Literary theatre in London, June to Nov 2026
Productions of work by playwrights historically considered ‘literary’; plays about a literary figure or theme; and stage adaptations of a poem, short story, novel or memoir
The list includes productions of work by playwrights historically considered ‘literary’; plays about a literary figure or theme; and stage adaptations of a poem, short story, novel or memoir.
The list is aggregated from 80 theatres in London and is ordered by opening date.
There is also a filtered list of all Shakespeare productions in London here.
Currently playing
Equus
Ends 27 Jun, Menier Chocolate Factory, tickets
Peter Shaffer’s psychological thriller about a psychiatrist and a violent 17-year-old boy.
Mother Courage and Her Children
Ends 27 Jun, Shakespeare’s Globe, tickets
Michelle Terry takes the lead in Brecht’s anti-war masterpiece.
Slaughterhouse Five
Ends 4 Jul, Southwark Playhouse, tickets
Adapted from Kurt Vonnegut’s science-fiction novel by Eric Simonson.
A Fine Idea
Ends 4 Jul, Arcola, tickets
A theatrical response to Jason Hickel’s book about global inequality, The Divide.
Austentatious
Mondays until 6 July, Vaudeville Theatre, tickets
Inspired by a random title from the audience and performed in period costume with live music, an improvised comedy play in the style of an Austen novel.
David Hare: Grace Pervades
Ends 11 Jul, Theatre Royal Haymarket, tickets
Ralph Fiennes plays Sir Henry Irving, star of the Victorian stage and the first actor to be knighted.
Shakespeare: Love’s Labour’s Lost
Ends 12 Jul, various squares in London, tickets
A Shakespeare in the Squares production, featuring rock and pop classics from the 1960s and ‘70s.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Ends 18 Jul, Soho Place, tickets
Musical based on William Kamkwamba’s bestselling memoir about a 13-year-old boy who dreams of saving his village.
Glengarry Glen Ross
Ends 19 Jul, Old Vic, tickets
David Mamet’s dramatic comedy staged by Patrick Marber and featuring an all-female cast, starring Rosa Salazar and Indira Varma.
War Horse
Ends 30 Jul, National Theatre, tickets
Based on Michael Morpurgo’s novel, War Horse is a story of love, courage and friendship, staged astonishing life-sized horses from Handspring Puppet Company and a musical score.
Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Ends 29 Aug, Shakespeare’s Globe, tickets
A new production in which the Globe Theatre becomes ‘a space for communal celebration under starry summer skies’.
Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing
Ends 24 Oct, Shakespeare’s Globe, tickets
Set in a sun-soaked world of style and status, where image is everything and late-night parties blur into dawn.
Opening in June
4.48 Psychosis
15-17 Jun, Southwark Playhouse, tickets
Through fractured thoughts and fragmented voices, Sarah Kane’s final work strips away the boundaries between patient and doctor, self and shadow, despair and hope.
Mrs Dalloway
16-20 Jun, Wilton’s Music Hall, tickets
Virginia Woolf’s novel adapted and directed by Jen Heyes, co-created with Kit Green, who plays the lead role and a host of other characters.
The River
16-20 Jun, South London Theatre, tickets
In Jez Butterworth’s play, set in a remote cabin nestled in the woods by a turbulent river, The Man, The Woman and The Other Woman search for deep connection and love.
Babette’s Feast
16-20 Jun, Jack Studio Theatre, tickets
Adapted from Isak Dinesen’s short story. It’s 1871 and Babette has fled from the violent uprisings in Paris. She arrives, destitute, on the doorstep of two devout sisters in a remote part of Norway.
The Misanthrope
16 Jun - 1 Aug, National Theatre, tickets
Sandra Oh takes the title role in a razor-sharp reimagining of Molière’s classic.
Shakespeare: Julius Caesar
17-27 Jun, Tower Theatre, tickets
This modern staging strips away the noise of the contemporary world to focus on the raw, human machinery of power – alliances forged in dim corridors and the restless pulse of a society on edge.
