Theatre Royal Bath unveils exciting June 2025 - March 2026 season

Theatre Royal Bath has announced details of new productions and events alongside casting updates for its hotly anticipated programme appearing in the Main House, Ustinov Studio and The Egg over the next ten months.

Casting updates for productions already announced in the Ralph Fiennes/Theatre Royal Bath Season include the news that Dylan Moran, Patrick Robinson and Charlie Rowe join the previously announced Dame Harriet Walter and Gloria Obianyo in the new production of William Shakespeare’s comedy As You Like It, directed by Ralph Fiennes, which appears at the Theatre Royal Bath from 15 August to 6 September.

Image: Ralph Fiennes & Rebecca Lenkiewicz

Dylan Moran’s thirty-year career has interspersed award-winning worldwide stand-up comedy tours with much loved screen appearances. Since winning the Perrier Comedy Award in 1996, he created and starred in the BAFTA winning series Black Books, and appeared on screen in Notting Hill, Shaun of the Dead, The Witcher and Stuck.

Patrick Robinson has performed regularly with the RSC and National Theatre with roles including Edmund in King Lear, Banquo in Macbeth and Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing. Well-known on television for his long-running role as Ash in BBC’s Casualty, his credits also include the popular series Death in Paradise, The Last Kingdom, The Sister Boniface Mysteries and Vera. Charlie Rowe made his first screen appearance in the 2007 movie The Golden Compass and has recently starred in Slow Horses and Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light.

They join Olivier Award winner Harriet Walter, whose four-decade stage carer has seen her acclaimed for Shakespearean roles on both sides of the Atlantic, and rising star Gloria Obianyo, whose stage credits include her prize-winning performance in the National Theatre’s Paradise and recent screen credits include the Disney+/Star Wars series, Andor. The cast for As You Like It also includes Sam Alexander, Hannah Azuonye, Michael Brophy, Matt Ray Brown, Imogen Elliott, Matt Gavan, Amber Grappy, Emilio Iannucci, Amber James, Paul Jesson, Nitai Levi, Jake Neads, Richard Pryal and Ethan Thomas.

Francesca Annis will star alongside Ralph Fiennes in the world premiere of Small Hotel from 3 to 18 October. This new play by acclaimed playwright and screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz, is directed by Holly Race Roughan, Artistic Director of award-winning touring theatre company Headlong. Further casting is to be announced.

Since her first major film role alongside Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra, Francesca Annis established herself as one of our most acclaimed actresses. A stellar stage career with the RSC and National Theatre encompassed many iconic female roles, including Juliet opposite Ian McKellen in Romeo and Juliet. A six-time BAFTA Television nominee, winning for the ITV series Lillie, her many screen roles range from Countess in The Libertine to Mrs Gibson in Wives and Daughters, and co-starring with Michael Gambon and Judi Dench in the BBC series Cranford.

In Small Hotel, Ralph Fiennes plays Larry, an acclaimed TV celebrity whose life and career are rapidly unravelling. As he is forced to unpick his past and confront his future, the audience are introduced to a collection of unforgettable characters, including his troubled twin brother Richard, his unpredictable former lover Marianne, and his domineering mother Athena.

Legendary musician, artist and writer Patti Smith will perform an intimate evening of words and songs on 6 July, accompanied by Tony Shanahan and Jackson Smith, as part of the Ralph Fiennes / Theatre Royal Bath Season.

Patti Smith is the author of the National Book Award winner, Just Kids, as well as M Train, Woolgathering, Year of the Monkey, and A Book of Days. Her seminal, debut album Horses, released fifty years ago, has been lauded as one of the greatest of all time. Her global exhibitions include Land 250, Strange Messenger, Camera Solo, and 18 Stations. In 2005, the French Ministry of Culture awarded Patti Smith the title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres. Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, she is also the recipient of Sweden’s Polar Prize for significant achievements in music, the 2020 PEN Literary Service Award and The Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest order of merit in 2022.

The Ralph Fiennes / Theatre Royal Bath Season opens on 27 June with Grace Pervades, the world premiere of a new play by David Hare, starring Ralph Fiennes as the legendary Henry Irving alongside Miranda Raison as his wife Ellen Terry. Directed by Jeremy Herrin, the cast also includes Sharif Afifi, Tom Kanji, Harriet Leitch, Helena Lymbery, Jordan Metcalfe, Jo Mousley, Damian Myerscough, Guy Paul, Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, Saskia Strallen and Kathryn Wilder.

Image: Lily Allen 

The full cast has also been announced for Hedda, a reimagining of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler appearing at the Ustinov Studio from 25 July to 23 August. Award-winning actress and music artist Lily Allen, who stars in the title role, will be joined by RSC, National Theatre and West End actress Imogen Stubbs (The Crown, Sense and Sensibility, The Rainbow), Olivier Award winner Brendan Coyle (Downton Abbey, Lark Rise to Candleford, The Caretaker), Ciarán Owen (Peaky Blinders, Curfew, Farewell Mister Haffmann), Julia Chan (2:22 A Ghost Story, Saving Hope) and Tom Austen (Rematch, The Royals, Helstrom, Django).

