The Yard Theatre in Hackney Wick has unveiled its first season in its new building, with six productions running from July 2026 to April 2027 including Ian McKellen returning to the stage in Lear.
The Yard opened in 2011 in a warehouse meant to last six months. Fifteen years on, the original building has been demolished and replaced with an entirely new venue on the same spot that is more than twice the size of the original and features a 220-seat curved auditorium, six-storey natural ventilation chimney, reused brick from the original building, new backstage, dressing rooms and office facilities.
Here’s the opening line-up:
The World Is Full of Married Men
Monday, July 20 – Saturday, August,1 2026
Adapted and directed by Malmö Stadsteater, translated from Swedish by Lulu Raczka
The London premiere of Jackie Collins’ bestselling debut novel.
David and Linda are married. Linda sees to the house. David sees to business. Business being Claudia, an aspiring actress who’ll do anything, and anyone, to get what she wants.
London, the sixties. In hotel rooms, nightclubs and film studios, a world of millionaires, models and Hollywood directors play out their desires. Careers. Parties. Sex. Power.
for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf
Wednesday, September 2 – Saturday, October 3, 2026
Written by Ntozake Shange, directed by Diane Page, music composed by Jammz
“sing a black girl’s song / bring her out / to know herself / to know you”
A landmark of theatre. Long overdue in London. Stories of love and violence, joy and survival – and what it feels like to come out the other side.
LEAR
November 2026 – January 2027
Reimagined by playwright Simon Stephens and director Jay Miller, starring Ian McKellen
Ian: I mean, I’ve organised my life for good or bad, so that acting is the main thing I do.
LEAR: My wits begin to turn—
Ian: So if I’m not acting, what’s the point?
There’s Something About Adam Black
Wednesday, January 13, 2027 – Saturday, February 20, 2027
Written by Troy Hunter, directed by Tatenda Shamiso
No one knows their way around Grindr like Adam Black.
Tonight it’s LittleWhiteLucifer. Tomorrow it’s WontSuckItself. Yesterday, it was Uncut3000. Adam’s got a tight schedule, a loose hole and absolutely no interest in a relationship.
And then comes a dream.
Daniel is from Yorkshire, he writes poetry. Daniel has no idea what he’s walked into.
Because Adam has a past. It has been waiting. It is done waiting.
Mrs Dalloway
Wednesday, March 10 – Saturday, April 10, 2027
Written by Virginia Woolf, adapted by Holly Robinson, directed by Anna Himali Howard
“Had not that, after all, been love?”
You’re throwing a party. You bought the flowers yourself.
Everyone you have ever loved is coming tonight.
The girl you kissed once. The man you married. The one you didn’t.
They’re all on their way.
Across one London day, a woman moves through the city and through her own life. The choices she made. The choices that made her.
You want her to choose right.
You don’t know if she will.
PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD
By IN BED WITH MY BROTHER
Tuesday, July 14 to Saturday, July 25, 2026
New Hampshire, 1940s. A boy gets a palm reading. The psychic tells him three things.
He’ll marry a woman with strawberry-blonde hair. He’ll have two sons. His daughters will form a world-famous rock band.
The first two come true. He makes the third happen anyway.
Philosophy of the World is about The Shaggs: the quintessential outsider band, the best worst album ever made, and the father who decided his daughters would be stars. It’s about who gets to define a legend, who owns the rights to a life, and what happens when the story you were told about yourself turns out to be someone else’s idea.
It’s the show Edinburgh couldn’t shut up about. And it’s about dads.
Tickets for all newly announced productions will go on sale to members first: Yard Residents on May 21 at noon, Yard Regulars on May 22 at noon, and to the general public on May 28 at noon. Tickets for Lear will go on-sale at a later date. More information here.
Top image: Lear, Credit – Guy J Sanders (image supplied)