David Strathairn in WAITING FOR GODOT and More Set for Guthrie Theater 26-27 Season

The Guthrie Theater has revealed the nine productions that will make up its 2026–2027 mainstage season. The full lineup includes Samuel Beckett’s seminal play Waiting for Godot, featuring Academy Award nominee David Strathairn; the Octopus Theatricals production of John Kani’s testament to Shakespeare, Kunene and the King; the Guthrie’s 52nd production of A Christmas Carol; Agatha Christie’s masterpiece of suspense And Then There Were None; Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage’s moving drama Intimate Apparel; Kimberly Belflower’s fearless new play John Proctor Is the Villain; a world-premiere adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities by Jeffrey Hatcher; Gilbert and Sullivan’s swashbuckling musical delight The Pirates of Penzance; and Jonathan Spector’s critically acclaimed Eureka Day.

Waiting for Godot

The 2026–2027 Season begins with Samuel Beckett’s seminal play Waiting for Godot, directed by Joseph Haj. Performances run September 12 – October 11, 2026, on the Wurtele Thrust Stage.

Beneath a lonely tree on a country road, two companions wait for the mysterious Godot. As time moves along, Vladimir and Estragon fill their day with jokes, quarrels and small acts of care, circling the largest of questions: Why are we here? What are we here for? Who are we to be? Samuel Beckett’s tragicomedy uses wit and poignant dialogue to create a minimalist, existential world that is humorous yet heartbreaking. Staged at the Guthrie for the first time in over 50 years, and featuring Emmy Award winner and Academy Award nominee David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck) as Vladimir, this seminal play explores the human impulses to want more, to understand why and to keep showing up — even when nothing changes.

The Guthrie’s last production of Waiting for Godot was directed by Eugene Lion during the 1973–1974 Season. Other Beckett works staged at the Guthrie include Krapp’s Last Tape, Endgame, Happy Days and Bill Irwin’s one-man show On Beckett, among others.

Kunene and the King

Opening the season on the McGuire Proscenium Stage, the Guthrie will present the Octopus Theatricals production of Kunene and the King, a story of connection through Shakespeare by renowned South African artist John Kani, directed by Tony Award-winning actor and director Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Performances run October 10 – November 8, 2026.

In post-apartheid South Africa, Lunga Kunene, a no-nonsense, Black caregiver with little patience for privilege or hubris, finds himself providing in-home care for Jack Morris, a celebrated (and stubborn) white actor facing a life-changing diagnosis as he rehearses for the title role in King Lear. The two men are different in every way — race, class and politics, to start — yet they find unexpected common ground in the words of Shakespeare. This deeply human drama by Kani, who plays Kunene opposite actor Edward Gero (The Lehman Trilogy), traces the fragile work of truth-telling in a nation still shaped by its history and reveals how transcending the past allows us to truly see one another.

With a career that spans both continents and decades, Kani was a close collaborator with the late Athol Fugard, with whom he and Winston Ntshona co-wrote Sizwe Banzi Is Dead and The Island (Kani and Ntshona won a joint Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1975 for their work in both plays). Kani’s well-known screen roles include King T’Chaka in Captain America: Civil War and Black Panther, as well as the voice of Rafiki in The Lion King.

A Christmas Carol

On November 11, 2026, the Guthrie’s cherished holiday tradition continues with the 52nd production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, adapted by Lavina Jadhwani and directed by Addie Gorlin-Han, based on the original direction by Joseph Haj. Featuring original music and bursts of festive joy, this faithful adaptation celebrates the transformative power of compassion and second chances. Performances run through December 27 on the Wurtele Thrust Stage.

And Then There Were None

Next, the Guthrie will stage And Then There Were None, a masterpiece of suspense written by Agatha Christie and directed by Tracy Brigden. Performances run December 12, 2026 – February 21, 2027, on the McGuire Proscenium Stage.

Set on a remote island off England’s Devon coast, And Then There Were None follows 10 strangers who gather after receiving mysterious invitations. Each guest is hiding a dark secret, and while they wait for the hosts to arrive, a chilling gramophone recording accuses them of crimes they thought were long buried. One by one, the guests begin to die in eerie accordance with a sinister nursery rhyme. Trapped by stormy weather, suspicions turn inward: The killer must be among them. Based on the bestselling mystery novel of all time and adapted by Christie herself, this thrilling tale invites audiences to unravel the deadly riddle. Will the killer be revealed before it’s too late?

This is the Guthrie’s first production of And Then There Were None. The theater produced Christie’s The Mousetrap, also helmed by Brigden, in the 2024–2025 Season.

Intimate Apparel

The next production on the Wurtele Thrust Stage will be Intimate Apparel, a moving portrait of resilience by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage, directed by Lili-Anne Brown. Performances run January 23 – February 28, 2027.

