie Blackman: The Power of Stories, exploring Malorie’s inspirations and the impact she has had on her readers, and on inclusivity and representation in publishing.
Dominic Cooke | Adaptation
Theatre incudes: Hello, Dolly! (The London Palladium), Medea (@sohoplace); Good,The Corn is Green, The Normal Heart, Follies, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Here We Go, Comedy Of Errors (National Theatre); The Low Road, In The Republic of Happiness, Choir Boy, In Basildon, Chicken Soup With Barley, Clybourne Park, Now Or Later, Aunt Dan And Lemon, The Fever, Wig Out!, Rhinoceros, Plasticine (Royal Court Theatre); A Winter’s Tale, Pericles, The Crucible, As You Like It (RSC).
Stage adaptations include:Noughts And Crosses (RSC); Arabian Nights (Young Vic).
TV & Film includes:The Courier; On Chesil Beach; The Hollow Crown – The Wars Of The Roses.
Dominic is Associate of the National Theatre, Artistic Associate of the RSC and was Associate Director then Artistic Director and CEO of the Royal Court Theatre. In 2014 he was made CBE for services to drama.
Tinuke Craig | Director
Training: LAMDA, National Theatre Studio.
As Director includes: A Raisin in the Sun (Headlong Tour); The School for Scandal (Royal Shakespeare Company); The Big Life (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Blue (ENO, London Coliseum); Trouble in Butetown (Donmar Warehouse); Jitney (Leeds Playhouse 2021 and The Old Vic 2022); Last Easter (Orange Tree Theatre); Crave (Chichester Festival Theatre); Hamlet For Young Audiences (Dorfman and National Theatre Tour 2020 and 2022); Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith); Vassa (Almeida Theatre); The Color Purple (Leicester Curve/Birmingham Hippodrome and UK Tour); random/generations (Chichester Festival Theatre); I Call My Brothers (Gate Theatre); dirty butterfly (Young Vic).
In 2014, Tinuke won the Genesis Future Director Award. She was the Gate’s Associate Director 2015-2016. From 2021-2023 She was Baylis Director at the Old Vic. Tinuke works extensively with Young People and with emerging artists.
A Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production
Lerner & Loewe’s
BRIGADOON
Book & Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Music by Frederick Loewe
In a new adaptation by Rona Munro
Original dances created by Agnes De Mille
Creatives include Laura Bangay (Musical Director); Basia Bińkowska (Set Designer); Will Burton (Casting Director); Sami Fendall (Costume Designer); Carol Hancock (Associate Wigs, Hair & Makeup Designer & Supervisor) Cory Hippolyte (Associate Director); Hazel Holder (Voice Coach); Jessica Hung Han Yun (Lighting Designer); Nick Lidster for Autograph (Sound Designer); Ingrid Mackinnon (Intimacy Director); Drew McOnie (Director & Choreographer); Ebony Molina (Associate Choreographer); Morag Stark (Dialect Coach); Sarah Travis (Music Supervisor & Orchestrator).
Saturday 2 August – Saturday 20 September 2025
‘Brigadoon, Brigadoon, There my heart forever lies’
From the writers of My Fair Lady, Camelot and Gigi, let the magical outdoor setting of Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre transport you to the captivating Scottish Highlands for this major new production of Lerner & Loewe’s musical classic, Brigadoon.
Crash landed in the Highlands of Scotland, WW2 fighter pilots Tommy and Jeff are searching for a way home, whilst just beyond the hills, sisters Fiona and Jean are preparing for a wedding. Over the course of one chance day in the dreamlike village of Brigadoon, their stories entwine. But can love endure in this enchanting place where everything is not quite as it seems?
Not seen in London for over 35 years, Brigadoon features soaring songs including ‘Almost Like Being in Love’, ‘Waitin’ for My Dearie’ and ‘TheHeather on the Hill’. In a new adaptation by leading Scottish playwright Rona Munro (The James Plays (Evening Standard Award), Frankenstein), this revival of a theatrical classic is directed and choreographed by Olivier Award winner Drew McOnie (Jesus Christ Superstar) in his first production as Artistic Director of Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre.
Presented by arrangement with Music Theatre International.
Cast includes Danielle Fiamanya (Fiona); Louis Gaunt (Tommy).
Alan Jay Lerner |Book and Lyricistand Frederick Loewe | Composer
Lerner and Loewe wrote some of the American theatre’s most memorable musicals, including My Fair Lady, Camelot, Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, and Gigi. Lerner was born in New York City in 1918 and attended Choate and Harvard. Loewe was born in Berlin in 1901 to Viennese parents, made his piano debut with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra at the age of 13 and came to the United States in 1924. The two met in 1942 at the Lambs Club in New York City when Loewe approached Lerner about collaborating on a show. In 1947, they had their first Broadway hit, Brigadoon, followed in 1951 by a second success with Paint Your Wagon. In 1956, My Fair Lady, with Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, opened on Broadway. Often called the “perfect musical,” the show ran for 2,717 performances and the cast album sold more than five million copies. Their 1958 film musical, Gigi, won nine Academy awards and, in 1960, came the last great success of their partnership, Camelot, starring Richard Burton and Julie Andrews. In 1974, Lerner lured Loewe out of retirement to work on their last venture together: a film version of Antoine de St Exupéry’s The Little Prince. Lerner went on to collaborate with other composers including Burton Lane, Leonard Bernstein, and Andre Previn. He died in 1986 at the age of 67. Loewe died two years later at the age of 86.
