KING LEAR With Autistic Adults to Tour Rochester, London, Brighton, Aug 24-28

Flute Theatre is presenting King Lear with autistic adults, adapted by Kelly Hunter, on a short UK tour this August.

Flute Theatre's performances are based on the Hunter Heartbeat Method, created over the last 26 years by profoundly autistic people across the world playing with Artistic Director Kelly Hunter MBE. Flute regularly performs in the US, Spain, Romania, Bulgaria (with Ukrainian refugees) and India. According to the company, its work in the UK is the hardest to fund and the hardest to sustain.

This August, Flute Theatre presents a short tour with its UK company of profoundly autistic adults, allowing them to experience new places while performing the familiar with people they trust. The tour stops in Rochester, London (twice), Brighton, and Stratford-upon-Avon between August 24-28, 2026.

Kelly Hunter created the first performances of Shakespeare for autistic people using her Hunter Heartbeat Method in collaboration with the RSC in July 2014. Parents called it 'A Phenomenal success.' According to the release, the RSC never asked her to return to continue the collaboration, and she founded Flute Theatre in November 2014 in order to develop and continue making theatre for profoundly autistic people. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust supports Flute's work and opens the doors of Hall's Croft for its performances.

From 2021 to 2026, Flute performed with its local community of profoundly autistic people at Riverside Studios in West London. The release states that Riverside Studios have been taken over by new owners, that costs have become unmanageable, and that their treatment of Flute Theatre has lacked dignity and respect. As a result, Flute says it must tour until it finds another theatre in the UK to call home, and describes Hammersmith Social Club as 'a wonderful next stop.'

From 2018 to 2025, Flute Theatre ran a long-term performance project with autistic adults, closely working with the students and staff at St John College Brighton. The release states that the profoundly autistic students reached extraordinary levels of communicative progress and joy over the eight years, and that Flute Theatre supported them with 750 adapted online performances during the pandemic. In 2025, all arts provision was cut at the college, and according to the release, Flute Theatre was never invited back nor was its commitment and achievement ever acknowledged. A parent of a student described the situation: 'Imagine how upset my autistic son is now that there's no Flute at St Johns. He's not settling at all this term. What has happened at St Johns seems like wanton vandalism of something really special.' These parents have kept in close contact with Flute Theatre, traveling far to attend performances, and some will attend the performance at the Secret Garden in Brighton.

The Tour

This spring, Flute Theatre created a new production of Shakespeare's King Lear with its community of autistic adults in the UK, and this summer the company is taking the show on tour. In the autumn, Flute Theatre will apply to Arts Council England for funding to continue touring. The production allows the company's autistic community to experience and share the cathartic release of Shakespeare's most profound play. Flute Theatre's autistic actors are mostly non-verbal and need 24/7 care, and have no access to theatre other than Flute's performances.

The Performance

Up to 12 autistic adults sit with the 9 Flute Theatre actors around a painted floorcloth. The actors and participants experience Shakespeare's story through interactive sensory games, which everyone plays together. Each performance is adapted to the specific needs of each participant, however complex their needs may be. An outer circle is made up of parents, carers and the observing audience sitting in a circle of chairs on the outside of the floorcloth.

Kelly Hunter MBE said: 'Our King Lear with autistic adults is now on tour. Untamed and drummed to an inch of its life. We unleash the love of children for their flawed parents with the chaos and power of raw catharsis. The play leads us, our autistic adults teach us and as a company we continue to grow, standing stronger than ever together.'

Tour Dates

Rochester - 24th August 2026, Underhill Hall Rochester Independent College, 2:00pm. Invite only - register interest at kelly@flutetheatrecompany.com

London - 25th August 2026, Hammersmith Social Club, 11 Rutland Grove Hammersmith W6, 2:00pm. Tickets £11.51 via Eventbrite

Brighton - 26th August 2026, Secret Garden, Bristol Gardens, Kemp Town, Brighton, BN2, 2:00pm. Tickets £11.51 via Eventbrite

London - 27th August 2026, Hammersmith Social Club, 11 Rutland Grove Hammersmith W6, 2:00pm. Tickets £11.51 via Eventbrite

Stratford-upon-Avon - 28th August 2026, Hall's Croft, Old Town, Stratford-upon-Avon CV37 6BG, 2:00pm. Tickets £11.51. Invite only - register interest at kelly@flutetheatrecompany.com

About Flute Theatre

Flute Theatre creates and delivers productions of Shakespeare intended to affect the lives of autistic individuals and their families through specialised shows and long-term community projects across the world. Flute was founded in 2014 by Artistic Director Kelly Hunter MBE. Productions of Hamlet and Twelfth Night toured the major European Shakespeare Festival circuit between 2015-2019, including a run at Trafalgar Studios of Hamlet in 2016. During the pandemic, Flute adapted its work to be available online for one autistic individual at a time, performing 976 live online adapted shows across the world, from Bangalore to Blackpool, from March 2020-July 2021.