Dead Poets Live: Briggflatts - An Autobiography
19-21 Jun, Coronet Theatre, tickets
Simon McBurney will explore Basil Bunting’s life and perform, sixty years after its first publication, one of the greatest – and most unjustly neglected – poetic accomplishments in English.
Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
20 Jun - 18 Jul, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, tickets
Directed by Atri Banerjee, underscored with folk-infused melodies composed by Maimuna Memon.
Tom Stoppard: Arcadia
20 Jun - 12 Sep, Duke of York’s Theatre, tickets
A West End transfer of the Old Vic production of Tom Stoppard’s comedy set in a country house, about mathematics, nature and unpredictable forces.
Shakespeare: Venus & Adonis
23-27 Jun, Barbican, tickets
Simon Russell Beale narrates Greg Doran's production of Shakespeare's great poem, brought to life by a team of puppeteers.
Wife to James Whelan
25 Jun - 25 Jul, Jermyn St Theatre, tickets
A drama about the conflict between ambition and contentment by the Irish writer Teresa Deevy, who was at the height of her fame when this play was rejected amid the conservative backlash of the 1930s.
Northanger Abbey
25-26 Jun & 4 Jul, Keats House, tickets
A family-friendly open-air production of Austen’s novel by The Moving Parts Theatre Company.
The Rest Will Be Familiar to You from Cinema
25-27 Jun, Bridewell Theatre, tickets
Drawing on The Phoenician Women by Euripides, Martin Crimp’s adaptation reimagines this rarely staged work through a bold, contemporary lens.
Shakespeare: As You Like It
27-28 Jun, The Libra Theatre Café, tickets
Performed with an all-female cast by The Whole Pack Theatre company.
Shakespeare: Lear
27-28 Jun, Theatro Technis, tickets
A reimagining of Shakespeare’s tragedy, with an ageing queen who destroys her family, leaving her kingdom in ruins.
Opening in July
Lewis Carroll: The Musical
2-4 Jul, The Other Palace, tickets
Blending songs, humour, and the deliciously odd logic of Lewis Carroll’s world, the show follows the thread from his beloved stories back to the life that inspired them.
The Oresteia
2 Jul - 19 Sep, The Bridge, tickets
A contemporary family wakes up in a Greek myth and can’t seem to find a way out of their hellish destiny. Written and directed by Simon Stone, after Aeschlyus.
Freud and Hamlet: Acoustic Encounters
3 Jul, Freud Museum, tickets
Scenes from the play will be performed by actors from The Faction and discussed in an open workshop format, which will explore themes including the role of the soliloquy and its relation to transference in psychoanalysis, surveillance and paranoia.
BookTalkBookTalkBook
5 Jul, Hen & Chickens Theatre, tickets
An absurdist parody of awkward live author events; an exploration of AI and the creative process; a Beckettian live theatre experience, and an experiment in the limits of patience regarding card tricks. With jokes.
Albania Through Byron’s Eyes
6 Jul, Shaw Theatre, tickets
The work presents early 19th-century Albania through the poetic perspective of Lord Byron. Inspired by ‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage’ (Canto II), the production unfolds as a narrative journey through Byron’s Albania, where poetry, music, dance, and historical memory come together on stage.
Shake it Up: The Improvised Shakespeare Show
7-11 Jul, The Other Palace, tickets
Shakespeare hasn’t written anything new for an age. So using his language, your audience suggestions and our overactive imaginations, we create a brand new Shakespeare play live on stage!
Shakespeare Unstaged: Merry Wives of Windsor
10 Jul, Theatre Deli, tickets
In 2026, Shakespeare Unstaged and Theatre Deli bring you Shakespeare’s original comedy cycle from quarto, rehearsing and performing one play in one day each time.
Pride and Prejudice in Words and Music
12 Jul, Upstairs at the Gatehouse, tickets
Gill Hornby's abridged version of Austen's novel is combined with music for violin and piano, reworked by Carl Davis from his score for the 1995 BBC TV adaptation starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.
