The Line-up: March 2026
Spring shoots and pillar seats
March is a transitional month, and as spring threatens to bloom, the theatre scene is showing fresh shoots too. Here’s everything I’ve booked, all the shows I’ve bookmarked, and what you should probably sort before the cheap seats disappear.
Booking Ahead
When I started drafting this a few days ago, I only had two shows to book. I don’t know what happened.
US sitcom legend Richard Kind joins the cast of The Producers from 23rd March to 9th May. I have booked myself a front row ticket to see his rubbery face up close.
On 3rd May the Southbank Centre is hosting a “one-off pop-culture spectacular” called You Are Here, with a cast of hundreds, spanning the entire site. Danny Boyle is involved, so I’m treating this as an immersive sequel to the London 2012 opening ceremony.
Japanese theatre company Noda Map returns to Sadler’s Wells in July with – 320°F. I’ve seen the last two Noda Map productions and they were both high energy, inventive, and fun.
Sheffield Theatres have unveiled a new season including a couple of Shakespeares: Twelfth Night with Matthew Horne and King Lear with Ian McDiarmid. They also announced a new festival dedicated to new work called Open Works, which I’ll be keeping an eye on.
Finally, the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon continues to outshine the capital. Their latest season announcement includes a new Game of Thrones play, an all-male As You Like It starring Jonathan Groff, and an all-female Julius Caesar starring Harriet Walter.
Book all of those and then meet me for the following in March:
Our Town - Rose Theatre, Kingston
Grover’s Corners is a quiet little town, full of ordinary folk, living everyday lives. They work, they laugh, they sing, they fall in love and raise their children, and grow old.
But within those moments of ordinary, everyday life, there are truths that reach out to us all. And a passionate demand to cherish every moment, right now, while we still can.
Last January Michael Sheen announced he was establishing the Welsh National Theatre. True to his word, they’re here with their debut production, a Welsh take on Our Town by Thornton Wilder. I’ll be interested to see how Welsh it feels, considering Wilder forbids the text of his American-set play from being altered in any way. Expect the accents to do the heavy lifting.
It Walks Around The House At Night - Southwark Playhouse, Borough
When an out-of-work actor accepts a well-paid job playing a ghost at a remote countryside manor, he expects nothing more than a few easy scares for curious visitors. But as night after night unfolds, the role begins to blur with reality and something far more sinister starts to emerge.
I enjoy a scary play, and they’re all the better in these smaller theatres where there is less safe distance between the audience and the spooky goings-on. Take the content guidance as a reason to attend: “This production contains occasional strong language, horror imagery and jump scares.”
R.O.I. (Return On Investment) - Hampstead Theatre, Downstairs
Venture capitalist May Lee is on the hunt for a start-up with a $1bn valuation. Enter Willa McGovern, a hungry young entrepreneur with an idea that could be life-changing not only for May, but the entire human race…
May quickly discovers that ambition, ego and cold hard cash can twist even the purest of intentions. As technology hurtles toward making science fiction into reality, the question becomes not whether we can change the world, but what it will cost us when we do.
I work in advertising (sorry), so the title is slightly triggering, but I can’t resist the pull of the downstairs space at the Hampstead Theatre. A synopsis that reads like a pleasing combination of corporate satire and science fiction is too intriguing to ignore.
Summerfolk - National Theatre, Olivier
It’s a hot, beautiful summer in 1905, and Russia’s elite retreat to the countryside to swim, sip champagne and start affairs.
When they’re having this much fun, why care about anything else? But Varvara just can’t shake the feeling that their holiday idyll is built on borrowed time.
As the party continues, how long can they ignore the storm on the horizon?
I bought my ticket out of a sense of duty to the National Theatre and have become increasingly excited as each detail has been revealed. A new adaptation of a classic drama with a cast so overstuffed that I would go way over Substack’s email length limit if I started to list it. Just know that any play with Doon Mackichan amongst the cast is a must-see.
Aether - Jermyn Street Theatre
A PhD student hunting dark matter collides with
A disillusioned illusionist
A teenage medium with a secret
A murdered mathematician
A trail-blazing astronomer
Together, they investigate the greatest unsolved mystery of the universe.
While I was up at the Fringe failing to find life-changing theatre, Aether was receiving endless five-star reviews. I’m ready to have my life changed by a mix of physics, magic, and theatre. Hopefully this will teach me what to look out for in Edinburgh this year.
Romeo & Juliet - Harold Pinter Theatre
“In a minute there are many days”
In Verona, in the height of summer, two young people meet at a party. The rest is tragedy.
In a bid to escape Stranger Things and Kate Bush, Sadie Sink is coming to London to star in Shakespeare’s most iconic play. The rest of the cast is sprinkled with treats, Clark Gregg as Lord Capulet and Clare Perkins as Nurse, and direction from Robert Icke guarantees this won’t be a stale adaptation. I’ve booked my pillar seat.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses - National Theatre, Lyttelton
Among the glittering salons of the super-rich, patriarchy equals power, reputation is everything – and for women, one misstep can mean ruin.
Marquise de Merteuil, master in the art of survival, wields her influence with intelligence and control. Alongside the magnetic Vicomte de Valmont, they turn seduction into strategy and weaponise desire. But when their alliance collapses into rivalry, the battle between them threatens to destroy everyone in their path.
A stage adaptation of the story most iconically brought to life in Cruel Intentions. Featuring the timelessly sexy Lesley Manville and Aidan Turner, this promises to be a lush production of a lusty classic.
Director Marianne Elliott has brought us numerous canonical productions (War Horse, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Angels in America, and Company), so expectations are sky-high.
The Authenticator - National Theatre, Dorfman
Soon after inheriting her family’s stately home, eccentric artist Fenella Harford discovers a stash of hidden diaries and enlists a young academic, Marva, to confirm their authenticity.
Joined by Marva’s brilliant but overlooked mentor, Abi, the three women come together to seek the truth, soon realising that secrets at the heart of Harford Hall were darker than they could have imagined.
To round off a triptych of new shows at the National, we have a new play in the smallest of the theatre’s three stages. Described as a gothic psychological thriller, this three-hander stars Cherrelle Skeete, who has been weaving an incredible stage career since originating the role of Rose Granger-Weasley in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ten years ago.
Copenhagen - Hampstead Theatre, Upstairs
In 1941 the great German physicist Werner Heisenberg made a strange trip to Copenhagen to see his Danish counterpart Niels Bohr. Their brilliant collaboration in the twenties had begun to lay bare the mysteries at the heart of the atom.
But now Denmark was under German occupation, the meeting was fraught with danger and embarrassment - and Heisenberg was burdened with a terrible secret.
Why he went to Copenhagen and what he wanted to say to Bohr are questions which have exercised historians ever since.
I’m going to be fully transparent here, the synopsis and the poster did not grab me immediately. But a cast featuring Alex Kingston (ER) and Richard Schiff (The West Wing) changed my mind. Sometimes my millennial nostalgia for NBC primetime dramas takes control.
I’ve made it all this way and haven’t even teased my trip to Seoul this week. Suffice it to say that Sleep No More and Spirited Away in the same city were not a combination I could ignore.