Rona Munro | Adaptation
Theatre includes:My Name Is Lucy Barton (Bridge Theatre London and Manhattan Theatre Company on Broadway, New York.); The James Plays trilogy (National Theatre of Scotland, The National Theatre of Great Britain and the Edinburgh International Festival); The Queen of the Fight- James IV (Raw Material and Capital theatres); Mary (Hampstead Theatre); Katherine (Raw Material and Capital theatres); Little Eagles, The Indian Boy (RSC); The Last Witch (Edinburgh International Festival and Traverse Theatre).
TV & Film includes:Oranges and Sunshine (directed by Jim Loach); Ladybird, Ladybird (directed by Ken Loach); Rehab (Antonia Bird); Dr Who (BBC).
Drew McOnie | Director & Choreographer
For Regent’s Park as Director/Choreographer:On The Town (Oliver Award Nominee, Best Musical Revival; What’s On Stage Award Nominee, Best Theatre Choreography).
For Regent’s Park as Choreographer:Jesus Christ Superstar (Evening Standard Award Winner, Best Musical; Olivier Award Winner, Best Musical Revival; Oliver Award Nominee, Best Theatre Choreography), Carousel (What’s On Stage Awards Nominee, Best Theatre Choreography).
For McOnie Company:The Artist (Theatre Royal Plymouth – UK Theatre Award Winner, Best Direction; What’s On Stage Award Nominee, Best Direction, Best Theatre Choreography, Best Regional Production); Nutcracker (Southbank Centre – National Dance Award Winner, Best Independent Company; National Dance Award Nominee, Best Contemporary Choreography); Jekyll and Hyde (Old Vic Theatre – Broadway World Award Winner, Outstanding Achievement in Dance); DRUNK (Bridewell Theatre); Making Midnight (Jermyn Street Theatre and Latitude Festival).
Additional Theatre as Director/Choreographer Includes:King Kong (Broadway Theatre – Broadway); Strictly Ballroom (Piccadilly Theatre – West End – What’s On Stage Award Nominee, Best Theatre Choreography); The Wild Party (The Other Palace); Torch Song Trilogy (Turbine Theatre).
Additional Theatre as Choreographer Includes:In the Heights (Southwark Playhouse and Kings Cross Theatre – Olivier Award Winner, Best Theatre Choreography; Offie Award Winner, Best Theatre Choreography); Hairspray (Broadway World Award Winner, Best Theatre Choreography); Oklahoma (UK National Tour); Bugsy Malone (Lyric Hammersmith and UK National Tour); The Lorax (Old Vic Theatre); Sound of Music (Curve Leicester); Chicago (Curve Leicester).
Choreography for Film Includes:Greatest Days – The Official Take That Movie.
Ballets Include:Merlin (Northern Ballet – National Tour); XYZ (Classical Creative Project); Little Red (NYB- Hackney Empire); Old Man of Lochnagar (NYB- Sadlers Wells).
Drew McOnie became the Artistic Director and Joint Chief Executive of Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in January 2024. He is also the Artistic Director of The McOnie Company.
Danielle Fiamanya |Fiona MacLaren
Training: The Guildford School of Acting.
Theatre includes:Otherland (Almeida Theatre); Macbeth (Wessex Grove); The Secret Life of Bees (Almeida Theatre); Mandela (Young Vic); Frozen, & Juliet (West End); The Color Purple (Curve Theatre, Leicester/ Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre, The Stage Debut Award for Best Actress in a Musical).
TV & Film includes:The Crown (Netflix); Halo (Paramount); Lucid.
Louis Gaunt | Tommy Albright
Training: Laines.
Theatre includes: Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz, Jack and the Beanstalk (London Palladium); Mary Poppins (Prince Edward Theatre); Piaf (Nottingham Playhouse); Gypsy (Royal Exchange Theatre); Grease (National Tour); The Happy Prince (The Place); Standing at the Sky’s Edge (Sheffield Crucible); Sweet Charity (Nottingham Playhouse); Oklahoma! (Grange Park Opera).
TV includes: Bridgerton (Netflix); The Larkins (ITV).
Originally co-produced by Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Roald Dahl Story Company and Leeds Playhouse The family musical based on Roald Dahl’s THE ENORMOUS CROCODILE Book and Lyrics by Suhayla El-Bushra
Music by Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab
Additional music and lyrics from Tom Brady
Creatives include Phij Adams (Music Technology & Ambleton Programmer); Daisy Beattie (Associate Puppet Designer & Puppet Supervisor); Tom Brady (Orchestrations, Arrangements & Music Supervisor); Fly Davis (Set & Costume Designer); Johnny Edwards (Associate Sound Designer); Aundrea Fudge (Voice Director); Tom Gibbons (Sound Designer); Tash Holway (Associate Director); Jessica Hung Han Yun (Lighting Designer); Vicki Igbokwe-Ozoagu (Choreographer); Bryony Jarvis Taylor CDG (Casting Director); Emily Lim (Director); Toby Olié (Co-Director & Puppetry Designer); Màth Roberts (Music Director).