Fagin – Hero or Villain?
14-17 Jul, Circle & Star Theatre, tickets
Part detective story, part love letter, part provocation, Steve Hurst inhabits a gallery of characters across two halves – Fagin himself, of course, but also the real man who inspired him, the artists who shaped him, and the people who challenged everything we thought we knew.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
14-18 Jul, Bridewell Theatre, tickets
Adapted from Mark Haddon’s novel.
Horatio, In Thy Heart
14-18 Jul, Brockley Jack Theatre, tickets
Scrawled in the margins of Shakespeare’s play, Horatio draws his breath in laughter and pain to tell the story of someone jangled out of tune – himself.
Trainspotting – the musical
15 Jul - 5 Sep, Theatre Royal Haymarket, tickets
Written by Irvine Welsh. Renton, Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud, Tommy, and Kelly are back, alongside an ensemble cast and a live band.
Shakespeare: Love’s Labour’s Lost
17 Jul - 13 Sep, Shakespeare’s Globe, tickets
A blazing, flamenco-inspired new production.
This Restless House
18-25 Jul, Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, tickets
Zinnie Harris transforms Aeschylus’ Oresteia into three gripping tales where vengeance and love collide. See one play or the whole trilogy in a day.
The Odyssey Live
19 Jul, Theatro Technis, tickets
Over the course of an hour, London Literary Salon founder Toby Brothers and actor Jane Wymark will present some of Homer's most brilliant and compelling verse.
Shakespeare in the Garden: Romeo & Juliet
20-21 July & 26-27 Aug, Fuller’s pubs, tickets
Fuller’s pubs host an informal, raucous production in their gardens.
Abigail’s Party
20-25 Jul, Richmond Theatre, tickets
Tamzin Outhwaite stars as Beverly in Mike Leigh’s black comedy of suburban life in the 1970s.
Anne Boleyn
22 Jul - 1 Aug, Tower Theatre, tickets
Commissioned for Shakespeare’s Globe in 2010, Howard Brenton’s drama asks: who was Anne Boleyn? Blue-blooded upstart, schemer and heretical witch? Or conspirator, evangelist, trailblazing feminist and martyr for a mysteriously divine cause?
The Importance of Being Oscar
22 Jul - 22 Aug, Park Theatre, tickets
Wilde’s rise and fall is told through his own words and those of one his fiercest 20th-century champions, Micheál Mac Liammóir.
One Million Words - Rilke
24-25 July, October Gallery, tickets
A solo theatre show by Ivo Müller, based on the works of Rainer Maria Rilke. Before the performance, psychoanalyst Daniela Oliveira Grund will present her essay ‘Dialogues between Rilke and Psychoanalysis’.
Bard in the Bookshop: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
27-28 Jul, Waterstones Gower St, tickets
A promenade performance in the aisles of Waterstones Gower Street.
An Audience with Virginia Woolf
27-28 Jul, Tabard Theatre, tickets
1931. Virginia Woolf delivers a withering critique of patriarchy and reveals her powerful yet troubled mind. She dips deep into her own stream of consciousness from The Waves, Orlando and To the Lighthouse and her polemic essay, A Room of One’s Own.
One Man Poe: The Black Cat & The Raven
31 Jul, Old Red Lion, tickets
Dramatisation of two Edgar Allen Poe stories.
Shakespeare: Love’s Labour’s Lost
31 Jul - 22 Aug, Orange Tree Theatre, tickets
Summer 1939. Four friends escape to the country to write, read, and study – away from the distractions of town life. But the best laid plans go awry. Staged in the gardens of Thomas’s College on Richmond Hill.
Opening in August
subj:medeA
7 Aug, Theatro Technis, tickets
subj:medeA revisits Medea without the moral panic. A one-woman show that pulls the myth out of convenient amnesia and asks: who benefits when a woman becomes the monster?
