London Plays

Widely considered one of the funniest plays in English, Wilde’s much loved masterpiece throws love, logic and language into the air to make one of theatre’s most dazzling firework displays. Jack, Algy, Gwendolyn and Cecily discover how unsmooth runs the course of true love, while Lady Bracknell keeps a baleful eye on the mayhem of manners. ‘It is very romantic to be in love. The very essence of romance is uncertainty’

Following their acclaimed sell-out season in Stratford-upon-Avon, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Imperium plays, based on the bestselling Cicero Novels by Robert Harris, transfer to London’s Gielgud Theatre for a strictly limited season from 14 June.

Can you imagine what it would be like to be forced to leave your homeland and make a new life somewhere else? It's hard to picture, but thanks to The Jungle the torments and terrors, the boredom, the loneliness and the fear involved in living life in a refugee camp are made abundantly clear. Make your way to the Playhouse theatre for an extraordinary show played in the round.

Shakespeare’s final solo play The Tempest is this year’s enchanting opening to Iris Theatre’s outdoor summer season.

Taking place across the gardens of St Paul’s Church in the heart of the West End, and inspired by the courtly royal masques of the 17th century and the designs of Inigo Jones, The Tempest is an evening of pomp and promenade, of magic and illusion.

Following their acclaimed sell-out season in Stratford-upon-Avon, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Imperium plays, based on the bestselling Cicero Novels by Robert Harris, transfer to London’s Gielgud Theatre for a strictly limited season from 14 June.

The Tiger Who Came to Tea returns to the West End stage, celebrating 50 years of Britain’s best-loved picture book!

Over a million people have experienced the sensation that is Circa . . . "the rockstars of the circus world" (The List). Now they are delighted to present for your pleasure their latest masterpiece – Peepshow.

Peepshow turns cabaret on its head, literally. Join Circa as they embark on a seductive dance through the hall of mirrors that is your imagination, Peepshow lurches from the thrillingly acrobatic to the comically playful. Expect teetering towers of balanced bodies, extreme bending and devilishly precarious aerials.

Matthew Warchus directs Charles Dickens’ timeless classic A Christmas Carol in a joyous new adaptation by Jack Thorne.

On a bitter Christmas Eve night a cold-hearted miser is visited by four ghosts. Transported to worlds past, present and future, Ebenezer Scrooge witnesses what a lifetime of fear and selfishness has led to and sees with fresh eyes the lonely life he has built for himself. Can Ebenezer be saved before it’s too late?

‘Stories are wild creatures, the monster said. When you let them loose, who knows what havoc they might wreak?’

Patrick Ness’s piercing novel A Monster Calls is brought to The Old Vic stage in a powerful new adaptation by visionary director Sally Cookson.

Seen by over 9 million people in more than 250 cities around the world, Walking with Dinosaurs - The Arena Spectacular, is back. Be amazed and thrilled as the greatest creatures ever to walk the earth return before your eyes.

Ian Hislop and Nick Newman’s The Wipers Times tells the true and extraordinary story of the satirical newspaper created in the mud and mayhem of the Somme. Following a sell-out season at the Arts Theatre The Wipers Times returns for seven weeks only.

In a bombed out building during the First World War in the Belgian town of Ypres (mis-pronounced Wipers by British soldiers), two officers discover a printing press and create a newspaper for the troops. Far from being a sombre journal about life in the trenches, they produced a resolutely cheerful, subversive and very funny newspaper designed to lift the spirits of the men on the front line.

In the mythical Forest of Arden, a world of transformation where anything is possible and anything permissible, two young people discover what it really means to be in love.

Directed by Max Webster, with beautiful new music by Charlie Fink (former frontman of Noah and the Whale), this warm, open-hearted production promises adventure, sibling rivalry, mistaken identity and romance – Shakespeare comedy as you like it.

New York City. The late 1950's.

Two broken souls reach out to each other in an attempt to stick themselves back together again.

We all want to meet people from history. The trouble is everyone is dead! So it's time to prepare yourselves for Horrible Histories live on stage with a brand new show featuring all new scenes in Barmy Britain – Part Four! 

It’s just another day. People are eating ice cream, getting married, shopping in the sunshine. Then it all turns upside down. Bombs, bloodshed and a battlefield. Would we carry on with our normal activities? Would we even notice anymore, given the mess of today’s society? That’s the question that Pity poses at the Royal Court this summer.

