What’s On Stage July 2026

Theatre highlights this Month include I’m Every Woman – The Chaka Khan Musical starring Alexandra Burke…

You can also catch Tender starring Francesca Amewudah-Rivers and Boy Blue In The Park created by Michael ‘Mike J’ Asante

Last Goal Wins by Justice Ezi. Director. Kalungi Ssebandeke

Two footballers clash for a coveted spot on Nigeria’s national team, battling identity, belonging and power imbalances in a high-stakes drama set against the fever pitch of World Cup season.

Victory and Youssef, long-time friends and players, are competing for the final spots on the Nigerian national team ahead of the World Cup. They are both confident that it is finally their time, but a last-minute recruit changes everything and threatens the future of both players.

The football trials set the stage for an incisive look at Nigeria. Tackling themes of identity, racism, belonging and power within the sport. Last Goal Wins asks why players represent other nations and is shaped by Justice’s own Nigerian-British experience.

Cast includes: Benjamin Akintuyosi, Alexander Lob Moreno, Jerome Ngonadi and Kossim Osseni

Presented as part of The Ryan Calais Cameron Season for a strictly limited run.

Last Goal Wins runs from 1st – 12th July @ The Broadway, Catford

The Oresteia with Archie Madekwe

“A family haunted by its part in an unjust war, the painful burden of inherited trauma and inter-generational conflict, the descent into an increasingly merciless vortex of violence.”

A contemporary family wakes up in a Greek myth and can’t seem to find a way out of their hellish destiny.

The original play follows the house of Atreus, where returning conqueror Agamemnon is murdered by his wife Clytemnestra. Their son Orestes kills her in revenge and is then pursued by the Furies. The trilogy ends with Athen establishing a court of law to judge him.

Cast includes: John Macmillan

A new take on the Greek tragedy directed by Simon Stone. Originally written by Aeschylus, it was first performed in Athens in 458 BCE.

The Oresteia Thursday 2nd July – Saturday 19th September @ the Bridge Theatre

9 to 5 at New Theatre, Peterborough

Featuring an irresistible score by country music legend Dolly Parton, this hit show follows three office workers who’ve had enough of their overbearing, chauvinistic boss. When a wild idea turns into a daring plan for revenge, chaos, comedy, and sisterhood take centre stage.

Inspired by the much-loved 1980s film, 9 to 5 The Musical is a joyful story about friendship, courage, and standing up for what’s right, all set to toe-tapping tunes you’ll be humming long after the curtain falls.

Cast includes: Jade Marvin and Karla Carter.

9 to 5 runs Saturday 4th – Saturday 11th July @ Peterborough New Theatre

The Market Deeping Model Railway Club with Babatunde Aléshé

The Market Deeping Model Railway Club’s chances of victory at the Annual Show have been ripped apart by vandals, and the group must rally to piece their miniature world back together.

When their story goes global, help floods in from unexpected sources – including fellow enthusiast Sir Rod Stewart. But what lies ahead for the club? Chairman Graham, his astute wife Linda and the eclectic bunch of enthusiasts must face the question: what exactly is it about their everyday lives, that makes recreating the England of the past in miniature so appealing?

Based on a true story, Nottingham playwright William Ivory.

The Market Deeping Model Railway Club runs Monday 6th – Wednesday 15th July @ Nottingham Playhouse

Monkeyface Writer & Performer: Raphael Phillips Director: Mojola Akinyemi

A bold, poignant debut play by writer-performer Raphael Phillips. The production explores the intersection of Blackness and Queerness.

Trapped within the four walls of a university bedroom, Monkeyface navigates the euphoric highs and crushing lows of Freshers Week, toxic friendships, club culture, and the aching need for connection. What begins as something relatable (flatmates, cliques, and the messy thrill of queer nightlife) slowly unravels into a raw portrait of a young Black Gay student fighting to stay afloat inside a world not built to hold him.

Monkeyface runs from Monday 6th – Tuesday 21st July @ Riverside Studios

My Fair Lady starring Keziah Ibe

You see this creature with her curb-stone English; the English that will keep her in the gutter to the end of her days? Well, sir, in six months I could pass her off as a duchess at an Embassy Ball.

Cockney Eliza Doolittle scrapes a living selling flowers on the streets of London. Her dream of being a lady in a florist’s shop is out of reach unless she can speak ‘proper English’. So when she encounters Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, she seizes the chance to transform her life.

