Autumn is arriving and London’s sun is starting to dip earlier and earlier, turning the city’s spotlight on its theatre stages.
Countless award-winning actors, choreographers, directors, musicians and composers are descending into London this season, proving its position as a theatre capital of the world. Looking for behind-the-scenes access into the world of haute couture? Excited to watch Oscar-winning actress Alicia Vikander’s London stage debut? These are the theatre shows, musicals, opera, and ballet in London to book this autumn.
Theatre
The Lady From The Sea, Bridge Theatre
What does routine make of our lives? This is a question Bridge Theatre’s next production has in store. The Lady From The Sea is based on a 1888 play of the same name by “the father of modern drama”, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Now modernised to suit this century, the play explores Ellida who is married to a GP and finds herself tired of the repetitive and comfortable lifestyle. Ellida is played by Swedish Oscar winner Alicia Vikander (known for Ex Machina and The Danish Girl) marking her London stage debut.
The Line Of Beauty, Almeida Theatre
When writer Alan Hollinghurst’s novel, The Line of Beauty, was first published in 2004 it went on to win the Man Booker Prize the same year. The novel consistently appears on top novels from the twenty-first century, so it’s no doubt that this theatre production directed by Tony Award winner Michael Grandage is one of the hottest of the season. Set in London in the summer of 1983 (during Thatcher’s Britain), Toby is the son of a Tory MP and comes from a lineage of wealth. After graduating, his university friend Nick Guest – from a different background – moves into the family’s Notting Hill abode, and with this, enters their privileged lifestyle and gold-gilded, glamorous world, all while exploring his gay sexuality and the complications that come with this. Tickets for the highly-anticipated production sold out quickly, however, more tickets are scheduled to be released ahead of the opening night.
All My Sons, Wyndham's Theatre
This three-act play written by Arthur Miller first debuted on New York’s Broadway in 1947 and follows the Keller family after World War Two. In this production, the American Dream takes centre stage, until the consequences of war and family rupture take over. The star-studded cast says a lot about the quality of the production we can expect, starring Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You), Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Hard Truths), Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) all directed by Ivo Van Hove (A Little Life).
LACRIMA, Barbican
This production by French filmmaker and director Caroline Guile Nguyen brings the sartorial theatrics of fashion to the Barbican stage. Known for both its artistic luxury as well as its busy and large-scale production, haute couture is admired by many around the world, but what happens behind the scenes in the Parisian fashion houses? LACRIMA explores the never-seen work of the seamstresses, lacemakers, and beadworkers spanning France, the UK, and Mumbai behind a British royal princess commission as they battle to get the dress made.
Not Your Superwoman, Bush Theatre
How much do we become like our mothers as we grow older? Mother and daughter, played by Golda Rosheuvel (best known for playing Queen Charlotte in the popular series Bridgerton) and Letitia Wright (famously Shuri in Black Panther), struggle after loosing their family’s matriarch, in a tale of female lineage, family, grief, and growing older. This production marks part of multi award-winning director Lynette Linton’s final season at Bush Theatre – and what a fabulous story and cast to lead it with. Before the production even hit stages last weekend (on 6 September) extra dates were added due to its popular demand, so you’ll want to snap them up as soon as you can.
Every Brilliant Thing, Soho Place
Every Brilliant Thing is an unusual piece of London theatre: it’s an interactive one-actor show with a rotating cast, featuring the likes of Lenny Henry, Sue Perkins, Ambika Mod, Minnie Driver, Jonny Donahoe, and more. Each actor will engage with the audience in a unique way as they narrate the story of a child who creates a list of all the things that make life worth living for his depressed mother. Warning: this play looks set to be a tear-jerker; you’ll most likely be laughing and crying all at the same time. But it’s quite brilliant when a piece of theatre manages to do that to you.
The Land Of The Living, National Theatre
The Land of the Living takes place in Germany, 1945 – which already sets the scene quite considerably. Ruth (a UN relief worker) is taking care of Thomas (a child stolen by the Nazis), and faces the difficult decision between finding his birth parents and separating him from those he grew up with. Fourty-five years pass, and the two meet again. Memory, morality, childhood, war – it all becomes tangled in this gripping performance.
Ballet
R:Evolution, English National Ballet, Sadler's Wells
Who and what defines contemporary ballet from the past decades? Four ballet visionaries come together at Sadler’s Wells this autumn. George Balanchine who created the neo-classical American style; Martha Graham known as the mother of modern dance and experimental with Greek mythology; William Forsythe’s complex and fast-paced style; and David Dawson’s physically extreme and poetic style all come together this autumn in London for a spectacle of everything that has made ballet and dance what it is today.
Like Water For Chocolate, Royal Ballet And Opera
Like Water For Chocolate comes from the best-selling 1989 Mexican novel by Laura Esquivel, later adapted into a film, a series, and now a ballet. Romance and magical realism come into play here, as food and emotions – passionate romantic affairs, sorrow, and more – intertwine. The production by Christopher Wheeldon returns to London after its popular premiere in 2022, fashioned up in close collaboration with author Esquivel in order to preserve all the creative layers and nuances in the novel itself.
London City Ballet: Momentum, Sadler's Wells
London City Ballet returns to the capital after a whirlwind tour across Asia, America, and Europe with a performance spotlighting the artists that rarely take centre stage in the UK including rising choreographer Tasha Chu, emerging choreographer Florent Melac from Paris Opera Ballet, and more. As characteristic to the performance group, London City Ballet will bring untold stories and rarely-seen works back to life.
Lead image: Like Water For Chocolate with Marelino Sambe and Francesca Hayward photo Tristram Kenton
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