What’s On Stage May 2026

Theatre highlights this Month include The Harder They Come Directed by Matthew Xia …

You can also catch Assata Taught Me by Kalungi Ssebandeke and Joy Isn’t Always Joy by Joseph Toonga.

Sherlock Holmes With Jyuddah Jaymes

‘Solve this, Sherlock. It may be a game to you; it isn’t to me.’
 
London, 1890, a city rapidly expanding, devouring all in its path. Fresh off the success of his first big case, Sherlock Holmes misuses his time, until an unknown woman and a mysterious jewel arrive at 221b Baker Street. As the chase begins, and with lives on the line, can Holmes and Watson pull back the curtain on the big show and reveal the mastermind behind this deadly conspiracy.

With Jyuddah Jaymes, Andre Antonio, Theo Reece and Tamara Tare.

Sherlock Holmes runs from Saturday 2nd May – Saturday 6th June @ Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

The Wasp Starring Cassandra Hercules

Heather and Carla haven’t seen each other since school. Their lives have taken very different paths – Carla lives a hand-to-mouth existence while Heather has a high-flying career, husband and a beautiful home. And yet, here they are in a café having tea and making awkward conversation. That is until Heather presents Carla with a bag containing a significant amount of cash and an unexpected proposition…

The Wasp runs Wednesday 6th – Saturday 30th May @ Southwark Playhouse

Kinky Boots starring Johannes Radebe

When Charlie Price inherits his family’s failing shoe factory, saving the company – and his love life – feels like an impossibly tall order. Until he meets Lola, the sparkling, larger-than-life drag queen with the unlikeliest of answers. Can they work together to reboot the business and save the day? Perhaps they just need to help each other, and everyone around them, to stand a little taller…

Starring Johannes Radebe, Annell Odartey, Tosh Wanogho-Maud, Kofi Dennis, Ashley-Jordon Packer & more.

Kinky Boots Wednesday 6th May – Saturday 11th July @ London Coliseum

Return to the Forest Created by Gregory Maqoma

Co-produced by Theatre-Rites and Factory International and co-commissioned by Sadler’s Wells, this immersive production for families (8+) blends high-energy dance with puppetry to explore how heritage is a living, breathing force rather than something to be locked away. The immersive promenade performance follows five dancers staging a “heist” to free sacred objects (including an Ishoba and a Gelede mask) from a museum and return them to nature.

This project reunites Maqoma (founder of Vuyani Dance Theatre) with puppetry expert Sue Buckmaster for a second time after The Global Playground at Manchester International Festival 2021, offering a fascinating look at how experimental movement can tackle big questions about cultural value and ecology for all ages.

Return to the Forest runs @ Aviva Studios, Manchester (7–10 May) before opening at Sadler’s Wells East (28–30 May).

Mother Courage And Her Children @ Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

War rages. Resources are scarce. Hope is a luxury. Mother Courage drags her cart through a wasteland stripped bare by greed and conflict – a profiteer, a survivor, and a mother. She’s learnt to make a living from war, and she’ll sell whatever’s left of humanity to keep herself and her children alive.

In the business of war, every victory costs her something – and eventually, everything

With Trieve Blackwood-Cambridge, Rachelle Diedericks, Nadine Higgin

Mother Courage And Her Children runs from Thursday 7th May – Saturday 27th June @ Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

The Cold Room Written and Directed by Lunga Yeni

Set within the fractured intimacy of a rehearsal space, the play unravels the unspoken power dynamics between three Black creatives navigating art, identity, and survival within a system that both desires and erases them.

Through a striking interplay of movement, language, and live video, the production shifts between reality and memory, humour and heartbreak, legacy and loss.

The Cold Room runs from Friday 8th – Saturday 9th May @ The Albany

A Midsummer Night’s Dream @ Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre’s, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

As night deepens on the eve of a royal wedding, a company of amateur performers prepares a play for the big day and invite you to step into their story.

Follow a group of giddy lovers chasing desire and connection through a moonlit forest as they collide with playful spirits in a fairy realm where anything is possible. Hearts open, spells go awry, and surprising transformations unfold in a shared night of mischief that fills the Globe with chaos and wonder.

By dawn, everyone has been changed. Come and be part of the magic.

With Jamal Franklin, Enyi Okoronkwo, Mel Lowe,Tumi Olufawo, Adrian Richards and Romaya Weaver.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs from Sunday 10th May – Saturday 29th August @ Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre’s, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

Care With Llewella Gideon

A single mum, two feuding pre-teens, and their gran. When Grandmother takes a fall, she is hastily moved to a care home she doesn’t want to be in, surrounded by other elderly people longing for comfort and missing home. But as time passes, she comes to see what really matters in life and between loss and loneliness, we glimpse the unexpected joy in life’s everyday moments.

With Llewella Gideon and Aoife Gaston.

Care runs from Monday 11th May – Saturday 11th July @ Young Vic

Assata Taught Me by Kalungi Ssebandeke

Power belongs to the people. Go get yours.