Since 2021, Flute has performed and toured Pericles for autistic people, a production partnered by its main stage adaptation of Pericles, created in 2022. During 2023, using this 'Double Pericles' model, the company performed extensively across the UK, in London, Brighton, Colchester, Devon, Sheffield, Stratford-upon-Avon and Oxford, as well as performing internationally in translation in Russian, Romanian, Ukrainian and Serbian. In May 2022, the company travelled to Sofia, Bulgaria to perform Pericles with Ukrainian refugees, creating a long-term collaboration at The Situational Centre in Sofia. In September 2023, Kelly Hunter travelled to Lima, Peru to create a Peruvian version of the production in Spanish at Teatro La Plaza for the Peruvian autistic community.

In early 2024, Flute created Twelfth Night for autistic people, returning to the Orange Tree Theatre for a three-week run, as well as giving a week of performances at Riverside Studios. The company also created a new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, performed alongside its existing production for autistic people in Romania, Serbia and London. At the same time, Flute revisited Hamlet, creating a new adaptation, Hamlet Collateral Damage, which premiered at Riverside Studios in London. In the summer of 2024, the company marked its tenth birthday with what it describes as the world's first Shakespeare festival for autistic people, performing all four productions for autistic audiences.

In October 2024, the company travelled to Gothenburg, Sweden to work with Big Wind Theatre company, passing on the games of Twelfth Night for autistic people. In November 2024, Kelly Hunter and Aleix Melé took part in Encuentro Otros Territorios Festival in Queretaro, Mexico, directing an adaptation of The Tempest for autistic people and their families. In the spring of 2025, Kelly Hunter and Natasha Haward initiated a programme of Hunter Heartbeat Courses in the US, Spain and the UK. In May 2025, the company directed a new adaptation of Pericles for autistic people at Phamaly Theatre in Denver, Colorado, using actors with disabilities as a core team. In December 2025, the company performed its Tempest in collaboration with The Urban Theatre Project across seven centres for autistic people in Kolkata, India. In March 2026, Kelly Hunter, joined by Aleix Melé and Alfons Nieto, trained students at Aules Arts Escèniques and performed La Tempesta in Catalan across centres for autistic people in Barcelona.

Following its month in Catalunya, the company spent April in London creating the new King Lear with autistic adults. Kelly Hunter spent over a year planning the work, which uses Shakespeare's text to offer what the company describes as a home of healing for autistic adults. In May, the company travelled to the Craiova Shakespeare Festival to perform Twelfth Night for autistic people in Romanian.

About Kelly Hunter MBE

Kelly Hunter, Founder and Artistic Director of Flute Theatre, began working in theatre aged 17, playing The Mistress in Evita in the West End in 1980. Since then she has been creatively engaged in theatres, performing, adapting and directing Shakespeare, and has written two books about Shakespeare. According to the release, her musicality and experience of the discipline of musical theatre set her on a path to hearing and seeing the 'deep music of Shakespeare,' leading her to create sensory games derived from Shakespeare that can be played by anyone, regardless of which language they speak, including those who are profoundly autistic.

The Hunter Heartbeat Method

Flute's Hunter Heartbeat games create what the company describes as a cathartic space where everyone is welcome to explore and share how it feels to be alive. The games use Shakespeare's heartbeat rhythms, together with his exploration of how eyes and minds can express and embody reason and love. Autistic people have created this methodology across the world, working with Artistic Director Kelly Hunter MBE over the last twenty six years.

The Hunter Heartbeat method was the basis of a longitudinal study at Ohio State University 2011-2015 and is currently being researched by Professor Antonia Hamilton at the neuroscience lab at University College London and Dr Jamie Ward at Goldsmiths, University of London. A recent paper by Behavioural Neurologist Peter Pressman in Portland, Oregon, 'The Neuroscience of What You Have Built, A Scientific Framework for the Hunter Heartbeat Method,' is available on request.

Company for King Lear

Thomas Briggs

Alexandra Clare

Natasha Haward

Sam Hill

Stanley Kearney

Jacob Lovick

Filippo Saccomano

Millie Smith

Joshua Welch

With

Alain English

Tim Harden

Luke Pillay

Harry Phillips

Natalie Ramadan

Gabriel Shaughnessy

Gregory Smith

Ranah Swedan

James Thomas

Amba Walling

Hari Walling

Ollie Walsh

Director - Kelly Hunter

Need more UK Regional Theatre News in your life?
Sign up for all the news on the Summer season, discounts & more...