Friday 15 August – Sunday 7 September 2025
‘For my lunch today I would like… a nice juicy little child!’
The Enormous Crocodile is weaving his way back through the jungle to Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre after a hit summer season in 2024 in search of delicious little fingers and squidgy podgy knees… Only the other jungle creatures can foil his secret plans and clever tricks, but they’re going to have to find a large amount of courage to stop this greedy brute.
This mischievous musical based on Roald Dahl’s snappy book has toe-tapping tunes by Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab, a rib-tickling book and lyrics by Suhayla El-Bushra, and additional music and lyrics by Tom Brady. Developed and directed by Emily Lim, it features a menagerie of puppets by co-director and puppetry designer Toby Olié, with set and costume design by Fly Davis and puppetry co-designed and supervised by Daisy Beattie.
Snap up your tickets today for this wickedly funny musical adventure, perfect for the whole family!
The Enormous Crocodile musical was developed by Emily Lim, Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab, Suhayla El-Bushra, Tom Brady and Roald Dahl Story Company.
Suhayla El-Bushra | Book & Lyrics
Theatre includes:The Suicide (National Theatre); Cuckoo (Unicorn Theatre); Arabian Nights (Lyceum, Edinburgh); The Long Song (Chichester Festival Theatre).
Screen work includes:Ackley Bridge (C4); Becoming Elizabeth (Starz); Bush (Film4).
Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab | Music
Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab is a Sudanese-American composer, producer, singer, songwriter based in Brooklyn, New York. He performs under the moniker Sinkane and has just released his latest album, We Belong, on City Slang Records. Food is his other passion and he loves to freak people out by putting hot sauce on everything… Yes, even ice cream.
Tom Brady | Additional Music & Lyrics
Tom studied at Oxford University and the Royal Academy of Music, where he is recipient of the ARAM award.
Credits as Music Director or Supervisor include:Guys & Dolls (The Bridge); Pinocchio (National Theatre); Show Boat, Caroline or Change (West End); Oklahoma! (Young Vic); Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Sheffield Crucible); Flowers for Mrs Harris, Fiddler on the Roof, Forty Years On (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Magician’s Elephant (RSC); The Empress (RSC & Kneehigh); Romantics Anonymous (Wise Children & Bristol Old Vic/US Tour); Anything Goes (Sheffield Crucible & UK Tour); Floyd Collins (Wilton’s Music Hall); Evita (Festival Ljubljana, Slovenia); Have A Nice Life (Edinburgh, NYC Fringe and Philadelphia).
Tom has also conducted concerts with the Orchestre Nationale d’Lille.
Credits as arranger or additional arranger include:Guys & Dolls (The Bridge); The Empress (RSC & Kneehigh); The Magicians’ Elephant (RSC); Forty Years On (Chichester Festival Theatre); The History Boys (Sheffield Crucible).
Credits as composer include:The Butterfly Lion (Chichester Festival Theatre); Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty (CFYT).
Tom teaches on the Musical Theatre postgraduate course at the Royal Academy of Music.
Emily Lim | Director
Emily’s work explores theatre making as a form of community building and radical joy.
She is Director of Public Acts at the National Theatre and an Associate Artist at the National Theatre and Company Three. She was the recipient of the inaugural Peter Hall Bursary at the National Theatre from 2016-2018.
Theatre includes: The Odyssey, Pericles, A Declaration From The People (National Theatre); Yoko Ono’s Bells for Peace (Manchester International Festival); We’re Here Because We’re Here (1418 Now, National Theatre & Birmingham Rep); Brainstorm (Company Three, National Theatre & Park Theatre); Everything, The Best Day Ever! A Play About the End of the World (Company Three); Grown Up (Gameshow, Camden People’s Theatre); Wuthering Heights (National Youth Theatre); Things Will Never Be The Same Again (And Other Stories), The Kilburn Passion, The Wardrobe (Tricycle Theatre); Another Fine Mess (Bristol Old Vic); Henry V (Southwark Playhouse).
Toby Olié | Co-Director & Puppet Designer
Toby is a director, designer and puppeteer.
For Regent’s Park:101 Dalmatians (2022); Running Wild (2016, also UK Tour).