Rattlepole! A Shakespeare Improv Show
8 Aug, Theatro Technis, tickets
A completely improvised Shakespearean comedy where no two performances are ever the same. Inspired by the themes, language and characters of the Bard, our 10-strong cast creates a brand-new play every night using suggestions from the audience.
Jeeves Takes Charge
13 Aug - 6 Sep, Charing Cross Theatre, tickets
Sam Harrison plays all 22 characters, including Jeeves, Wooster, Florence Craye, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Bingo Little, Uncle Willoughby, Aunt Dahlia, and many more.
Shakespeare: As You Like It
14 Aug - 25 Oct, Shakespeare’s Globe, tickets
Co‑directed by Sean Holmes, and Charlie Josephine, and full of lust, revelry, and live music.
Electra/Persona
19 Aug - 10 Oct, National Theatre, tickets
After Sophocles & Ingmar Bergman, starring Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss.
A Month in the Country
22 Aug - 3 Oct, Donmar Warehouse, tickets
Lyndsey Turner directs Brian Friel’s reworking of Turgenev’s most famous play.
Shakespeare: Othello
23 Aug, Kenwood House, tickets
The Lord Chamberlain’s Men present Othello in the open air, with an all-male cast and Elizabethan costumes, music and dance.
Bard in the Bookshop: Antony & Cleopatra
24-25 Aug, Waterstones Gower St, tickets
A promenade performance in the aisles of Waterstones Gower Street.
Frankenstein
28-30 Aug, Greenwich Theatre, tickets
Musical adaptation by British Youth Music Theatre.
Jane Eyre: A Musical
28 Aug - 24 Oct, Southwark Playhouse, tickets
A musical retelling of Charlotte Brontë’s novel.
Orwell: The Road to 1984
29-30 Aug, Upstairs at the Gatehouse, tickets
A one-man show telling George Orwell’s story in his own words.
Opening in September
Romeo and Hamed
2-6 Sep, Riverside Studios, tickets
A queer reimagining of Shakespeare’s tragedy, set in Croydon, from writer Scott Horgan.
Annie Wobbler (Revisited)
2-26 Sep, Finborough Theatre, tickets
Nichola McAuliffe presents a new version of Arnold Wesker’s original play cycle for the 21st century. Anna is a Gen Z graduate battling her anxiety, Annabella is a fey hit novelist who becomes an uncompromising cougar, and Annie is a homeless elderly woman revisiting her past in a train station.
BLOODSPORT - After Helen of Troy
3 Sep - 3 Oct, Theatre Royal Stratford East, tickets
A new play by Ava Pickett, which asks what happens when the woman who started a war comes home to finish it.
Finnegans Wake: Here Comes Everybody - Concert
5 Sep, London Irish Centre, tickets
The opening concert in a cycle of works adapting James Joyce’s novel for the musical stage, performed by Roger Redgate and Ensemble Exposé.
Shakespeare: Macbeth
8-9 Sep, The Libra Theatre Café, tickets
Performed with an all-female cast by The Whole Pack Theatre company.
The Turn of the Screw
11 Sep - 10 Oct, Arcola, tickets
Henry James’ classic novella is brought to life in a new stage adaptation by Olivier Award-winning playwright Morgan Lloyd Malcolm.
Shakespeare: Love’s Labour’s Lost
15-19 Sep, Bridewell Theatre, tickets
A sun-drenched musical that reimagines Shakespeare’s comedy as a bittersweet rock musical set at a university college reunion.
Crime and Punishment
15-26 Sep, Jack Studio Theatre, tickets
Adaptation of Dostoevsky’s novel by Jack Jacobs.
Three Men in a Boat
18 Sep - 10 Oct, Rose Theatre, tickets
A new comedy by Al Smith, based on the novel by Jerome K. Jerome. Jerome, George and Harris are lifelong pals. So what could possibly go wrong as they set out on a carefree boat trip up the Thames
An Anatomy of Melancholy
16-20 Sep, Barbican, tickets
Haunting visuals, bittersweet music and the voice combine in this intimate theatrical meditation on the consolations of sorrow inspired by Robert Burton’s 17th-century study of depression.
