DEAR ENGLAND Comes to Milton Keynes Theatre in January

Following a record-breaking run in the West End in 2023, James Graham's Olivier Award-winning play Dear England is now on tour, visiting 16 venues across England, in a co-production with Josh Andrews and Stuart Galbraith for JAS Theatricals. Performances run at Milton Keynes Theatre from Tue 20 - Sat 24 Jan 2026, with tickets available now.

The cast includes David Sturzaker as England manager Gareth Southgate, with Samantha Womack (EastEnders, Mount Pleasant) playing team psychologist Pippa Grange. The cast also includes: Jake Ashton-Nelson (Jordan Henderson), Luke Azille (Jadon Sancho), Ian Bartholomew (Greg Dyke), Jass Beki (Bukayo Saka), Ashley Byam (Raheem Sterling), Steven Dykes (Sam Allardyce), Courtney George (Alex Scott), Oscar Gough (Harry Kane), Jayden Hanley (Marcus Rashford), Connor Hawker (Harry Maguire), Tom Lane (Eric Dier), Ian Kirkby (Gary Lineker), Jack Maddison (Jordan Pickford), Liam Prince-Donnelly (Dele Alli), and George Rainsford (Mike Webster). Stuart Ash, Natalie Boakye, Ebube Chukwuma, Sam Craig, Miles Henderson and Alex Wadham complete the company. The cast are also playing additional roles as part of the ensemble.

Dear England is written by multi-award-winning stage and screen writer James Graham (Punch, West End; Sherwood, BBC One), directed by Almeida Theatre's Artistic Director Rupert Goold (Patriots, Ink; Almeida Theatre/West End/Broadway), with set design by Es Devlin (Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour; The Lehman Trilogy, National Theatre).

It’s time to change the game. The country that gave the world football has since delivered a painful pattern of loss. The England men’s team has the worst track record for penalties in the world, and manager Gareth Southgate knows he needs to open his mind and face up to the years of hurt to take team and country back to the promised land.  

The wider creative team for Dear England includes Costume Designer, Evie Gurney; lighting designer, Jon Clark; co-movement directors, Ellen Kane and Hannes Langolf; video designer, Ash J Woodward; co-sound designers, Dan Balfour and Tom Gibbons with additional music by Max Perryment. 

They are joined by tour revival director Connie Treves, revival movement director Tom Herron, casting director Bryony Jarvis-Taylor CDG, associate lighting designer Ben Jacobs, associate video designer Libby Ward, associate sound designer Johnny Edwards, casting associate Lilly Mackie and resident director Dan Hutton.

The National Theatre will run a year-long schools engagement programme inspired by Gareth Southgate’s ‘Dear England’ open letter that he wrote to England fans in 2021.  This programme, which will prompt young people across the UK to reflect on their own place in history, just as the footballers in Southgate's squad were encouraged to do, is in response to this year being the 80th anniversary of the Second World War.  It will be delivered in schools across England with assemblies and workshops using spoken word and sound design to support students to share the hopes and aspirations they have for themselves and other young people, 80 years from now.  The resulting sound archive will form a unique 2025–2026 time capsule.  Students will also be invited to see performances of Dear England during the tour.  This year-long schools engagement programme is expected to reach over 10,000 young people.

Dear England was originally commissioned by The National Theatre and developed with the theatre’s New Work department.  Its world premiere was on 20 June 2023 in the Olivier theatre.  Following a sold-out run, Dear England transferred to the Prince Edward Theatre, in London’s West End, from 9 October 2023 to 13 January 2024, where it broke box office records.  Dear England was subsequently released to cinemas through National Theatre Live on 24 January 2024 and has been screened almost 2,500 times across the UK.  In February 2024, the BBC announced it had commissioned a four-part drama of Dear England based on the stage production for BBC One and BBC iPlayer, and it won ‘Best New Play’ at the 2024 Olivier Awards later that year.  Dear England returned to The National Theatre in spring 2025, updated to reflect the 2024 UEFA EURO tournament and Gareth Southgate’s final chapter as England manager.  The play had its regional premiere at the Lowry in Salford on 29 May, followed by a 4-week run.