What’s On Stage October 2026

Theatre highlights this Month include Girls written by Theresa Ikoko …

You can also catch Blood of My Blood written by Joy Nesbitt and directed Tatenda Shamiso. Baby starring Pearl Mackie and Fences Directed by Daniel Bailey

Home Song by Cassiopeia Berkeley-Agyepong

In this multi-sensory show, meet young Adwoa and her mum as they embark on a journey to find the true meaning of home, from the bustling streets of Kumasi to the vibrant heart of London.

Featuring puppetry, interactive soundscapes and beautiful a cappella singing,

Cast includes: Monet Marquis, Nkara Stephenson and Halle Brown.

Home Song runs from Friday 2 October – Sunday 8 November @ The Unicorn Theatre

An Oak Tree @ The Other Palace

Watch some of acting’s biggest names take on this spectacle of spontaneity, taking to the stage and trusting their instincts with no rehearsal and no safety net.

A father loses his daughter to a car accident. The man behind the wheel is a stage hypnotist. When the father volunteers for the hypnotist’s act, these two men meet face to face for the first time since the accident.

Cast includes: Rhashan Stone on Sunday 11th October, Clare Perkins on Tuesday 13th October and Hammed Animashaun on Thursday 29th October

An Oak Tree runs from Monday 5th October – Sunday 15th November 2026 @ The Other Palace

Fences Directed by Daniel Bailey

“You born with two strikes on you before you come to the plate.”

Troy is a former baseball player who could’ve gone pro. He spends his days collecting garbage and his evenings spinning stories for family and friends. He is funny, charismatic and fiercely proud. He’s also a man with flaws, shaped by a lifetime battling a world that denies his dreams. And the scars run deep.

His wife, Rose, sees America changing. She dares to believe life can be different and dreams that their son, Cory, will have the freedom that Troy never did. But as she works to break the cycles holding her family back, Troy’s frustration and bitterness threatens to tear them apart.

Cast includes: Michael Ahomka-Lindsay, Madeline Appiah, Josh Tedeku, Ray Fearon, Simon-Anthony Rhoden, Evera A Walsh, Kezia Alanna-Ama, Daphne Muli, Aita Mushuku, Eliana Musongole, Pelo Thithi and Kaiya Tomlinson.

Fences runs from Tuesday 6th – Saturday 31st October 2026 @ Lyric Hammersmith

Blood of My Blood writer Joy Nesbitt. Director Tatenda Shamiso.

‘This belongs to me as much as it belongs to you.’

Bullock Creek, South Carolina, 1862. As war rages beyond the plantation, Ginnie Good raises her five children in a cabin that will outlast them all.

Today. At the same cabin, now a trendy Airbnb, a pregnant Black woman uses conjure to commune with her ancestors, seeking answers to the questions she’s afraid to ask anyone else

Cast includes: Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ, Jodie Campbell, Karene Peter and more.

Blood of My Blood runs from Thursday 8th October – Saturday 7th November @ Royal Court Theatre

Young, Gifted & Black 2026

Young, Gifted & Black returns for a month-long celebration of young Black British creativity, bringing bold, personal and political stories.

This year’s programme includes No Photos by Ryan Dre Sinclair, Greener Pastures by Nana Adjoa Baidoe-Ansah, X Marks The Spot by Joy Kirigo and In My Head by Kyra April, alongside more work reflecting the breadth of Black British life and culture.

Young, Gifted & Black 2026 runs from Thursday 1st – Friday 30th October @ Theatre Peckham & Canada Water Theatre

Baby starring Pearl Mackie

They name me Baby. Means you’ll never seem old, even when you are. You’ll always bring hope, even when there is none. And you can always pretend you’re wanted, even when you’re not…

Baby’s bright and beautiful. Baby’s trouble. Baby can do things nobody else can and why not? Britain’s got talent, hasn’t it?

Baby’s had it tough and she wants to keep Bliss. That’s all she wants. But something terrible stands in her way.

Now Baby has to solve a problem….and you’re part of her solution. Because you’re proper people. You must be, to be reading this. Plus, there’s nobody else she can ask…

Baby is coming…

Baby runs from Thursday 8th – Saturday 31s October 2026 @ Brixton House

Remember Us Tomorrow by Renell Shaw

More than music, The Windrush Suite is a living archive of Black British history. Its first part honoured the courage and resilience of Shaw’s grandparents’ generation, who travelled from the Caribbean to help rebuild post-war Britain. The second, Echo in the Bones, gave voice to their children — born here, yet often made to question where they truly belonged.