As Director, theatre includes: Neil Gaiman’s The Wolves in the Walls (Little Angel); The Four Seasons: A Reimagining (Gyre & Gimble/Shakespeare’s Globe); The Elephantom (National Theatre/Gillian Lynne); The Hartlepool Monkey (Gyre & Gimble/UK Tour) and associate puppetry director of War Horse (National Theatre/Gillian Lynne). As Puppetry Designer/Director, theatre includes:Spirited Away (Imperial Theatre, Tokyo & Coliseum, London); Animal Farm (Birmingham Rep/UK Tour); Pinocchio,Peter Pan, The Light Princess (National Theatre); Don Quixote (RSC/Garrick); Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Royal Opera House); Disney’s new staging of The Little Mermaid (Holland/Moscow/Tokyo); A Robot in the Garden, The Boy and the Beast (Shiki Theatre Company, Japan); The Grinning Man (Bristol Old Vic/Trafalgar Studios); A Christmas Carol, Running Wild, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, Peter Pan (Chichester Festival); Little Shop of Horrors (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Goodnight Mister Tom (Duke of York’s/UK Tour). As Puppeteer, theatre includes: Hind of Joey in the original production of War Horse (National Theatre) before moving to Joey’s head for the subsequent West End transfer; Venus and Adonis (RSC); National Theatre: 50 Years on Stage (BBC One); The Homeless Polar Bear (Greenpeace short film); Angelo (Little Angel).
BOX OFFICE INFORMATION
Box Office 0333 400 3562* | openairtheatre.com
Inner Circle, Regent’s Park, London, NW1 4NU
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David Ian for Crossroads Live and Work Light Productions present
The Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production of
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR
Australia Tour until July 2025
Trafalgar Theatre Productions, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and AF Creative Media
in association with the Barbican present
The Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production of
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
Saturday 24 May – Saturday 19 July 2025
Barbican Centre, London
Followed by a UK & Ireland Tour until December 2025
Runaway Entertainment present
101 DALMATIANS
Reimagined from the 2022 Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production
Friday 18 July – Saturday 30 August 2025
Eventim Apollo, London
ABOUT REGENT’S PARK OPEN AIR THEATRE
Established in 1932, the multi-award-winning Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre is one of the largest theatres in London (at a capacity of 1,304). Passionate about producing popular, enriching and unexpected theatre that provides a lens into the here and now, the scale and ambition of our productions together with our magical outdoor setting, makes us unique in the capital’s cultural landscape. In 2024 we welcomed over 180,000 people to our 27-week summer season.
Drew McOnie assumed the role of Artistic Director in January 2024, and James Pidgeon was appointed Executive Director in 2021.
Over the last fifteen years, our productions have won seven Olivier Awards, ten WhatsOnStage Awards, and four Evening Standard Awards. We were named London Theatre of the Year in 2017 by The Stage, and received the Highly Commended Award for London Theatre of the Year in 2021. Our productions have toured the UK, and have transferred to both the West End and the United States. Our 2016 revival of Jesus Christ Superstar has just finished tours of both the UK and North America and is currently touring Australia. Our 2024 revival of Fiddler on the Roof will transfer to the Barbican Centre this summer, followed by a UK & Ireland tour.
As a registered charity that receives no regular public subsidy, we rely entirely on earned income and charitable contributions. Nevertheless, we have maintained 36,000 tickets at £15 across the whole of 2025’s summer season, our BREEZE scheme enables those aged 18-25 to buy tickets for £10, and we regularly work with local charities. Each year, on average, we subsidise tickets for 6,000 school pupils.
Food and drink plays a significant role in the Open Air Theatre experience, with our in-house bars and restaurants including Covered Dining (certified as a Sustainably Run Restaurant), The Grill and The Pizza Oven. We also have our own picnic lawn and the West End’s longest bar!
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre has become one of the most independently sustainable and financially successful producing theatres in the country, and we’re proud to embark on the next stage of our vision with ever-increasing artistic ambition and entrepreneurial spirit.
Waterside Theatre, Aykesbury – until Saturday 22nd February 2025
Reviewed by Rachel Clark
5*****
Phenomenal – you could hear a pin drop!
This musical has now been showing more than 40 years and it is totally amazing. This is the 3rd time I have seen these and the performance was in my view the best so far. The story is about twin brothers soon separated after birth that creates them to lead two totally different lives. Their lives are at opposite ends of the social scale, one living with wealthy parents and the other in poverty. Occasionally their lives cross and they become friends and make a blood brother pact when they find they are born on the same day. In their teens the story tells their life growing up and then they both fall in love with the same girl and tragedy strikes.
This show is totalling Captivating, it starts with the final scene at the beginning and goes on to tell the story, which is narrated by Sean Keany who has a very clear voice with Irish accent and his story telling grips you straight away. The whole theatre is silent and through the first half you could hear a pin drop. Vivienne Carlyle plays Mrs Johnstone the twin’s mother and her voice is powerful and emotional – I can understand how she is a voice over artist and has plenty of Theatre credits to her name and TV. Mrs Lyons was played by Sarah Jane Buckley again a good voice but not as strong as Vivienne’s.
The set is mainly in the street of the Johnstone’s home, with the Lyons on the other side, a great set that gives you the feel of the dividing class of the families.
The boys grown up and Mickey (played by Sean Jones who is brilliant and a very good at playing Mickey as a child and teenager) is a character and in the second half the antics cause laughter in the theatre. The second half in the beginning is a lot more relaxed with the laughter often caused by not only Mickey but his upper-class brother Eddie, trying to swear which creates humour to the show. Linda who is the girl that comes between the boys is played by Gemma Brodick and transitions well from a girl to a woman and had no intention to come between the brothers. This show got a total standing ovation, and I wasn’t not surprised – totally superb.