Three Men in a Boat
18 Sep - 10 Oct, Rose Theatre, tickets
A riotous new comedy by Al Smith, based on the novel by Jerome K. Jerome.
Michael Morpurgo’s Private Peaceful
21-23 Sep, Wilton’s Music Hall, tickets
On the eve of battle, a soldier looks back over the events that shaped his life: the warmth of family, the innocence of first love, and the deep bond with his brother that carries him through the horrors of war.
Shakespeare: Richard II
24 & 25 Sep, Greenwich Theatre, tickets
Set against the turmoil of 1970s England, this new telling from Get a Proper Job Theatre Company explores the fragility of leadership and the cost of inherited authority in a nation on the brink of change.
Opening in October
Shake it Up: The Improvised Shakespeare Show
5 Oct and other dates, Hen & Chickens Theatre, tickets
Using his language, your audience suggestions and our overactive imaginations, we create a brand new Shakespeare play live on stage!
Orwell: The Road to 1984
6-10 Oct, Jack Studio Theatre, tickets
A one-man show telling George Orwell’s story in his own words.
The Haunting of Hill House
6-10 Oct, Richmond Theatre, tickets
Based on the novel by Shirley Jackson, adapted for the stage by Stef Smith and Martin Constantine.
End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland
8-11 Oct, Barbican, tickets
Haruki Murakami’s novel adapted for the stage by Ako Takahashi, directed and choreographed by Philippe Decouflé and starring Tatsuya Fujiwara.
Ghosts
8 Oct - 14 Nov, Jermyn St Theatre, tickets
Kwame Owusu directs Richard Eyre’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s play.
T.S. Eliot: Murder in the Cathedral
12 Oct - 7 Nov, Orange Tree Theatre, tickets
Starring David Suchet. In 1170, a nation is divided. Once the best of friends, King Henry II and his Archbishop, Thomas Becket, are now mortal enemies.
Jane Eyre
13-24 Oct, Rose Theatre, tickets
Directed by Lily Dyble, based on Sally Cookson, Mike Akers and the original company’s adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s novel.
The Pianist
15 Oct - 28 Nov, Park Theatre, tickets
Based on Wladyslaw Szpilman’s memoir about Jewish Warsaw in WW2, this new production by Thom Southerland features Szpilman’s own music for the very first time.
Agatha Christie’s The Hollow
27-31 Oct, Richmond Theatre, tickets
Renowned detective Hercule Poirot expected a quiet break in the country; instead he’s drawn into one of the most unsettling cases of his career.
Opening in November
Shakespeare: Macbeth
2-5 Nov, Greenwich Theatre, tickets
By the National Production Company.
Caryl Churchill: Cloud 9
2 Nov - 13 Jan, National Theatre, tickets
In Victorian Africa, where Clive is a colonial administrator and patriarch, his wife, son and servant struggle to be what’s expected of them. When the family turn up a 100 years later in 1970s London, what can they make of themselves in a world where empire lingers and freedom calls?
Lost Dog: The Last Hamlet
4-7 Nov, Sadlers Wells East, tickets
What if this was the last performance of Hamlet, after which Shakespeare’s play would never be performed again? This is the bold challenge taken up by Ben Duke and his company, Lost Dog.
A Christmas Carol
12 Nov - 9 Jan, Old Vic, tickets
Matthew Warchus’ production of Dickens’ classic, adapted for the stage by Jack Thorne.
Lear
17 Nov - 2 Jan, Yard Theatre, tickets
Shakespeare’s tragedy reimagined by Jay Miller and Simon Stephens, with Ian McKellen.
Angels in America
19-28 Nov, Bridewell Theatre, tickets
Tony Kushner’s two-part play about love, loss, and the search for meaning at the height of the 1980s AIDS crisis.
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Ivanov has been delayed to next year.