This powerful new work asks what it means to be of Afro-Caribbean heritage after three generations in Britain, raising a fourth generation in a world that is both hyper-connected and deeply divided. Which parts of our history do we carry forward? What stories must we protect? And how do we ensure we are remembered as tomorrow takes shape?

Remember Us Tomorrow run on Friday 9th October @ Kings Place

Ilford Boy by Danny Lee Wynter

The boy lives in Ilford, of course he’s depressed

Mixed-race teenager Ted Martin is growing up in 90s East London in a house full of chaos, laughter and tough love.

One day Patrick arrives, shaking the foundations of Ted’s life with his sense of style, humour and love of show tunes. Another way to live explodes into view. One filled with art, possibility and people who see him clearly for the first time.

Cast includes: Gershwyn Eustache Jnr, Craig Stein and Leo Whitfield Harris.

Ilford Boy runs from Saturday 10th October – Saturday 28th November 2026 @ Donmar Warehouse

For The Culture: Celebartions Of Blackness festival @ Lyric Hammersmith

For the Culture: Celebrations of Blackness Festival returns to Lyric Hammersmith Theatre with a programme celebrating Black British artists, activists and thinkers through performance, music, conversation and creativity.

This year’s line-up includes live podcast recordings from Your Aunties Could Never and World of Our Own, masterclasses with Oladipo Agboluaje, Roy Williams and Winsome Pinnock, a special edition of Inua Ellams’ Rhythm and Poetry/Prose Party, an intimate acoustic concert spotlighting emerging Black artists, and more throughout October.

For The Culture: Celebartions Of Blackness festival runs from Sunday 11th – Saturday 31st October 2026 @ Lyric Hammersmith

Talawa Theatre Company celebrates 40 trailblazing years @ Hackney Empire

This landmark evening will bring Talawa’s extraordinary story to life through music, performance and highlights from four decades of Black excellence – including an excerpt from their groundbreaking debut production, The Black Jacobins (1986). Taking place one year after the passing of Talawa’s visionary founder, Yvonne Brewster OBE, the celebration will honour her remarkable legacy while looking boldly towards the company’s next 40 years.

Special Guests & Cast: Josette Bushell-Mingo OBE, Tameka Empson, Doña Croll, Theresa Ikoko, Ben Thomas, David Webber, Laurence Ubong Williams, Jude Akuwudike, and Kwame Dawes. 

Talawa Theatre Company Turns 40 runs on Tuesday 13th October 2026 @ Hackney Empire

How To Keep Warm in Winter by Kaleb D’Aguilar’s

1973 London is on the verge of a terribly cold winter with Prime Minister Edward Heath’s announcement of a Three-Day week. Just arrived from Jamaica, Irene joins her childhood sweetheart Everton in London, sharing a tiny room in a house in Peckham, as the two try to adjust to their new life together and navigate a racist new country, unwelcoming to the growing Caribbean population.

Socio-political changes in the UK and the fuel crisis exposes the differences between them, and a blossoming new friendship with their landlord David threatens the likelihood of our young couple’s marriage to last through winter.

Cast includes: Julene Robinson, Emile John and Dudley O’Shaughnessy.

How To Keep Warm in Winter runs from Wednesday 14th – Sunday 25th October 2026 @ Catford’s Broadway Theatre

Ghosts directed by Kwame Owusu

They don’t die. They don’t vanish. They walk the world again.

Norway, 1890. Years ago, Helene sent her beloved son away from the family home. Today, Oswald returns. His arrival coincides with the grand opening of an orphanage to commemorate the tenth anniversary of his father’s death. But as mother and son reunite, long-buried secrets emerge – setting off a chain reaction that threatens to consume them both.

Cast includes: Oliver Alvin-Wilson and Cecilia Appiah.

Ghosts runs from Wednesday 14th October – Saturday 14th November 2026 @ Jermyn Street Theatre.

Far  From Home from Kristina and Sadé Alleyne

A narrative dance production that explores immigration and the consequences the search for “a better life” has for those forced to seek it due to social or political devastations.

Six dance artists bring Alleyne Dance’s dynamic, powerhouse style to the stage. The ensemble highlights the emotional and mental stresses of migrant families, as well as the impact on communities where migrants “settle”, as we unpick the meaning of tolerance and practice of integration.

