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Theatre

Best new theatre shows: London, October 2023

By Holly O'Mahony on 28/9/2023

It's another big month for the London stage. Star spotters have the chance to see Lily James opposite Kristin Scott Thomas in Lyonesse. Elsewhere, Shakespeare aficionado Kenneth Branagh returns to the stage and the RSC's production of Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet arrives in London.

Here are the hottest theatre tickets this month…

Lily James (left) and Kristin Scott Thomas (right) are starring in Lyonesse

Lyonesse, Harold Pinter Theatre

Kristin Scott Thomas (Darkest Hour) and Lily James (Pam & Tommy) are transferring their screen chemistry to the stage as they lead the cast of Penelope Skinner's (The Village Bike) new play Lyonesse. The prestige of the production continues off stage too, with Ian Rickson (Jerusalem) lined up to direct. It reunites the director with Scott Thomas for the first time since their critically acclaimed production of The Seagull, which won Scott Thomas an Olivier award 16 years ago.

Read more ...
WHEN
Tuesday 17 October – Saturday 23 December, 7:30pm– 10pm
WHERE
Harold Pinter Theatre, Panton Street, London SW1Y 4DN
Ajani Cabey (Hamnet) and Alex Jarrett (Judith). Credit: Manuel Harlan

Hamnet, Garrick Theatre

Lolita Chakrabarti's (Life of Pi, Hymn) adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s best-selling novel Hamnet comes to the West End, following an initial run at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. Set in Warwickshire, 1582, the play charts the death of Shakespeare's 11-year-old son Hamnet – an event that eventually led to the Bard writing his famous tragedy Hamlet in his son's memory.

Read more ...
WHEN
Saturday 30 September – Saturday 17 February 2024, 7:30pm–10pm
WHERE
Garrick Theatre, 2 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0HH
Clyde's, Donmar Warehouse

Clyde's, Donmar Warehouse

Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage (The Secret Life of Bees, Mlima's Tale) brings her 2021 play Clyde's to the London stage for the first time this autumn. The production unites the playwright with director Lynette Linton (Blues for an Alabama Sky), who helmed 2018/19's critically acclaimed production of Nottage's Sweat, also at the Donmar Warehouse, then In the West End.

Read more ...
WHEN
Friday 13 October – Saturday 2 December, 7:30pm–9pm
WHERE
Donmar Warehouse, 41 Earlham Street, Seven Dials, London WC2H 9LX
Kenneth Branagh in King Lear, Wyndham's Theatre

King Lear, Wyndham's Theatre

Kenneth Branagh is one of Britain's most notorious actors and directors of Shakespeare, but it's been almost a decade since his last production, a critically acclaimed take on The Winter's Tale, graced the London stage. The screen has kept him busy in the interim, of course, with movie hits including his semi-personal, black-and-white flick Belfast. But we're happy to have him back this autumn, directing and starring as the lead role in King Lear.

Read more ...
WHEN
21 Oct 2023 – 09 Dec 2023, 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM
WHERE
Wyndham's Theatre
32 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0DA
The Confessions, National Theatre

The Confessions, National Theatre

NT regular Alexander Zeldin (LOVE, Faith, Hope and Charity) is back at the theatre with a play that follows one woman, Alice, for eight decades and from Australia in 1943 to London in 2021. An 'intimate' story, it's the product of hours of interviews between Alexander and his mother. It ran at the Avignon Festival in France earlier this year, but this marks its first UK outing.

Read more ...
WHEN
Thursday 19 October – Saturday 4 November
WHERE
National Theatre, Upper Ground, London SE1 9PX
Portia Coughlan, Almeida Theatre

Portia Coughlan, Almeida Theatre

Marina Carr's 1996 play about a young woman haunted by her past as her 30th birthday approaches is revived in a new production directed by Carrie Cracknell (Julie) and starring Alison Oliver (Women, Beware the Devil, Conversations With Friends).

Read more ...
WHEN
Saturday 7 October – Saturday 18 November
WHERE
Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street, London N1 1TA
Joseph Fiennes (Gareth Southgate) in Dear England at the National Theatre. Photo: Marc Brenner

Dear England, Prince Edward Theatre

Following a celebrated run at the National Theatre, James Graham's play about football star Gareth Southgate, who as manager of the England men's team reformed it for the better, transfers to the West End, with Joseph Fiennes reprising his starring role.

Read more ...
WHEN
Monday 9 October – Saturday 13 January 2024, 7pm–9:50pm
WHERE
National Theatre, South Bank, London SE1 9PX
Boy Parts, Soho Theatre

Boy Parts, Soho Theatre

Gillian Greer adapts Eliza Clark's novel Boy Parts for the stage. A gender-flipped psychological thriller, it follows a female photographer who stalks her male sitters. Sara Joyce (Dust) directs.

Read more ...
WHEN
Thursday 19 October – Saturday 25 November
WHERE
Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, London W1D 3NE
The Empress, Lyric Hammersmith

The Empress, Lyric Hammersmith

Pooja Ghail directs this revival of Tanika Gupta's play about Indian immigrants who take their dreams to Britain during the 'Golden Era' of the Empire. The show comes to London following a run at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Read more ...
WHEN
Wednesday 4 – Saturday 28 October
WHERE
Lyric Hammersmith, Lyric Square, King Street, London W6 0QL
Manic Street Creature, Southwark Playhouse Borough

Manic Street Creature, Southwark Playhouse Borough

Rising musician, singer and stage star Maimuna Memon (Olivier Award-winning Standing at the Sky’s Edge) is bringing her Edinburgh Fringe hit Manic Street Creature to Southwark Playhouse. It follows Ria, a musician looking to chart the giddy promise and eventual heartbreak of a recent relationship through her latest album. But when she gets sucked back into those euphoric then painful feelings, her troubled past threatens to unsettle her present.

Read more ...
WHEN
Thursday 19 October – Saturday 11 November
WHERE
Southwark Playhouse, 77-85 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BD
The Boy, Soho Theatre

The Boy, Soho Theatre

London-based writer Joakim Daun, himself a migrant, explores the young refugee experience and the non-biological families formed in a crisis with his latest play, The Boy. The character of the play's title is on a journey to flee his past when his life becomes inextricably linked with that of an older man and a young woman, also escaping their own personal losses.

Read more ...
WHEN
Tuesday 17 October – Saturday 4 November
WHERE
Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, London W1D 3NE
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Theatre

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