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Today the Royal Court announces its 70th anniversary programme, with a return to the stage by Tilda Swinton for the first time in three decades being the major coup Also appearing will be Gary Oldman in Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, giving Londoners a chance to see the highly acclaimed production last seen at York Theatre Royal. The entire year of programming for 2026 has now been released, with 12 productions across the venue’s two stages, alongside new national projects and partnerships to drive investment and ambition for the next decade of new writing in the UK. Artistic Director David Byrne says, “Everybody back to ours. The Royal Court is turning 70 with the most thrilling season we could imagine. On our stages and far beyond, we’re throwing a legendary, year-long party and you’re all invited.” Swinton will be reprising her extraordinary 1988 performance in Manfred Karge’s Man to Man, reuniting her with director Stephen Unwin and designer Bunny Christie from the original production, and transferring to the Berliner Ensemble then New York in Spring 2027. Stephen Unwin says, “Never go back!”, it’s often said, but revisiting Manfred Karge’s Man to Man with Tilda Swinton once again wearing the Y-fronts, Bunny Christie designing and Ben Ormerod lighting, is a rare creative opportunity. I’ve developed and changed in countless ways since we first staged the play in the 1980s, but it has shaped many of my creative choices ever since. It will be thrilling to return to the Royal Court and see this remarkable play bloom again, and then take it to Karge’s home, the Berliner Ensemble, where he began his career under the leadership of Helene Weigel.” Other productions at the Jerwood Theatre downstairs include the world premiere of Luke Norris’ romantic drama Guess How Much I Love You? starring Robert Aramayo and Rosie Sheehy and directed by Jeremy Herrin. That will start the year, with Ryan Calais Cameron’s Zambian space race epic The Afronauts bookending the programme in the final slot of 2026. Calais Cameron says: “The Afronauts is a love letter to the dreamers history forgot. It’s about what happens when imagination becomes a form of resistance, and how the fight for freedom isn’t just political, it’s cosmic. At its heart, this play asks: what does liberation look like when the whole universe is watching? For me, it’s not just a story about reaching the moon, it’s about the courage to believe we belonged there all along.” Also, this anniversary welcomes Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor is the Villain directed by Tony Award-winner Danya Taymor, direct from its smash-hit Broadway run. Danya Taymor and Kimberly Belflower say, “We are thrilled and honored to bring John Proctor is the Villain to the iconic Royal Court Theatre where so many brilliant and audacious artists have created. It feels like special witchcraft that Arthur Miller’s The Crucible also made its English debut at the Royal Court exactly 70 years ago, and we can’t wait to present our production on the very same stage.” Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph’s Archduke brings an alternative take on the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in a new production directed by Lyndsey Turner, with design by Es Devlin. Paired with Krapp’s Last Tape, a nightly curtain-raiser performance of 18 year-old Leo Simpe-Asante’s comedy Godot’s To-Do List, first discovered by the Royal Court’s 2025 Young Playwrights Award and directed by Resident Director Aneesha Srinivasan - pairing the two plays as a gesture to the original premiere of Krapp’s Last Tape, itself a curtain-raiser in 1958. Gary Oldman says, “I'm very excited to be returning to the Royal Court with Krapp's Last Tape and to share the stage with Leo's wonderful play Godot’s To Do-List. I'm very honoured and proud to be a part of it.” Leo Simpe-Asante is also announced as the 2026 Jerwood New Playwright, supported by Jerwood Foundation. Such support to new talent is of course what the Royal Court is all about. Since its founding in 1956, the year-round promise of the Royal Court is that anyone writing in English can send a play for equal consideration. Honouring the Royal Court’s long-standing commitment to new writers, the Upstairs at Jerwood Theatre season features four new plays discovered entirely through the theatre’s open script submissions, whereby the Royal Court reads over 3,000 new plays each year. The Upstairs programme presents debut plays, original voices and bold new stories received through open script submissions. There’s prehistoric cannibalism in Jack Nicholls’ The Shitheads directed by Aneesha Srinivasan & Artistic Director David Byrne Digital voyeurism in Georgie Dettmer’s Are You Watching? Ancestral conjure in Joy Nesbitt’s Blood of my Blood directed by Tatenda Shamiso. And Welsh community politics in Rhys Warrington’s Monument, directed by Francesca Goodridge and co-produced with Sherman Theatre, Cardiff. Palestinian-Isaeli writer-performer Yousef Sweid and Isabella Sedlak’s Between The River and The Sea, a personal story of family, fear, and imagining a future beyond borders, comes to the Royal Court following international acclaim, originally produced by Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin. Sedlak and Sweid say: “It is still hard to believe that our last-minute-decision to join the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with Between the River And The Sea resulted in an invitation to join the 70 th anniversary program at the Royal Court. We couldn’t have dreamt of a better place to present this piece. We are absolutely thrilled to bring this story about a unique life experience to a London audience, and hope to make a small contribution to amplify unheard perspectives.” Further to this approach to theatre development, for the 70th anniversary they are also launching the Jerwood Royal Court Commissioning Scheme, which will provide major new investment in UK-wide playwriting, creating six brand new play commissions every year for writers and producers beyond the Court’s own stages, with annual open applications for six grants of up to £6,000 each. Reaching beyond London to nation-wide audiences, a collaboration with BBC Radio 4 will include a new radio production of Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children, first premiered at the Royal Court in 2016 before transferring to Broadway. Further sharing the Court’s cultural legacy, playwright Mark Ravenhill will curate radio adaptations of Royal Court plays spanning seven decades of BBC archives, available on Radio 4Extra and BBC Sounds. Following the successful London pilot of the Young Playwrights Award in 2024-25, the 70th anniversary will also feature the Court’s first National Young Playwrights Award Festival in July 2026, celebrating the best work by teenagers from across the country - with submissions open from January, lead supported by the Dominic Webber Trust and with prizes and winners’ publication supported by Nick Hern Books. As a mix of top theatrical talent and rising stars, it’s an impressive line-up and a suitably exciting one for their landmark year. Tickets for all newly announced productions will go on sale to supporters from 12pm on Tuesday 28th October, to Friends and Good Friends at 12pm on Thursday 30th October, and to the general public at 12pm on Tuesday 4th November https://royalcourttheatre.com
