Aliya Al-Hassan

Tosca is Giacomo Puccini's fast-paced thriller of an opera; brimming with tension and political intrigue. For many it is Puccini's best work, yet incredibly it has never been staged at Glyndebourne. Until now. It is a show of firsts all round: the first mainstage production for director Ted Huffman and is the first Puccini opera for Glyndebourne’s music director Robin Ticciati, who conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the first of two performance runs.

Author John Le Carré famously banned stage versions of his work, and he may well have felt quietly vindicated with his decision having seen David Eldridge's adaptation of his third book, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. Jeremy Herrin directs a cinematic and darkly-tinged production that ends up being more style over substance.

It's nearly twenty years since Daniel Radcliffe first tried to throw off the Harry Potter shackles in the 2007 version of Peter Shaffer’s 1973 play Equus. Now director Lindsay Posner has revived Shaffer's deeply traumatic story about the fluctuating relationship between a psychiatrist, Dr Dysart, and a teenage boy, Alan Strang. Featuring a remarkable cast and exquisite visuals, this is one not to be missed.

2026 marks the first time that Glyndbourne has staged Puccini's Tosca, a devastating opera of love and betrayal. It’s also a first for Glyndebourne Music Director Robin Ticciati, who conducts this powerfully dramatic piece, as well as a Festival debut from exciting American director Ted Huffman.

It is now a few days since I left Treowen, a gorgeous 17th century Manor House set in the even-more-gorgeous Welsh countryside and I am still processing the experience. To call Lemon Difficult's The Key of Dreams simply an 'immersive experience' is to sell it very short. Where else can you spend 24 hours with the run of an entire house, crammed to the rafters with puzzles, clues to dark secrets and sinister rituals, where every decision you make may change the course of everything that happens next?

First staged last year at Theatre Royal Bath, Gary Oldman directs, set-designs, co-produces and performs Samuel Beckett’s 1958 one-act play, Krapp's Last Tape at London's Royal Court, the theatre where the play made its UK debut back in 1958. But this production is no exercise in ego, but an emotionally involved and truly captivating performance.

Titas Halder's new play Foal is named after some of the night terrors that visit his protagonist as he sinks into a mental black hole. A study of personal relationships and a fight to find compassion in an often hostile world, we follow A.K., a man recalling and reliving sections of his life as his demons close in on him. He lives on an island with his family and is one of only two Asian children in his school. His childhood, teens and adulthood are punctuated by an undercurrent of racism which, along with a highly problematic relationship with his mother, combine to create a turmoil in his mind that has devastating consequences.

Joe Penhall's incendiary play, Blue/Orange, was garlanded with awards after its 2000 debut at the National Theatre, winning the Olivier, Critics' Circle and Evening Standard awards for Best New Play in 2001. It has been revived many times and endures as its themes remain both prescient and urgent. Now the tiny OSO Arts Centre in Barnes plays host, and it is as intense and provocative as ever.

Following a sell-out run at Theatre Royal Bath, David Hare's play, Grace Pervades, is a love letter to theatre, following the professional and personal partnership of legendary Victorian theatrical duo Sir Henry Irving and Ellen Terry. Together they performed over 27 years, changing the face and status of theatre.

The BBC Proms returns in summer 2026, presenting eight weeks of world-class music from an array of leading orchestras, conductors and soloists from across the UK and around the world.

First seen at last year's Edinburgh fringe, Jules Coyle's semi-verbatim play, Managed Approach, now comes to Riverside Studios for a short, but important run. Between 2014 and 2020, a local government initiative in Holbeck, Leeds allowed sex workers to operate under certain regulations and was known as the Managed Approach. The play explores the experiences of both sex workers and residents whose lives are impacted by the scheme in a number of surprising and sometimes shocking ways.

On Avenue Q, puppets and people intermingle in this show about the trials and tribulations of life as a grown-up: love, sex, money, race, and how to tell your roommate he’s gay. After two decades, the three-time Tony Award-winning musical Avenue Q has returned to the West End in all its glory. With original Broadway director Jason Moore and original puppet designer Rick Lyon, a brand new cast takes on the puppet show with a difference.

The puppet show pumped full of profanity is back. Jason Moore's outrageous Avenue Q premiered in the West End two decades ago, bringing issues such as racism, the housing crisis and youth identity crisis to the stage in a unique and incredibly clever format. Oh yes, and there is explicit puppet sex too.

Jessica Parks is a maverick London Crown Court Judge; sharp, compassionate, and determined to change a system she knows isn’t always just. But her career exists inter alia (‘among other things’) as she balances motherhood, friendship and the elusive notion of ‘having it all’. So, when an unthinkable event rocks her finely tuned life, can she hold her family together – or will everything fall apart? Rosamund Pike returns to Suzie Miller's explosive second play-what did the critics think?

Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s scandalous 1782 novel, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, has received several adaptations over the years. None more resonant than Christopher Hampton’s 1985 reinvention which is now revived and updated in a masterful manner by Marianne Elliot at the National Theatre.

Inspired by a true story and based on the Miramax motion picture written by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth, Kinky Boots features a warm and witty book by four-time Tony Award-winner Harvey Fierstein and a richly diverse musical score from Grammy Award-winning rock icon Cyndi Lauper, in her stunning theatrical debut. The production is directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winner Jerry Mitchell , with music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations by Stephen Oremus. Starring Strictly Come Dancing's Johannes Radebe as Lola and X-Factor star Matt Cardle as Charlie, this revival is directed by Leicester Curve's artistic director Nicolai Foster, What did the critics think?

Last seen in the West End in 2019, Cyndi Lauper and Matt Fierstein's uplifting musical Kinky Boots finally struts its way back to London after a national tour. Originating at the Curve Leicester and directed by its artistic director Nikolai Foster, it brings starry sparkle to the stage with the casting of Strictly's Johannes Radebe, but fails to capture the energy and vigour of its previous iteration.

Last seen in London at the National Theatre nearly 25 years ago, Nicholas Wright's thoughtful and thought-provoking play, Vincent In Brixton, now has a well-deserved revival at the Orange Tree in a beautifully performed, intimate and multi-layered production, showcasing some formidable acting talent, both old and new.

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?

Christy Lefteri’s 2019 bestseller The Beekeeper of Aleppo is both a powerful and poetic story about the refugee experience. Her story of Nuri and his wife Afra's escape from Syria to England was inspired by time Lefteri spent working in a refugee camp in Athens. Syria may currently be seen as less newsworthy than it was, but the issue of people displaced from their homes and seeking safety elsewhere has rarely been more discussed. So why does this important and emotional story feel flat on stage?