This is a show not to be missed with lots of talented actors and not forgetting the creative team, that did a great role on the costumes and sets, and the band that played faultlessly. Resident director was Tim Churchill who is also Mr Lyons (Eddie’s father).
Festival Theatre, Malvern – until 1st February 2025
Reviewed by Courie Amado Juneau
5*****
The lights go down and that music starts – daaaah-dah, daaaah-dah, dada dada… a fin goes across the rear screens sea projection and then just as things are getting exciting… you’ve guessed it, The Shark Is Broken. The play, written about the filming of Jaws (specifically the final climactic scene at sea) is co-written by actor Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon and concentrates on the actors frustration at the interminable hanging around whilst the damn shark is yet again fixed.
Ian Shaw (playing his dad Robert) gave us a heartfelt and honest portrayal which was full of genuine love and affection. It didn’t try to paint his dad as a saint and I came away really liking Mr Shaw (Sr) very much. I believe I would have thoroughly enjoyed a weekend with him, hearing his anecdotes and wisdom.
Ian looked uncannily like his father – it was astonishing – but the other actors also looked amazingly like the original actors, it was uncanny. Dan Fredenburgh (playing Roy Scheider) and Ashley Margolis (portraying Richard Dreyfuss) both gave sensational performances, far exceeding my expectations. Giving us way more than a mere impression of the actors, they truly got under the skin of the characters in full panoramic technicolor. An impressive display from everyone concerned.
There’s social commentary from the era (1975) regarding Vietnam and other contemporary events, which are exceptionally interesting. The writers cleverly weave in lots of jokes reflecting on how mad there times are and how it won’t be that mad again. The scene where they are commenting on Nixon’s legacy has a hilarious payoff which I won’t spoil, but it’s worth attending for that alone. It also casts the spotlight (pun intended) on the life of actors, the theatre and films in general. I loved these insights. Lots of jokes concerning upcoming films (which will provide a nice chance to play name that film) and at the expense of Spielberg as a wet behind the ears director.
This work is a real reminder of a simpler time when smoking and swearing were so commonplace they barely registered on the naughtiness radar. An era before CGI, of actual physical special effects – which were prone to the laws of physics, giving us the whole raison d’etre for this play! If you’ve ever wondered why the shark was so often broken, Roy will explain the physics (or pneumatics) behind it – so this is very much the play for you. Or if you just like Jaws or any of the actors, of course…
On the face of it, 3 men sitting around on a boat set with no change of scenery, no costume changes, no music or special effects to speak of, being driven half out of their skulls with boredom sounds, well, like a bit of a drag. But it’s anything but! It’s a riveting hour and a half of top quality entertainment in all respects. This ingenious script really does have something for everyone… Couple that with performances to die for and it’s honestly one of the best shows I’ve seen in a long time. Do yourself a favour and snap up a ticket while you can.
Birmingham Rep Theatre – until Saturday 1st February 2025
Reviewed by Nadia Dodd
4****
Sebastian Faulks’ famous, much loved romance and war novel Birdsong has embarked on a UK tour as part of the 30th anniversary of Sebastian’s writing. The well-known story provides the most beautiful descriptions of love, friendship and warfare now adapted for the stage.
The first act opens, with the colours red and green lighting the stage prominently and the sound of twittering birdsong in the background. The story is set in the 1900s and represents the era extremely well, this production feels timeless and modern.
The play told cleverly in three parts across different periods of time and from different character’s viewpoints. The show opens in the years before the war and sets the scene and background of the characters. There is also a crossover between the modern day and history in the past, as an ancestor of one of the main protagonists can be seen looking round various cemeteries in France, to find his relative and find out his story.
His relative’s story is told from the beginning, through the perspective of factory worker and textile manufacturer Stephen Wraysford, played by James Esler, a charmingly intelligent man with a lot of charisma. Whilst working at the Azaire family’s factory, he boards at Rene Azaire’s home, where Rene lives with his wife Isabelle and daughter Lisette.
During the first part of the show, the audience knows that the country is on the brink of war, and that provides the show with pace and anticipation regarding what will happen with the men and women in the future. That sense of speed is intensified when Stephen begins a forbidden romance with his employer’s wife. Not everyone is happy and not everything is as it seems, as the production closes for its first interval.
The second part begins with the introduction of Stephen’s unit and miner Jack Firebrace, played by Max Bowden, digging tunnels in France in 1916. Max’s depiction of Jack Firebrace is fantastic and provides the production with many humorous moments.
The camaraderie between the soldiers and the miners is explored through the main conversations and chants sung by the ensemble. Beautiful moments of reflection are provided through the songs sung by character Brennan, played by James Findlay.
As Max and the boys dig tunnels and trenches close to the River Somme, Stephen, an officer during the war, battles with his feelings of love, anger and abandonment. Friendships are formed as the men lose comrades and go through some horrific times.
As the birds tweet and the clock ticks, the adaptable scenery provides realistic depictions of the war tunnels around the Somme, as well as the living room at the Azaire’s majestic home.