Set in turn-of-the-century New York, Intimate Apparel centers around Esther, a skilled African American seamstress who stitches beautiful undergarments for women whose glamorous lives she glimpses only in passing. After receiving an eloquent note from a charming stranger, her deep longing to be married is kindled, and she embarks on a long-distance courtship. Yet the man behind the letters is not whom she expects, and Esther is forced into a new reality far from what she imagined. Set against a city shaped by divisions of class, race and religion, this achingly beautiful drama reveals the strength of claiming one’s own self-worth.

The Guthrie previously produced Nottage’s Intimate Apparel in 2005, the world premiere of Floyd’s — commissioned by the Guthrie and later retitled Clyde’s — in 2019 and her Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat in 2022.

John Proctor Is the Villain

On the McGuire Proscenium Stage, the Guthrie will produce Kimberly Belflower’s fearless new play John Proctor Is the Villain, directed by Marti Lyons. Performances will run March 13 – April 25, 2027.

In John Proctor Is the Villain, a group of teenage girls makes an unsettling discovery after reading The Crucible: The story they heard in class doesn’t match what they see on the page. As the discussion turns to rumors within their own social circle, the girls confront the celebrated “hero” of Salem in a startlingly modern light. Replacing the church and courtroom of Salem with a high school in Appalachian Georgia, this fiercely funny and urgent new work offers parallels to the classic tale while flipping the story on its head — questioning heroism, villainy and what it means when institutions protect men at the expense of girls’ safety and credibility.

This will be the first play by Belflower to be produced at the Guthrie. Lyons directed the play’s 2022 world premiere at Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C., and will make her Guthrie directorial debut with this production.

A Tale of Two Cities

Next on the Wurtele Thrust Stage, the Guthrie will produce a Guthrie-commissioned, world-premiere adaptation of Charles Dickens’ sweeping historical drama A Tale of Two Cities, adapted by Minnesota playwright Jeffrey Hatcher and directed by Joseph Haj. Performances will run April 3 – May 23, 2027.

London and Paris. The best of times and the worst of times. As the tinderbox of a bloodthirsty revolution ignites, this epic historical saga explores a world of doubles — two cities, mirrored lives and hidden identities. When French aristocrat Charles Darnay and English defense attorney Sydney Carton both fall for Lucie Manette, they are drawn into a web of love, war and loyalty that leads to a costly decision. Hatcher’s stunning adaptation preserves Charles Dickens’ narrative voice and upholds the novel’s timeless themes of sacrifice and redemption.

In addition to the Guthrie’s annual production of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and its 2020 presentation of Dickens’ Holiday Classic, the theater also produced Barbara Field’s adaptation of Great Expectations. Hatcher’s work is beloved by Guthrie audiences, and his adaptation of Dial M for Murder was recently staged at the Guthrie during the 2023–2024 Season.

Eureka Day

The final production on the McGuire Proscenium Stage will be the uproarious satirical comedy Eureka Day by Jonathan Spector, directed by Jenn Thompson. Performances will run May 15 – June 18, 2027.

Inclusion and consensus guide every decision at private school Eureka Day in Berkeley, CA — until a mumps outbreak throws the liberal bastion into turmoil. Devoted to fairness and social justice, the school board tries to host civil conversations about safely returning students to class. But when they encounter a wide range of opinions and increasingly scathing live chats, the once-unified community begins to fracture. Mumps cases rise, chaos ensues and the school’s future is put at risk. This Tony Award-winning comedy juxtaposes well-intentioned ideals with the complications of reality, revealing the fallout that can occur when doing good is anything but simple.

Eureka Day won the 2025 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play and will be Spector’s first work produced at the Guthrie. His plays have been produced nationally, and he has served locally as a Core Writer at the Playwrights’ Center.

The Pirates of Penzance

The final production of the Guthrie’s 2026–2027 Season will be Gilbert and Sullivan’s swashbuckling musical delight The Pirates of Penzance, directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Darko Tresnjak (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder) on the Wurtele Thrust Stage. Performances will be June 19 – August 22, 2027.

The Pirates of Penzance is a high-spirited romp through effervescent melodies and rapid-fire wordplay where nothing escapes unscathed — least of all propriety. As young Frederic approaches his 21st birthday and the release from his unlikely apprenticeship to a band of tenderhearted pirates, a twist of fate (and a leap-year birthday) pulls him back into a whirl of heroics, hilarity and the lovely Mabel who captures his heart. Can Frederic find a way to live happily ever after without abandoning his post? Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operetta employs swaggering pirates, an indomitable Major-General and a beloved musical theater patter “song” to playfully lampoon respectability and utterly delight audiences.