World Premiere & More Set for Jermyn Street Theatre Spring 2025 Season

Jermyn Street Theatre has unveiled its 2025 Spring season with a programme of work that offers a rich variety, mixing established artists with emerging talent and building on its reputation as a venue that continually surprises and consistently punches above its weight

Running from January to June 2025, the season includes a world premiere of a work by celebrated playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker, a revival of a play by David Greig, a rare revival of a work by twentieth century writer Micheál Mac Liammóir and two London premieres by emerging writers.   It comes hot on the heels of Jermyn Street Theatre's triumphant thirtieth anniversary year in 2024.  This included Roy Williams's sold-out adaptation of Sam Selvon's The Lonely Londoners, which transfers to Kiln Theatre in January, and the West End transfer of Katherine Moar's stunning play Farm Hall in August.

Running throughout the new season is the theme of journey and adventure.  The six plays tell stories of people who embark on modern odysseys – some willingly, some forcibly, some travelling vast distances, some within the tightest of confines, all on voyages of discovery and all gaining greater insight into themselves and the world around them.  

Stella Powell-Jones AND David Doyle SAY – “As we've celebrated our 30th birthday this year, we've thought a lot about what comes next. These plays are both the question and the answer. They are all stories of adventures into uncharted territory.

Jessica Lazar's gift for conjuring up thickly atmospheric worlds promises something special in Outlying Islands. Reuniting with Timberlake Wertenbaker for Little Brother is a rare joy. We can't imagine another writer doing what she does here – how lightly she brings this vast story to the stage. It's particularly meaningful to begin the year welcoming back two former Carne Deputy Directors:  Annie Kershaw turns a forensic eye to Martin Crimp's translation of Genet's classic The Maids here, while Ebenezer Bamgboye, who once again shares the stories of the Windrush generation with the transfer of The Lonely Londoners to Kiln Theatre.  We can't wait for audiences to join on these journeys.”

Kicking the year off in January comes Jean Genet's classic story of rage and revenge The Maids, in a translation by Martin Crimp.  Two maids, Solange and Claire, are sisters with a secret. When their wealthy, glamorous madam is away, they fill their time roleplaying as mistress and maid in her lavish bedroom. However, their private ritual is not harmless fun. A shocking revelation soon turns their world into a deadly game of cat and mouse and the true intentions of their power play are unveiled. Jean Genet's play has scandalised audiences since 1947. Inspired by the real murders committed by the Papin sisters, the loose lines between fantasy and reality blur with breathtaking consequences. This spectacle of rage and revenge explodes onto the Jermyn Street Theatre stage for the first time in a co-production with Reading Rep. Directed by 2024 Carne Deputy Director and Genesis Future Directors Award winner Annie Kershaw.

In February comes David Greig's Outlying Islands.  Set in August 1939, Scotland on the eve of war, two young scientists are sent by the government to study bird life on a remote island. Accompanied by only Kirk, the island's leaseholder, and his niece, Ellen, the two men find themselves privately competing for Ellen's affection. However, their hidden desire is not the only secret haunting the Outer Hebridean rock. As tension builds between the island's four inhabitants, the scientists soon uncover the horrifying truth behind their mission.  Inspired by a covert operation during the Second World War, Greig's play explores a society on the edge of immense change. Twenty years on from its Olivier Award-winning premiere, Jessica Lazar directs this thrilling drama that remains as unsettling and thought-provoking as ever.

Marking 125 years since Oscar Wilde's death, March sees Micheál Mac Liammóir's The Importance of Being Oscar. Oscar Wilde was a dandy of speech, a dandy of manner, a dandy of dress, and a dandy, even, of ideas and intellect. He fell in love with eccentric socialites, travelled to America with nothing to declare except his genius, and found worldwide success as a playwright. This is the story of how his life of fame, glamour, and romance led him to become an imprisoned outcast.  Following Being Mr Wickham, Original Theatre return to Jermyn Street Theatre with the first London revival in over 25 years of Micheál Mac Liammóir's legendary play. Laced with Wilde's wit and wisdom, this acclaimed show offers a rich portrait of the celebrated, complex Irish playwright.

The season reaches a climax in May with the premiere of Little Brother, adapted by Timberlake Wertenbaker from Ibrahima Balde and Amets Arzallus Antia's award-winning memoir.  Starting in Guinea, West Africa, the work tells the true story of Ibrahima, who, on discovering that his little brother has secretly run away to Europe in the hope of a better life, drops everything to go after him. Following the migrant routes of the Sahara towards the Mediterranean and risking his life countless times, Ibrahima encounters the best and worst of humanity along the perilous road.  Celebrated playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker brings this award-winning memoir to the stage for the first time. Artistic Director Stella Powell-Jones directs a modern odyssey which sweeps across borders to find a path of hope.

In addition to these full runs, the season also includes two shorter transfers of critically acclaimed, new work from Edinburgh Fringe.  Lessons on Revolution by Samuel Rees and Gabriele Uboldi runs from 28 April to 3 May. 1968, London School of Economics. Three thousand students occupy a lecture hall, demanding the university cut ties with apartheid-era Rhodesia. Tensions escalate as the students fight for radical change while the administration pushes back. The world watches, waiting to see who will blink first.  2024, a cramped Camden flat. Two flatmates dive into the archives from 1968, discovering the student movement that electrified their local streets fifty years earlier. When the rent on their unsafe flat goes up again, they turn to the past to reignite their belief in the future. From 1 May to 3 May comes Chicken from the Fringe First Winning Eva O'Connor and Hildegard Ryan. The play about Don Murphy, the greatest actor of his generation who also happens to be a Chicken, won the Filipa Bragança and Lustrum Awards and has played two sold out runs at Edinburgh Fringe Festival. 

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