During the final part of the show the relationship between Isabelle, played by Charlie Russell, and her sister Jeanne, played by Natalie Radmall-Quirke, are explored as the war draws to a close and seeks to understand how people have changed since the end of the war. Shocks and surprises dominate the final part of the show as the sisters encounter problems, memories and change.
As the show draws to a close, the modern day part of the timeline is revisited and the audience members learn about the character’s relationships as well as their futures.
Chichester Festival Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and Roald Dahl Story Company present the world premiere of
Roald Dahl’s
THE BFG
Adapted by Tom Wells
Chichester Festival Theatre, Monday 16 March – Sunday 12 April 2026
Full details and booking will be announced in September 2025
Chichester Festival Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Roald Dahl Story Company have today announced the world premiere of The BFG, based on Roald Dahl’s beloved children’s novel, directed by RSC Co-Artistic Director (and former CFT Artistic Director) Daniel Evans, whose Chichester productions included Quiz, South Pacific and Our Generation.
This magical new adaptation by Tom Wells (TheKitchen Sink, Jumpers For Goalposts), will open the Festival 2026 season at Chichester Festival Theatre, running from 16 March – 12 April 2026, following a winter season at the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon from 25 November 2025 – 31 January 2026.
One extraordinary night, a young orphan named Sophie is snatched by a giant and taken far away to Giant Country. There she learns that human-eating giants are guzzling ‘norphans’ the world over. But she soon discovers that her new friend, the BFG, is different – he’s a dream-catching, snozzcumber-munching gentle soul who refuses to eat humans.
While other giants terrorise the world, the BFG ignites Sophie’s imagination, and they devise a daring plan to save children everywhere. In the end, the smallest human bean and the gentlest giant prove that a dream can change the world.
Justin Audibert, Artistic Director of CFT, said: ‘We are thrilled to be co-producing The BFG with the RSC and the Roald Dahl Story Company, and hugely looking forward to welcoming my predecessor as Artistic Director, Daniel Evans, back to Chichester. I know that our audiences – from the smallest to the largest ‘human beans’ – will love seeing Roald Dahl’s brilliantly imaginative and beloved creation come to life on stage.’
RSC Co-Artistic Directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey said: ‘This inspiring story – about an unlikely alliance between an orphan, a giant and a queen – tells us that when we have the courage to make our dreams a reality, we can change the world. To be adapting Roald Dahl’s much-loved children’s novel for the stage in collaboration with the Roald Dahl Story Company and Chichester Festival Theatre is a dream come true for us. Tom Wells’ magical new adaptation builds upon the RSC’s longstanding commitment to make spectacular and moving theatre for family audiences – and we’re thrilled to be collaborating with an exceptional creative team to dream up an unforgettable theatrical experience which promises to be larger-than-life.’
Roald Dahl Story Company Artistic Director Jenny Worton added: ‘Following the triumphant success of our first two stage shows, The Witches and The Enormous Crocodile, The BFG opens a magical new chapter for us at the Roald Dahl Story Company. Our dream is to bring mischievous joy to audiences of all ages through our growing family of live shows.
‘After years of delicious inventing with Tom Wells, Daniel Evans and the wider creative team, we are excited to share our passion for this iconic story with the rest of the world. Alongside Chichester Festival Theatre, we’ve created something full of imagination and heart, just as you’d expect from the world of Roald Dahl.’
Joining Daniel and Tom on the creative team is Puppetry Designer and Director Toby Olié, Set Designer Vicki Mortimer, Costume Designer Kinnetia Isadore, Lighting Designer Zoe Spurr, Video Designer Akhila Krishnan, Illusions Chris Fisher, Composer Oleta Haffner, Sound Designer Carolyn Downing, Choreographer and Movement Director Ira Mandela Siobhan, Puppetry Co-Designer Daisy Beattie, Senior Set Design Associate Matt Hellyer, Casting Director Christopher Worrall CDG and Children’s Casting Director Verity Naughton CDG.
Booking details
Tickets for The BFG at Chichester Festival Theatre will go on sale with our next Winter season, which will start booking in September 2025.
ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY ANNOUNCES SUMMER 2025 SEASON AND BIG FRIENDLY FAMILY SHOW
Co-Artistic Directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey today announce details of the RSC’s Summer 2025 season and upcoming festive family show, The BFG. This big, friendly production from the Royal Shakespeare Company, Chichester Festival Theatre and the Roald Dahl Story Company, is adapted by Tom Wells and directed by RSC Co-Artistic Director Daniel Evans in his directorial debut for the Company.
Joining the previously announced Hamlet Hail to the Thief and 4.48 Psychosis are five new Shakespeare productions directed by Joanna Bowman, Emily Burns, Yaël Farber, Michael Longhurst and Max Webster, a new version of W. Somerset Maugham’s The Constant Wife, which will see Olivier Award-winning playwright Laura Wade re-unite with Co-Artistic Director Tamara Harvey,the European premiere of Fat Ham by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames,andnationwide tours of Rupert Goold’s Hamletand First Encounters: King Lear.
