The Young Vic has announced its 2026/27 season, which will open this September with the world premiere of Thelma & Louise, a new musical based on the movie of the same name.
Playing in the Main House, Amy Lennox and Rachel Tucker will star in the title roles for a show reimainged by Callie Khouri from her original screenplay.
On a whim, Louise (Tucker) invites her best friend Thelma (Lennox) for a spontaneous weekend getaway. After an ill-fated encounter with a stranger at a roadside honkytonk, their lifelong friendship is forged into something dangerous and unbreakable. Propelled by a soaring musical score, they set out on a last-chance adventure in a world where every card is stacked against them.
It has music and lyrics by Neko Case, and is directed by Trip Cullman. The creative team features choreography by Bobbi Jene Smith & Or Schraiber, scenography by Christine Jones & Brett J Banakis, costume design by Ryan Dawson Laight, lighting design by Natasha Chivers, sound design by Gareth Owen, musical supervision by Kimberly Grigsby, orchestration and arrangements by John Clancy and musical direction by Ed Bussey, with additional music by Carl Newman, Paul Rigby and Zoe Sarnak.
The creative producers are Mandy Greenfield and Sonia Friedman Productions and the creative consultant is Imogen Brodie. Stuart Burt is the casting director, Peter Noden is the casting associate, Kev McCurdy is the fight director, Yarit Dor is the intimacy director, Danièle Lydon is the voice and dialect coach, Chelsea Walker the associate director, Matthew Buttrey the associate designer and Rob Jones is the associate sound designer. The music producer is Jeff Galegher and the orchestra manager is Sylvia Addison. RCI Theatricals are the US General Managers.
It plays September 3-October 24, 2026.
Also in the Main House:
- The premiere of the English language adaptation of Eurotrash reunites the creative team behind the Young Vic’s productions of Kafka’s Monkey (2009) and The Emperor (2016). Black Doves co-stars Ben Whishaw and Kathryn Hunter reunite 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.
You think I’m a stupid, heartless old woman? Well we’re going to give this money away. Really give it away, get rid of it, squander it…And you’re going to help me.
A blocked novelist is summoned to Zurich by his aged mother who is barely keeping it together with vodka, pills and Ferragamo sweaters. Together they embark upon an impromptu journey to give away the mother’s fortune, amassed from arms investments and dairy products, in order to come to terms with their own and Europe’s dark history. With the cash stuffed in a plastic bag, the bickering pair take a chaotic and outrageous road trip through the snowy mountains and valleys of Switzerland.
This new adaptation of Christian Kracht’s novel by Colin Teevan (The Tank), directed by Walter Meierjohann (Blindness) is a darkly comedic search for absolution.
November 13, 2026-January 9, 2027
- Portuguese playwright and director Tiago Rodrigues 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 subtitles, 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.
We no longer believe it’s possible to change the world. We believe that we need to change worlds.
2077, Earth is breaking. As the planet buckles under environmental and societal collapse, part of humanity has launched itself toward Mars, chasing the promise of a new beginning. Across millions of miles, a father (Diop) fights to hold onto his relationship with his daughter (Dechamps), as her new future unfolds on a distant red planet.
La Distance is written and directed by Rodrigues, with translation by Thomas Resendes and translation for subtitles by Daniel Hahn, set design by Fernando Ribeiro, costume design by José António Tenente, lighting design by Rui Monteiro, and original music and sound design by Pedro Costa. Sophie Bricaire is the artistic collaborator, André Pato the assistant director and Thomas Medioni the assistant director trainee.
January 22-February 13, 2027
- Debbie Tucker Green writes and directs the world premiere of Dissent, an explosive new play about humanity’s capacity for monstrous behaviour.
What you don’t know
y’don’t need to know,
what y’don’t need to know can’t hurt you.
State sponsored air conditioning and free cigarettes.
Work hard, go home, chill out. Repeat.
All you have to do is comply. And question nothing.
Dissent features lighting design by Paule Constable and sound design by Christopher Shutt.
March 5-April 24, 2027
- Young Vic Artistic Director and CEO Nadia Fall 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.
I can’t wait. I have to see you now. They say you can help me. They say you wash souls.
Pittsburgh 1904, young Citizen Barlow is restless and camped outside Aunt Ester’s house, desperate for her help. She is said to be 285 years old, a sage and healer of the Hill District community, where slavery and the South are still in living memory. But the merciless sheriff Caesar is circling, feared for his ruthless reputation. Can Citizen be saved before his past catches up with him?
May 14-July 10, 2027
In the Maria Studio:
- Straight from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Shedinburgh lands in London for the first time. The immersive venue will be re-built in the Maria to present the very best of the Fringe, showcasing more 40 shows from artists including Inua Ellams, Sara Pascoe, Bryony Kimmings and Rosie Jones. September 19-October 10, 2026
- Ewa Dina (The Welsh Dragon) makes her Young Vic debut directing Theresa Ikoko’s 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.
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 Ruha 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 differences begin to fracture their bond, how far can their friendship be tested before it breaks?
October 22-November 21, 2026
Booking for Thelma & Louise, Girls, Eurotrash and La Distance opens at 12pm on Monday, April 20, with general on sale for these productions from 12pm on Thursday, April 23. Dissent, Gem of the Ocean and Shedinburgh and will go on sale to supporters and the general public later this year.
Tickets here.
Top image: Thelma & Louise (image supplied)