After a lifetime of reading books on chivalry, one eccentric old man heads off on a rumbustious quest to become a wandering knight accompanied by his faithful and equally ill-suited servant, ‘riotously performed by David Threlfall as Don Quixote and Rufus Hound as Sancho Panza’ (The Times). Taking up a lance and sword, Don Quixote sets out on a hilarious journey across medieval Spain, defending the helpless and vanquishing the wicked. 

Based on Oscar Wilde‘s lurid play, Strauss‘s opera is an intense psychological exploration of the Salome story. Her brutality and power are the product of the warped cycles of masculinity that have been passed down through the generations.

After a sold-out run, Follies, winner of the Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival, returns in 2019.

Meet Bruce Blakemore, a struggling young Geordie tech-head and the unlikeliest international criminal mastermind you can imagine. From his base in Whitley Bay, Bruce and his Nan will find themselves sucked into an Underworld Wide Web of new-age pirates, local gangsters and tea-cosies.

Seen by over 9 million people in more than 250 cities around the world, Walking with Dinosaurs - The Arena Spectacular, is back. Be amazed and thrilled as the greatest creatures ever to walk the earth return before your eyes.

‘Let’s have all the skeletons out of the closet, today, of all days!’

It’s 23 April, Shakespeare’s birthday.

In Brixton, Nora and Dora Chance – twin chorus girls born and bred south of the river – are celebrating their 70th birthday. Over the river in Chelsea, their father and greatest actor of his generation Melchior Hazard turns 100 on the same day. As does his twin brother Peregrine. If, in fact, he’s still alive. And if, in truth, Melchior is their real father after all…

‘I’ve been dead for three days.’

A woman. A suicide. A choice. A lie. A truth. An ending. Of sorts.

Life, Alice thinks, isn’t worth living. So she kills herself. But she’s stuck. A fly on the wall. Forced to watch the aftermath of her suicide and its ripple effect on her family and friends, Alice quickly learns that death changes people. And discovers that death isn’t the change she hoped for. 

Ida Barr - the people's pensioner and the Queen Mother of our hearts - is a former music hall singer turned rap star and Underbelly favourite. Her brand of Artificial Hip Hop has thrilled listeners globally from dope cribs to residential care homes.

We’ve running out of time to progress – change is coming whether we like it or not. Its patience has run out and it’s rushing up on us. But are we ready? No, of course not. Writer and director debbie tucker green brings ear for eye to the Royal Court – she is ready, she’s doing her thing with or without us.

The multi-award-deserving Frenchman returns with a live band and some magnificent guests. Expect bawdy chansons, louche poetry and a soupçon of Gallic disdain. The cult hit from festivals all over the world. As seen on Comedy Central, Sky Atlantic's Set List and BBC1’s The John Bishop Show.

After 45 years’ teaching, you would think that Edward would be looking forward to retirement. And he is – he’s a celebrated educator after all. Except, his house is now under siege and his daughter has returned with a set of suspicious questions. It seems as though Edward isn’t as popular as he originally believed.

Following its sold-out run at the Bush Theatre, Arinzé Kene's acclaimed Misty transfers to London’s Trafalgar Studios for six weeks only.

Through a visceral blend of theatre, gig and performance poetry, Arinzé delivers an epic, heartfelt and playful exploration of creative freedom, set against a pulsing vision of modern London.

Misty is directed by the Bush Theatre’s Omar Elerian (NASSIM, One Cold Dark Night, Islands) and features an original musical score performed live during the show.

Down on his luck in the suburbs, Sir John Falstaff plans to hustle his way to a comfortable retirement by seducing the wives of two wealthy men. Unknown to him, it’s the women of Windsor who really pull the strings, orchestrating his comeuppance amid a theatrical smorgasbord of petty rivalries, jealousies and over-inflated egos.

August Strindberg's Miss Julie finds a new home in contemporary London, as Carrie Cracknell (The Deep Blue Sea) directs a cast including Vanessa Kirby (The Crown) and Eric Kofi Abrefa (The Amen Corner).

Wild and newly single, Julie throws a late night party. In the kitchen, Jean and Kristina clean up as the celebration heaves above them.