The Summer season will welcome internationally-renowned acting talent to Stratford-upon-Avon – including returning artists Simon Russell Beale and Freema Agyeman with Rose Leslie and Nick Blood making their RSC debuts.
Across the season, the RSC will celebrate creative partnerships with Factory International, The Public Theater New York and the Royal Court Theatre. The Company will also step into new spheres of storytelling, collaborating with Brooklyn-based creative studio iNK Stories in a groundbreaking co-production combining Shakespeare and commercial video game production.
Audiences of all ages will have the opportunity to come together to watch, make and explore, with highlights including an 80-minute staging of Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona; Tim Crouch’s I, Peaseblossom,his hit adaptation of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; a programme of interactive theatre workshops, free drop-in activities, family theatre trails, and the return of the RSC’s popular acting-based Summer schools for ages 8-14 and 18-25.
Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans said:
“Over the last twelve months, our guiding principle as Co-Artistic Directors has been to seek out the most exciting directors, writers and actors working in the UK and internationally, and ask them which stories they feel a passionate desire to tell.
“Our 2025/26 season will bring together an international roster of creative talent, where the works of William Shakespeare stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the most compelling voices in modern playwriting, from Olivier Award-winning playwright Laura Wade to the late, great Sarah Kane and the Pulitzer Prize-winning James Ijames. And then there’s Roald Dahl, one of our greatest storytellers and children’s authors, whose 1982 novel The BFG will be the inspiration for our magical festive family show in 2025, newly adapted for the stage by Tom Wells.
“Alongside five new productions from the pen of our house playwright, directed by Joanna Bowman, Emily Burns, Yaël Farber,Michael Longhurst and Max Webster, we will also celebrate the diverse ways in which Shakespeare’s characters and stories continue to prove fertile ground for re-invention and re-discovery, with the world premiere of Hamlet Hail to the Thief, a frenetic distillation of the Hamlet story, set alongside the soundtrack of Radiohead’s seminal album, and the European premiere of James Ijames’ tragi-comic family drama, Fat Ham. We’re even taking our first foray into the world of gaming with Lili, a powerful, contemporary reimagining of Shakespeare’s Macbeth set in modern Iran, currently in development for 2026.”
THE SEASON IN FULL
ROYAL SHAKESPEARE THEATRE:
Director Michael Longhurst kicks off the season with a new staging of Shakespeare’s original rom-com, Much Ado About Nothing, set in the glossy world of professional football in a new production featuring Freema Agyeman as Beatrice and Nick Blood as Benedick
Shakespeare’s great tragedy and Radiohead’s seminal album collide in the world premiere of Hamlet Hail to the Thief, adapted by Christine Jones with Steven Hoggett with music by Radiohead and Orchestrations by Thom Yorke
Yaël Farber makes her RSC debut with Shakespeare’s enigmatic story of love, loss and rebirth, The Winter’s Tale
Emily Burns returns to direct a new staging of William Shakespeare’s razor-sharp examination of hypocrisy and corruption, Measure for Measure, following her acclaimed RSC debut in 2024 with Love’s Labour’s Lost
A Royal Shakespeare Company, Chichester Festival Theatre and Roald Dahl Story Company production,Roald Dahl’s unforgettable story comes to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre stage in Tom Wells’ magical new adaptation of The BFG, directed by RSC Co-Artistic Director Daniel Evans
SWAN THEATRE:
Olivier and Tony Award-winning actor Simon Russell Beale returns to the RSC alongside Associate Artist Emma Fielding and Natey Jones in a new production of Shakespeare’s bloodiest tragedy, Titus Andronicus, directed by Max Webster, whose recent credits include The Importance of Being Earnest at the National Theatre and Macbeth at the Donmar Warehouse
Rose Leslie stars in a sparkling new version of W. Somerset Maugham’sThe Constant Wife, adapted by Olivier Award-winning playwright Laura Wade and directed by Co-Artistic Director Tamara Harvey
Originally produced Off-Broadway by The Public Theater and National Black Theatre, James Ijames’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fat Ham makes its European premiere with original direction by Saheem Ali, directed for the Swan Theatre by Sideeq Heard
Multi award-winning writer and performer Tim Crouch presents his magical adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream:I, Peaseblossom
Richard Nelson’s moving and compelling one-man play, An Actor Convalescing in Devon, visits the Swan Theatre with RSC Associate Artist Paul Jesson
THE OTHER PLACE
4.48 Psychosis, Sarah Kane’s final masterpiece, returns 25 years on in a new co-production with the Royal Court Theatre reuniting the entire original cast and creative team. Directed by the award-winning James Macdonald with Daniel Evans, Jo McInnes and Madeleine Potter reprising their roles
Joanna Bowman directs a new 80-minute version of Shakespeare’s gloriously silly comedy of love and friendship, The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Tickets for Hamlet Hail to the Thief and4.48 Psychosisare on sale now at rsc.org.uk.
For all other shows, priority booking for Members and Supporters opens from Friday 31 January at 10am with public booking opening on Wednesday 12 February at 10am.