Far From Home was inspired by the question of where is home? In their own lives, Kristina and Sadé speak of having often felt displaced between Barbados and England and explored this through the work.

Far From Home runs from Thursday 15th – Saturday 17th October @ Sadler’s Wells East

T.S. Eliot’s: Murder In The Cathedral from Orange Tree Theatre

1170 A nation divided. Once the best of friends, King Henry II and his Archbishop, Thomas Becket, are now mortal enemies. Ignoring his allies’ fears, Becket, the ‘turbulent priest’, returns to Canterbury, tempting the monarch’s wrath. As the women of Canterbury seek shelter in the sacred space of the cathedral, four knights ride out on a deadly mission. The only question: who will blink first?

Cast includes: Jyuddah Jaymes, Mensah Bediako, Chyna-Rose Frederick and Mike Lyle.

Murder In The Cathedral runs from Thursday 19th October – Saturday 7th November @ Richmond’s St John The Divine Church

Girls writer Theresa Ikoko. Director Ewa Dina

“They leave a trail of fire and flesh. If they followed it – if somebody followed the stench – they would find us”

Nigeria, 2014. Teenagers Tisana, Haleema, and Ruhab are best friends, busy swapping notes on celebrities, sex positions, and dodging carbs.

But when they’re kidnapped by militant insurgents and forced towards an uncertain future, they have only each other to turn to. As fear and religious d

Cast includes: Hanna Akhalu, Tara Tijani and Sewa Zamba.

Girls runs from Thursday 22nd October – Saturday 21st November 2026 @ Young Vic Theatre

Barbershop Uncut Stories written and directed by Rochelle Newman.

Created by Lorna Jones, Director of C & Hair CIC.

Set in a familiar local barbershop where everyday conversations about football, family and relationships reveal powerful truths about health, masculinity and the importance of speaking up.

Blending humour, warmth and authentic storytelling, the play explores prostate cancer, which affects 1 in 4 Black men, and challenges the stigma, fear and mistrust that often prevent vital conversations.

Barbershop Uncut Stories runs on Friday 23rd October 2026 @ Reading Rep

Classroom Chronicles Directed by Steven Kavuma. In collaboration with Lorraine Woodley-Bitmead

Four Year 10 boys are in isolation. Sat apart, phones gone, told to think about their actions. So they start talking. Ahmed, Marfo, Olanrewaju and Zachary turn four walls into somewhere they can finally be soft, silly, scared and entirely themselves.

The play is about Black boy joy. The loud, tender, hilarious business of just getting to be. Four boys being funny, ridiculous, affectionate, competitive and scared, all in the same breath. Whole, and taking up space. It’s a portrait of Black teenage boys that isn’t about crisis or consequence. 

Cast includes: Mahmood Akinsemoyin, Frederick Konneh, Nana Peprah-Mensah and Kyan Rowe

Classroom Chronicles on Thursday 29th October 2026 @ National Youth Theatre

Tell Us presented by Dickson Mbi presents

Dickson has strong ties to East London having grown up in Stratford, so he is super excited to present this work in his home base

Tell Us is the first ensemble piece for his dance company, Dickson came up with the idea for the new work whilst trying to tell his son a bedtime story, confronted with all the awful things going on in the world Dickson was battling with the challenges of bringing up a child in these times, he turned to stories from his Cameroonian heritage to make sense of some of these issues focusing on the climate crisis.

Tell Us follows a young boy disconnected from Mother Earth, he is thrust into a village suffering a devastating drought. Guided by an Old Lady/Goddess he understands a fundamental truth: humanity has forgotten how to worship and protect the land, and his journey is a desperate struggle to heal a broken relationship, restore balance and to reconnect with nature.

Tell Us runs from Wednesday 21st – Saturday 24t October 2026 @ Sadler’s Wells East

Cultivate: Black Playwrights Week @ Riverside Studios

Riverside Studios celebrates emerging Black playwrights.

The programme features rehearsed readings of five new plays: Leave to Remain by Adja Gaye, When It Snows in April by Chantelle Alle, Put It on My Head by Inyang Edoho, The Other Half by Shola Asante and Hope Is a Dangerous Thing by Albrin Junior. Exploring themes of identity, immigration, family, love and ambition, the initiative provides a platform for underrepresented writers to bring their stories to the stage.

Cultivate: Black Playwrights Week runs from Sunday 18th – Thursday 22nd October 2026 @ Riverside Studios