Higgins blithely takes on a bet to turn the woman he dismisses as a “squashed cabbage leaf” into a high society paragon. But his impulsive wager becomes a journey of discovery for both him and Eliza.

Cast includes: Kody Mortimer & Jessica Vaux.

My Fair Lady runs from Monday 6th July – Saturday 5th September @ Chichester Festival Theatre

The Cherry Orchard with Alfred Enoch

Ranyevskaya and Lopakhin are giants at war over a cherished estate. Madame Ranyevskaya returns from five years in Paris to find her house crumbling under the weight of debt and memory and her beloved cherry orchard under threat. Attempting to mend her extravagance, Lopakhin, the son of a serf, insists that the family must sell it off.

Beyond the orchard, people are starving and the aristocracy is in decline. As auction day approaches the household begins to panic. In this collision of past and future, it’s dangerous to stand still when the world demands change.

Cast includes: Chums Dornford-May and Julian Moore-Cook

The Cherry Orchard runs from Friday 10th July – Saturday 29th August @ the Swan Theatre

Much Ado About Nothing Starring Ken Nwosu

The war is over, but the battle for love is just beginning. Beatrice has sworn off men, but there’s something about Benedick she just can’t leave alone.

Meanwhile, beneath Messina’s polished surface, secrets slip, gossip runs wild and reputations hang by a thread. Everyone’s saving face and nobody’s doing it very well.

Set in a sun-soaked world of style and status, where image is everything and late-night parties blur into dawn.

Cast Includes: Assa Kanouté and Joshua John.

Much Ado About Nothing runs from Thursday 9th July – Saturday 24th October @ Shakespeares Globe Theatre

Firebird with Kelise Gordon-Harrison

You’ve got these twinkling eyes, all bright and dancey… They will love taking that from you

Tia has been in care since she was three. She can’t stand her foster mum, and her friends keep letting her down. But when she meets AJ, a charismatic older man, he seems like the answer to all her problems. At first, he is. But AJ has done this before, and after the gifts and compliments come the threats and abuse. When fourteen-year-old Katie moves to town, a chink of light appears in the darkness that’s threatening to swallow Tia.

Firebird is a gripping, unflinching drama about grooming and exploitation, exposing the catastrophic failures of the systems designed to protect children in the UK.

Firebird runs from Thursday 9th July – Saturday 1st Aug 2026 @ Southwark Playhouse

Archduke with Abraham Popoola

Belgrade, 1914. Three hungry young men are offered something to eat (and the chance to change history). Their mission: kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand and set the century alight.

Sharp, funny and dangerously timely, Archduke is a thrilling new production for an age of restless young men.

Archduke runs from Thursday 9th – Sat 25th July @ Royal Court Theatre

Tender starring Francesca Amewudah-Rivers

Tells the story of two women who find each other without knowing they were looking.
   
Ivy has life sorted; she’s got a flat, a boyfriend, and she knows exactly where it’s all headed. Except there is this thing that she tries not to think about. The thing she left in her childhood bedroom.

 
Ash should be having the time of her life. But, fresh out of a bad relationship, she’s full of things she can’t leave behind. And there’s something off about her new flat. The wallpaper pulses, and sometimes it sounds like a heartbeat. 
 
Two women. A chance encounter that tumbles into infatuation. And an undeniable force waiting just out of sight, ready to wreck it all.

Tender from Thursday 9th – Tuesday 1st August @ Bush Theatre

Boy Blue In The Park creator Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante

Boy Blue return to Regents Park Open Air Theatre for the second instalment of Boy Blue in the Park. As Boy Blue celebrates 25 years, you can expect a jam-packed celebration of hip hop dance theatre & music performed by Boy Blue’s adult companies.

Join Boy Blue before the show for a taster workshop* to experience some moves and grooves, learn rep and get a taste of what it’s like dancing with Boy Blue. Then we’ll have a DJ on the green before the show kicks off and afterwards.

Boy Blue In The Park Sunday 12th July – 6:30pm @ Regents Park Open Air Theatre

That Four Letter Word by Nicole Acquah, Landé Belo, Sara Amanda, directed by Landé Belo

“Love is an action, never simply a feeling.” — bell hooks

What do we really mean when we talk about love?

