Bristol Old Vic announces Spring 2026 programme

Bristol Old Vic today outlined a season of partnerships and visiting work for Spring 2026 with productions on general sale from 10am Fri 24 Oct. 
 
In the theatre
The season includes a new production of Kander and Ebb’s ground-breaking musical Kiss of the Spider Woman – a co-production between Bristol Old Vic, Leicester Curve and Mayflower Southampton. This will be the first major UK revival since 1992 and will star Leyton Williams as Molina, George Blagden as Valentin and Anna-Jane Casey as Aurora. Directed by Paul Foster who is also directing Bristol Old Vic’s musical version of Treasure Island this Dec.
 
Joining this production in Spring 26 is the world premiere of the multi-award-winning The Wardrobe Ensemble’s new show Party Season (21 – 23 May) in co-production with Royal & Derngate, Northampton and Lowry. This razor-sharp new comedy is a sugar-fuelled, bobbin-winding fever dream about the pressures of being a parent, where class identities collide, social niceties unravel, and underslept parents do their best to hold it all together. The Wardrobe Ensemble were Bristol Old Vic’s first Made in Bristol (MIB) company, formed in 2011 from a group of young people who undertook a year-long training programme at the theatre. They went on to be hailed as "..the future of British Theatre" making and touring shows nationally and internationally including The Last of the Pelican  Daughters and Education, Education, Education. We are thrilled to be able to welcome them back to Bristol Old Vic in a season which also includes the latest Made in Bristol initiative, now in its 16th year.


This is followed by Lyric Hammersmith’s bold new production of An Ideal Husband (8 – 20 Jun), in association with Bristol Old Vic, taking Oscar Wilde’s enduring comedy and setting it in an opulent, modern-day London. Directed by Lyric Hammersmith’s Associate Director Nicholai La Barrie.
 
Frankie Goes to Bollywood, fresh from a smash-hit UK tour, arrives at Bristol Old Vic from 24 – 28 June. This dazzling musical comedy-drama, from the same team who brought audiences Britain's Got Bhangra features original songs by Bollywood hitmaker Harry Anand, and follows British teen Frankie who is unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight of the high-pressure world of Indian cinema.
 
From 15 – 18 July, Apphia Campbell’s acclaimed play Black is the Color of My Voice returns to Bristol Old Vic. Inspired by the life of Nina Simone, and featuring many of her most iconic songs performed live, it follows a successful jazz singer and civil rights activist as she seeks redemption after the untimely death of her father. She reflects on the journey that took her from a young piano prodigy destined for a life in the service of the church, to a renowned jazz vocalist at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement. Black Is The Color Of My Voice is touring the UK in 2026 after sell-out seasons in Adelaide (Best Theatre Award, Adelaide Fringe), Shanghai, New York, Edinburgh and London’s West End.
 
These shows join previously announced Theatre productions including Frantic Assembly’s Lost Atoms (13 – 24 Jun), the return of improvised Showstoppers the Musical (27 – 31 Jan),  a Bristol Old Vic, Shakespeare’s Globe and Headlong co-production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (4 – 21 Mar), and classic ghostly tale The Woman in Black (21 – 25 Apr).
 
 
In the Weston Studio
Alongside this is a jam-packed Studio season of radical and groundbreaking stories. It begins with a new Bristol Old Vic Young Company / Young SixSix collaboration How Do You Sleep at Night which will run 14 – 17 Jan 2026. It delves into the quiet hours before bed, exploring everything that keeps us up – a late night reckoning with the petty, the political and the personal. Asking what it means to sleep soundly in a world like this. Devised by the company (aged 14+) and directed by Paige Stevens.
 
The Studio season continues with Smalltown Boy by Brenda Callis (28 – 31 Jan). This heartbreakingly joyful play about grief, community, and growing up queer in a rural town, is explored through the explosive storytelling medium of drag. It’s presented by The Project People, with support from Arts Council England, Bristol Old Vic, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Pleasance Theatre, The Poly and Exeter Northcott.

From 24 – 28 Feb, The Last Picture visits the Studio. English Touring Theatre (ETT), York Theatre Royal and An Tobar and Mull Theatre present this brand-new play by Catherine Dyson. Set on a Year 9 school trip in 2026, and in 1939 watching history take a dark turn, The Last Picture tells a story through images, tracing a path through a history we think we know.  It is followed by A Grain of Sand (3 – 7 Mar),  the one-woman show that takes an intimate look at war through the eyes of a child – blending Palestinian folklore with real-life testimonies from children in contemporary Gaza. The award-nominated All The Happy Things arrives in the Studio from 10 – 14 Mar, a dark comedy about the power of sisterhood and grief, told through a Global Majority lens.  From 17 – 21 Mar, inclusive theatre company Hijinx bring their unmissable comedy satire Meet Fred to Bristol, celebrating 10 years of making audiences laugh, gasp, and rethink the world around them. Featuring a stellar cast of performers with and without learning disabilities and/or autism. Contains strong language and puppet nudity.
 
Three hit shows from this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival also form part of the Studio Spring season: DYKE Systems Ltd by Fag Packet tours to the Studio from 5 – 9 May. Equal parts corporate seminar and queer fever dream, DYKE Systems Ltd is a sharp, subversive takedown of pyramid schemes, ruthless heteronormativity and corporate feminism. This is followed by anarchic theatre company In Bed with My Brother, bringing their brand-new show PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD (13 – 16 May), fresh from a sell-out Fringe First winning Edinburgh run. Based around the story of The Shaggs, a legendarily so-bad-they’re-good US rock band, who made only one album and attained cult status, it explores ideas of patriarchy, exploitation and who owns the rights to any story, any life.
 
In July, during the first week of Pride - Jonny Woo, one of London's leading drag and performance artists presents his hit show, Suburbia. A personal tale blending cabaret, drag, story-telling and song, Suburbia is a poetic coming-of-age story from a childhood in the Kentish suburbs to the clubs of London and NYC. Shocking and sublime. Running from 30 Jun – 4 Jul.
 
Family work  includes the Olivier Award-winning Braniac Live! (28 – 29 May). The UK’s original science show explodes onto stage, taking audiences aged 5 and up on a breathless ride through the wild world of the weird and wonderful.  In the Studio for February half term BOXVILLE,  a STEM-powered, hands-on interactive time travel adventure, for children aged 4 – 8 yrs arrives from 17 – 21 Feb. Brought to the stage by Cardboard Adventures and South West puppet maker Sam Wilde, children aged 4 – 8 can craft-along with the story, building their own way through the tasks and trials of BOXVILLE , a land made entirely of sustainable cardboard.

These family productions join the previously announced The Gruffalo (7 – 18 Apr), Horrible Histories (2 – 5 Jul), The Enormous Crocodile (9 – 12 Jul), Showstopper! The Kids Show (31 Jan) and the stage adaptation of Onjali Q. Raúf’s award-winning novel The Boy at the Back of the Class (31 Mar – 4 Apr).