For further information on how to become an RSC Member or Supporter, visit here.
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ON TOUR IN THEATRES, CLASSROOMS AND COMMUNITIES
Also announced today ahead of its opening in Stratford-upon-Avon this February, Shakespeare’s epic family saga Hamlet embarks on a new tour to our partner regional theatres across England in 2026, directed by multi award-winning director and incoming Artistic Director of the Old Vic, Rupert Goold. The production will tour to towns and cities throughout the Spring, including Truro, Bradford, Norwich, Nottingham, Blackpool, Newcastle, York and Canterbury. Full casting for the UK tour is yet to be announced.
Julien Boast, Chief Executive and Creative Director at Hall for Cornwall, the first theatre on the tour, said:
“We’re proud to be standing alongside Rupert Goold and the RSC team to bring this landmark production to a wider audience. Our enduring partnership with the RSC and our national network of Associate Theatres has never been stronger, and this is partnership in the true sense of the word, with community at its heart. It is a beacon and role model for a co-created approach to touring, generating true and mutually beneficial impact that is welcomed by audiences, artists, young people and the local economy, at all our theatres”.
In Autumn 2025, even more young people will experience their first taste of Shakespeare in their classrooms and communities with First Encounters: King Lear directed by Justine Themen. The 12-week tour of schools, theatres and community venues begins in September 2025. The production will open in Leamington Spa, after which it will tour to Cornwall, Skegness, Nottingham, Canterbury, Stratford-upon-Avon, Norwich and Peterborough. The Autumn tour will see the RSC further expand its reach across the country with first-time visits to the Isles of Scilly and Southampton.
This 80-minute version of Shakespeare’s masterful tragedy joins the previously announced Spring tour of First Encounters: The Tempest directed by Aaron Parsons. The touropens from 6 February in Birmingham with visits to County Durham, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, York, Hull, Bradford, Stratford-upon-Avon, Stoke-on-Trent, Nottingham, Newcastle upon Tyne, Corby, Blackpool, Cumbria and Northampton. The two First Encounters tours give an estimated 24,000 young people the opportunity to experience a Shakespeare production in their school hall or local theatre this year.
They join the previously announced tour of the RSC’s multi award-winning Matilda The Musical,which begins its second major tour of the UK and Ireland in October, opening in Leicester on 6 October 2025. Based on Roald Dahl’s best-selling novel with literacy and books at its heart, the show has already been seen by 12 million people across 100 cities worldwide. The musical will celebrate 15 years on stage when it opens at Leicester Curve before traveling to Bradford, Liverpool, Plymouth, Sunderland, Edinburgh, and Manchester where it will run through March and April 2026. Further tour dates to be announced.
Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey added:
“As a national theatre company based in the heart of the Midlands, we believe passionately in the power of Shakespeare and live performance to inspire creativity, ignite the imagination and to change lives for the better. At a time when creative learning provision in English schools has reached an all-time low, our newly announced First Encounters touringproductionof King Lear will help ensure that thousands more pupils and teachers have the opportunity to enjoy a live performance of Shakespeare or live theatre in their own hometown or city in 2025.”
NEW FRONTIERS – LILI: A SCREEN LIFE THRILLER VIDEO GAME INSPIRED BY THE WORLD OF SHAKESPEARE’S MACBETH
Announced last week is a new collaboration between the RSC and iNK Stories, a New York city based independent game studio and publisher, to create Lili. Set in contemporary Iran, this interactive, video game puts Lady Macbeth, one of Shakespeare’s most iconic female leads, front and centre.
This cross-industry collaboration marks the RSC’s debut in video gaming. Featuring Cannes Best Actress winner Zar Amir as Lady Macbeth (Lili), the game is co-produced by her Paris-based Alambic Productions. Zar draws from her lived experience as an Iranian woman in exile who has courageously confronted her own battles against authoritarian gendered oppression.
Lili is a screen life thriller video game which gives players access to Lady Macbeth’s personal devices, combining the skill and artistry of theatre and film to tell this interactive story. Players will be immersed in a stylized, neo-noir vision of modern Iran, where surveillance and authoritarianism are part of daily life. The gameplay will feature a blend of live-action cinema within an interactive game format, giving players the chance to immerse themselves in the world of Lady Macbeth and make choices that influence her destiny.
Macbeth’s witches are reimagined as hackers, with surveillance cameras and cyber-infiltration putting the player at the heart of the story and giving them a unique perspective into the world of the play. This modern twist on the Macbeth story explores themes of technological domination, the manipulation of information, and institutional violence, reflecting the dark realities of inequities in our digital age.
Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans, RSC Co-Artistic Directors said:
“From its first performance, Macbeth was always exhilarating: its sudden opening with thunder and lightning raises audience adrenaline levels and propels them as participants, not just spectators, into the jittery, action-driven narrative. Lili creates similar effects for audiences. As a storytelling medium, gaming today is what theatre has always been; a chance to explore worlds, inhabit story, and experience something at once personal and communal. Centring this tense thriller around Lady Macbeth rather than her husband is radical and transformative. It turns the play’s questions around gender, identity and power inside out.”