Newly announced for the Autumn season and opening in Bath, a new staging of Samuel Beckett’s macabre comedy Endgame will appear at the Ustinov Studio from 4 September to 4 October starring Mathew Horne (Gavin & Stacey, Agatha Raisin, Bad Education) and Selina Cadell (Doc Martin, The Carer, Cardiac Arrest), directed by Lindsay Posner.

The cast for the previously announced touring production of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women which visits the Theatre Royal from 28 October to 1 November will be led by Belinda Lang (Sister Boniface Mysteries, This England, 2 Point 4 Children) and Honeysuckle Weeks (The Five, Foyle’s War).

Image: Tristan Gemmill as Captain Hook and Jon Monie as Smee in The Further Adventures of Peter Pan

It has also been revealed that star of stage and screen Tristan Gemmill (Coronation Street, Casualty, The Bodyguard) will take centre stage as Captain Hook in the Christmas pantomime, The Further Adventures of Peter Pan: The Return of Captain Hook. Tristan stars alongside Bath favourite Jon Monie, who has written the show and plays Smee, Holly Atterton from Nick Jnr’s Go! Go! Go! as Tinker Bell, and comedy acrobats The Nitwits as the Pirate Crew, with more casting to be announced. Presented by UK Productions, the fun-packed, traditional show will appear at the Theatre Royal for the festive season from 11 December to 11 January.

Image: A Christmas Carol with Guy Masterson, credit Brigitta Scholz-Mastroianni Nux Photography

Making a welcome return on 15 and 19 December for four performances, Olivier Award-winning Guy Masterson will perform A Christmas Carol, his internationally acclaimed solo performance of Charles Dickens’ seasonal tale following previous sold-out visits.

Meanwhile, at the Ustinov Studio this Christmas, also newly announced is a new production of the hit musical The Last Five Years appearing from 25 November to 3 January. Jason Robert Brown’s funny and heartfelt observation of a rollercoaster romance between two New Yorkers, a young writer and an aspiring actress, is one of the most famous Broadway musicals of recent times. Also a West End hit, this semi-autobiographical masterpiece from one of the most acclaimed composers and lyricists of his generation, reflects the experiences of all who have shared lives, romance, holidays and break-ups together.

A sparkling revival of the most famous play set in Bath, The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheriden, tours exclusively to the Theatre Royal in its 250^th anniversary year, direct from its opening run in London at the Orange Tree Theatre. Set in the roaring 20s, Tom Littler’s jazzy new staging of Sheridan’s sparkling satire of love and language promises a sumptuous treat to chase away the winter chill from 27 to 31 January.   

The Shawshank Redemption tours to the Theatre Royal from 2 to 7 February as part of a nationwide tour. Based on the 1982 novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by celebrated author Stephen King, the stage adaptation of The Shawshank Redemption examines desperation, injustice, friendship and hope behind the claustrophobic bars of a maximum-security facility through the experiences of Andy Dufresne and Ellis ‘Red’ Redding. Presented by Bill Kenwright Ltd, the stage production is adapted by Owen O’Neill and Dave Johns and directed by award-winning Broadway director David Esbjornson.

Tickets are now on sale for David Copperfield: A Life, the epic community production, which will be staged by Theatre Royal Bath Engage and the People of Bath and the surrounding area, with five performances on the Theatre Royal’s Main House stage from 20 to 22 February. Following the story of David Copperfield from infancy to adulthood as he strives to find love and connection in a world that feels at times impossibly lonely and cruel, this thrilling tale is packed with some of Dickens’s most vivid characters including Peggotty, Betsey Trotwood, Steerforth, and Uriah Heap.

Over 100 people from the region come together to tell the story of Charles Dickens famous novel and explore what the story means to us today. Working with acclaimed writing and directing team Sally Cookson and Mike Akers, whose productions of Jane Eyre and Peter Pan transferred from Bristol Old Vic to the National Theatre, this ambitious community production promises a thrilling adventure with visually stunning storytelling including creative BSL Integration and live music. The production is presented with thanks to the Miss Beryl Billings Charitable Trust, The Bird, Bath, and Bath Spa University for their ongoing support.

New shows announced to appear in the Ustinov Studio’s Visiting Company Season from June to November include RUM on 10 June, a darkly humorous and powerful new play that wrestles with masculinity, mental health and addiction in the trade, and David Hare’s Via Dolorosa on 27 and 28 June, an extraordinarily prescient drama inspired by his travels to Israel, that foreshadowed arguments which remain just as fresh and topical today. Cyril Blake’s sell-out hit Bonding, appears from 1 to 3 July exploring the myth, legend and legacy of Bond; internationally renowned harp and electronica duo FitkinWall perform Harpland on 4 July, following threads of migration, loss and longing in their new show; and Uncaged present Love You, Bye from 7 to 10 July, a powerful, timely and thought-provoking piece of theatre by Meg Pickup and Taruna Nalini, which explores the epidemic of violence against women and what the far-reaching impact of this is on the people it directly affects as well as wider society. On 11 and 12 July, An Actor Convalescing in Devon welcomes actor Paul Jesson who performs in a funny and compelling play, written specially for him by the multi award-winning playwright Richard Nelson. The following month, audiences will also have the opportunity to watch Paul Jesson perform in the Main House when he returns to star in Ralph Fiennes’ production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It.   

