The Young Vic Theatre’s Artistic Director and CEO Nadia Fall has announced details of the 2026-27 season, which includes international storytelling from world-class theatre makers and new voices, many of whom are making their Young Vic debuts.
Running from September 2026 – July 2027 across the Main House and the Maria Studio, this new season of work pulls together adventurous new theatremaking and reimaginings of classic work which interrogate the past, confront the future and help us to grapple with the here and now.
In the Main House
Thelma & Louise
3 Sep – 24 Oct 2026
The 26/7 season will open with the World premiere of Thelma & Louise, a brand-new musical adaptation of CALLIE KHOURI’s Oscar and Golden-Globe winning road movie, featuring music and lyrics by Grammy-nominated iconoclast Neko Case. Directed by Trip Cullman (Choir Boy) and starring Amy Lennox (Cabaret, Kinky Boots) and Rachel Tucker (Wicked, Come From Away) in the title roles, Thelma & Louise has been reimagined for the stage at a time when the politics of the original film feel more relevant than ever.
Eurotrash
13 Nov 2026 – 9 Jan 2027
The premiere of the English language adaptation of Eurotrash reunites the creative team behind the Young Vic’s hit productions Kafka’s Monkey (2009) and The Emperor (2016). Ben Whishaw (Peter Hujar’s Day and This is Going to Hurt) and Kathryn Hunter (Poor Things & Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo) from the hit Netflix series Black Doves reunite here as a mother and son who embark on a road trip through the Swiss Alps to give away their vast family fortune in an attempt to escape the shadows of their past. This new adaptation of Christian Kracht’s internationally best-selling novel by Colin Teevan (The Tank, Das Boot, Monkey!), directed by Walter Meierjohann (Blindness, In the Red and Brown Water) is a darkly comedic search for absolution.
La Distance
22 Jan – 13 Feb 2027
Tiago Rodrigues (By Heart, Catarina, Beauty of Killing Fascists), Portuguese playwright and director, and current director of the Festival d’Avignon, presents the UK premiere of his intimate and inventive play La Distance. First performed at the Festival d’Avignon in 2025, La Distance, performed in French with English surtitles, is a profoundly human exploration of separation, hope, and the bond between parent and child, set within a collapsing world. Original cast members Alison Dechamps and Adama Diop reprise their roles as father and daughter.
dissent
5 Mar – 24 Apr 2027
Olivier and BAFTA award-winner Debbie Tucker Green (ear for eye) writes and directs the World premiere of dissent, an explosive new play about humanity’s capacity for monstrous behaviour.
14 May – 10 July 2027
Young Vic Artistic Director and CEO Nadia Fall (Entertaining Mr Sloane) directs the first UK staging in 20 years of August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean, a moving exploration of resistance, redemption, and the enduring search for freedom.
Now in its second year of programming, the Maria Studio offers a platform of scale for brilliant directors, writers and artists to present inventive, creative approaches to theatremaking.
In the Maria
Shedinburgh
19 Sept – 10 Oct 2026
Straight from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Shedinburgh lands in London for the very first time. The immersive venue will be re-built in the Maria to present the very best of the Fringe, showcasing over 40 shows from artists including Inua Ellams, Sara Pascoe, Bryony Kimmings and Rosie Jones. This month-long residency will celebrate the creativity and diversity of the Fringe, featuring iconic shows alongside brand new work. The full programme of intimate shed-style performances will span theatre, music, comedy and everything in between, with all shows announced next month.
Girls
22 Oct – 21 Nov
Ewa Dina (The Welsh Dragon), winner of the 2026 JMK Award makes her Young Vic debut directing Theresa Ikoko’s (Rocks) award-winning play Girls. Set in Nigeria during the 2014 militant insurrection when hundreds of girls were kidnapped from their homes, Girls is a powerful story of three friends and the difficult choices they make to survive.
Further programming for the Maria Studio will be announced in the autumn.
As part of the Young Vic’s ambition to open-up its building and animate its spaces year-round, the organisation will begin hosting stand-alone events across both the Maria Studio and the Main House which will span scratch nights, gigs, panel events and more.
Professor Daisy Fancourt
27 Sept 2026 (Main House)
Professor Daisy Fancourt, an award-winning scientist and world-leading expert who recently published Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform Our Health, will discuss the life-enhancing power of the arts in an evening hosted by broadcaster, journalist and podcast host, Hannah MacInnes.
Brown Sugar
14 Oct 2026. (Maria Studio)
Award-winning poet and playwright Inua Ellams brings a special edition of his global R.A.P. Party, Brown Sugar, to the Young Vic, honouring influential artist D’Angelo, founder of the Neo-Soul movement who passed away in October last year. The event will feature D’Angelo’s music alongside poetic responses to his work.
Tickets
Priority booking for Thelma & Louise, Girls, Eurotrash and La Distance will open at 12pm 20 April, with general on sale for these productions and for R.A.P Party and Art Cure from 12pm Thursday 23 April. dissent, Gem of the Ocean and Shedinburgh and will go on sale to supporters and the general public later this year.