The award-winning Ain’t I A Woman? returns with That Four Letter Word, three short plays that explore love in all its forms – tender and fierce, joyful and painful, complicated and hard‑won. Rooted in Black women’s experiences, these stories examine love not as a passive emotion, but as something we choose, practise and labour over. Love, here, is an action – and the consequences of acting (or failing to act) are deeply felt.

From a museum of memories to a tech boardroom to a couple’s bedroom three stories unfold, each exploring the courage, complexity and beauty of loving and being loved.

In Safekeeping, a woman journeys through personal and collective histories, inviting reflection on the objects and memories that shape us

In Heat a couple pass a restless night confronting the strains of change, revealing the difficulty of communicating when words aren’t enough

Whilst Pivot brings us into the high-stakes world of two women entrepreneurs, as they debate the future of their dating app and the meaning of love, friendship and self-worth.

Cast includes: Nicole Acquah, Ebony Skerritt, Steven Burrell, Trisha Nabalayo, Tunrayo Tomori

That Four Letter Word from Tuesday 14th – Saturday 18th July @ The Bread & Roses Theatre

I’m Every Woman – The Chaka Khan Musical Produced by Adrian Grant

I’m Every Woman promises to reveal the woman behind the diva and her rise to stardom, from the Black Panther Party to Rufus and solo superstardom. The new musical features Khan’s greatest hits, including I’m Every Woman, I Feel For You, Tell Me Something Good, Ain’t Nobody, Sweet Thing, Higher Love and Through The Fire.

Cast includes: Alexandra Burke, Jordan Frazier, Paige Peddie, Chanice Alexander-Burnett, Charlotte St Croix, Maryla Abraham, Chrissie Bhima, Sophie Earl, Duane-Lamonte O’Garro and Miles Anthony Daley.

I’m Every Woman – The Chaka Khan Musical runs from Wednesday 22nd July – Sunday 27th September @ Hackney Empire

Cats Based on T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,

From Euston station to Victoria Grove, the strays and rebels of London gather under the Jellicle moon in the hope they’ll be the chosen one. And each of them asks, because each of them dares, who will it be?

Cast includes Gary Wilmot, Melanie La Barrie, Taela Yeomans-Brown, Andrew Parfitt, Diante Lodge, Taziva-Faye Katsande, Hannah Joseph, Elliot Broadfoot, & more.

Cats runs from Saturday 25th July – Saturday 19th September @ Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

Crush by Hadsan Mohamud. Directed by Mya Onwugbonu

A clinic waiting room. Two Somali teens. One awkward meet-cute.

Najma has been in treatment for years. Zakariya’s just starting out. She sketches. He writes poems. Neither of them is ready to talk. Until they meet each other.

As their sessions continue, so do the chats. And the jokes. And the secrets.

Cast includes: Hadsan Mohamud and Mohamed Hashi.

Crush runs from Tuesday 28th – Thursday 30th July @ Riverside Studios

Dreamscape by Rickerby Hinds. Directed by Rickerby Hinds and Mxolisi Masilela

Inspired by the shocking true story of the shooting of Tyisha Miller, this electrifying fusion of beatboxing, rap and hip-hop dance reimagines her final living moments.

In 1998, 19-year-old Black woman Tyisha Miller was shot dead by four California police officers while she lay unconscious in a car. In Dreamscape, the violence of her death is juxtaposed with lyrical and joyous remembrance of her life. As each of her twelve bullet wounds is described by a Coroner’s report in cold clinical detail, Tyisha’s life bursts into vivid detail on stage – from the joy of dancing and softball to first kisses and hair styling.

Dreamscape runs from Tuesday 28th July – Saturday 8th August @ Arcola Theatre

It’s A Laughing Matter Black Minds Matter UK’s charity comedy night

It’s a comedy night that funds our therapy work, and the bill is genuinely brilliant: Chizzy Akudolu hosting, Slim headlining, with Wes Defoe, Chantel Nash, Nadz, Micah Hall, Kobi Coker and Max McKenzie joining them.

This is a moment for us. It’s the first big fundraiser since we paused our free therapy service to rebuild it into something more sustainable. Over a thousand people were waiting when we paused they’re still waiting. What we raise now shapes what comes next.

It’s A Laughing Matter Sunday 26th July @ Theatre Peckham