The Ustinov Studio’s Visiting Company Season returns in the autumn with Posting Letters to the Moon on 6 and 7 October, a romantic, funny and touching portrait of life during World War Two. Based on letters between Brief Encounter star Celia Johnson and her explorer and writer husband Peter Fleming, this performance stars their daughter Lucy Fleming (Love Sarah, The Archers) and her husband Simon Williams (Upstairs Downstairs, The Archers, EastEnders). Hailed as a “brilliantly engaging piece of drama” and “a theatrical tour de force”, Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, Live Wire and Roughhouse Theatres’ inventive exploration of the status of women in society visits from 13 to 15 October.

On 16 and 17 October, Troubled Waters blends storytelling and live music to explore endangered freshwater worlds through river legend, folklore and myth. On 22 and 23 October, Sherlock Holmes and the Man Who Believed in Fairies sees the famous detective pitted against his own creator in a titanic battle of wits as they both aim to prove and disprove the reality of infamous wartime fairy photographs. Wilt tours to the Ustinov Studio on 24 and 25 October exploring connection, guilt, innocence, and fragility, through the lens of comedy with content devised by Segments, a production company from the UK’s newest drama school Bristol School of Acting. From 29 October to 1 November, Making A Killing sees torturer, hangman and meticulous diarist Franz Schmidt wrestle with a family curse that haunts his every step. From 10 to 12 November, Dyad Productions are back in Bath and visiting the Elizabethan era once again, this time in That Knave, Raleigh, as they tell the story of the daring, strange and utterly heart-breaking final chapter of Sir Walter Raleigh’s life. On 17^th and 18^th November, the Ustinov Studio welcomes Shôn Dale-Jones in Stories from an Invisible Town, a joyous, stomach-turning, moving and very funny collection of dark comic stories about innocence and imagination. 

New shows announced at The Egg for the summer and autumn months include The Shivers, an action-comedy about spies, lies and learning to trust your gut (2 – 4 July); You Know My Mum, a heartfelt comedy exploring grief from the perspective of a young woman with Down’s syndrome, presented by from inclusive theatre company Ego Arts (17 July); Theatre Royal Bath Theatre School breathe new life into the classic Shakespeare play A Midsummer Night’s Dream (22 & 23 August); Stuff and Nonsense stage a joyful retelling of Three Little Pigs with raucous puppets (24 – 28 September); Monkeys Everywhere brings a show full of clowning, audience interaction, lots of laughter and a real heart (2 - 5 October), and An Ant Called Amy, promises a charming and moving story about a busy little ant who learns to slow down (9 - 11 October).

aKa Dance Theatre bring Shed-Ache to The Egg, a seriously silly dance show about the give and take of friendship, the power of imagination and the importance to embrace experiences whatever the weather (14 & 15 October); M6 Theatre Company in association with Andy Manley present Little Gift, featuring a playful mix of puppetry in a tender story about friendship and the joy to be found around every corner (31 October – 2 November), and Blubber, a brand-new work by award-winning artist Katie Greenall follows her quest to reconnect with her body through synchronised swimming, care and whales (6 November).

Christmas at The Egg welcomes winter show, Aurora, to the Roper Room performed by award-winning theatre company Filskit. This new sensory delight for early years children features beautiful lights, playful performance, original music and Makaton woven throughout a sparkling introduction to theatre (28 November - 5 January). Whilst in The Egg’s auditorium, the previously announced festive treat, Snow Mice, brings a brand-new seasonal adventure starring the Egg’s favourite character the adorable Snow Mouse and some fantastic new friends. Perfect for audiences aged 3 and over, this all-new show promises more mice, more snow and more fun (20 November - 11 January).

Lunchtime Special Events taking place during the Jane Austen Festival and hosted by Jane Tapley include Austen’s Arcadia on 12 and 19 September at 2pm, and Draw Back the Curtain, an illustrated talk, at 3.30pm. On 18 September, Jane Austen: Fact or Fiction welcomes Jill Hornby, writer of the new BBC series Miss Austen, in conversation with Jane Tapley. On 15 and 16 September, Sense and Insensibility: A Murder Mystery Lunch presented by Moonstone Theatre Company takes place at the Abbey Hotel at 12 noon, and on 19 September Jane Austen Festival favourite Kim Hicks performs her internationally acclaimed solo show Courtship.   

For full details of the Theatre Royal Bath’s upcoming programme in the Main House, Ustinov Studio and The Egg visit: theatreroyal.org.uk

To book tickets contact the Theatre Royal Box Office on +44 (0)1225 448844 and online via: theatreroyal.org.uk.