2016. Havana, Cuba. While being attacked, 21 year old Fanuco is rescued by a mysterious American woman. To him she’s simply a benevolent foreigner whose kindness could extend to giving him English lessons. Lessons that would see him escape Cuba for the United States.

What he doesn’t know is that this foreigner is Assata Shakur, an escaped convict and former Black Panther turned FBI’s Most Wanted Woman – with $2m on her head.

Starring Susan Lawson-Reynolds and Ebenezer Gyau.

Assata Taught Me runs from Tuesday 12th – Sunday 24th May @ Riverside Studios

Godot’s To Do List by Leo Simpe-Asante 

A spoof on Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, the play is inspired by the existentialism found in Beckett’s plays. The impact on modernity and technology on modern society is its core provocation.

A bewildered person wrestles with an endless series of surreal tasks dictated by a snarky, persistent mystery voice.

Cast includes Shakeel Haakim and Flora Ashton.

The show is part of the Royal Court Theatre’s 70th anniversary season, the theatre that hosted the UK premiere of Krapp’s Last Tape as a curtain raiser to End Game by Samuel Beckett in 1956.

Godot’s To Do List runs from Friday 8th – Saturday 30th May @ Royal Court Theatre

The Harder They Come Directed by Matthew Xia

Based on the cult classic film that brought reggae to the world, the play tells the story of Ivan, an aspiring singer who arrives in Kingston, Jamaica, determined to live out his dreams on his own terms and make it as a music superstar.

After cutting a record deal with a manipulative music mogul, Ivan learns that the game is rigged and becomes increasingly defiant. As his star rises, he finds himself topping the charts and the most-wanted list of criminals.

Cast includes Chanice Alexander-Burnett, Daniel Bailey, Ashh Blackwood, Craig Blake, Madeline Charlemagne, Aisha Davis, Kage Douglas, Robert Grose, Llewellyn Jamal, Rachel John, Natey Jones, Grace Kanyamibwa, Sophia Mackay, Jack Matthew, Nathaniel Morrison, Simon-Anthony Rhoden, Ashley Samuels and Thomas Vernal.

The Harder They Come runs from Saturday 16th May – Saturday 4th July @ Theatre Royal Stratford East

Nine Sixteenths by Paula Carjack

Journey through ’00s nostalgia through the media storm of Janet Jackson’s 2004 SuperBowl halftime show.

In 2004, in the SuperBowl halftime show finale, 23 year old Justin Timberlake ripped off 37 year old Janet Jackson’s top. Her breast was exposed on screen for nine sixteenths of a second. A pop icon and role model for many Black women, and an outspoken ally for the LGBTQ community, the moment derailed Jackson’s career for many years, while Timberlake’s thrived.

Cast includes Paula Varjack, Pauline Mayers, Julienne Doko, Chia Phoenix and Endy McKay

Nine Sixteenths runs from Tuesday 19th May – Saturday 30th May @ Brixton House

Flush @ Arcola Theatre

One night. One club. 16 women.

Set in the heart of a London club, FLUSH unfolds entirely in the women’s bathroom – a space of eyeliner touch-ups, whispered confessions, and fleeting connections.

Over the course of one night, stories slip between the cracks of the cubicles: teenage girls in chaos; queer and trans lives in motion; an American woman trying to belong; a hen party unravelling; women in their 30s quietly falling apart – and rebuilding.

Billie has just experienced something she can’t quite name yet. As she hovers between shock and clarity, the bathroom becomes a strange kind of shelter.

With Ayesha Griffiths and Jazz Jenkins.

Flush runs from Wednesday 6th May – Saturday 6th June @ Arcola Theatre

Black Comedy with Simon Manyonda

I know a liar in the light, and I know one in the dark.

Young sculptor Brindsley Miller is on the brink of success. He is expecting a visit from an influential art collector, whose approval could secure his future, and he is determined to present himself as sophisticated and successful.

The problem? His flat is sparsely furnished, most of the contents borrowed without permission from his neighbour – but when a sudden power cut plunges the building into darkness, Brindsley sees an opportunity. In the absence of light, he believes his deception will go unnoticed. Unbeknownst to him, the audience can see everything.

As friends, rivals, lovers, and unexpected guests arrive, the situation spirals rapidly out of control, and Brindsley’s desperate attempts to influence events only make matters worse.

Cast includes Patricia Allison, Leah Haile, Simon Manyonda and Jason Barnett.

Black Comedy runs from Tuesday 16th May – Saturday 11th July @ Orange Tree Theatre

Joy Isn’t Always Joy by Joseph Toonga

A raw, emotionally charged performance that explores the inner struggles of Black men. Joy Isn’t Always Joy places vulnerability centre stage, revealing the weight carried behind humour, resilience, and strength. It confronts loneliness, pressure, and the expectation to remain composed, even when joy becomes a mask. Through moments of brotherhood and isolation, the piece exposes invisible wounds and unspoken truths, asking what it costs to keep smiling.

Cast includes Peterson Napoleão, Alexsander Afonso Costa, Leonardo Laureano and Joseph Toonga.

Joy Isn’t Always Joy runs Wednesday 27th May @ The Place Theatre