FENCES and More Set For Headlong 2026 Season

Headlong has announced details for their 2026 season including a brand-new production of August Wilson's Fences directed by Daniel Bailey (Red Pitch) in a co-production with Leeds Playhouse, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and HOME Manchester, marking the first major revival in over a decade of this American blockbuster.

Fences will open at Leeds Playhouse from Friday 11 - Saturday 26 September, before touring to Associate Partner Oxford Playhouse (Wed 30 Sep - Sat 3 Oct), Lyric Hammersmith Theatre (Tue 6 - Sat 31 Oct), HOME Manchester (Tue 3 - Sat 7 Nov), and Nottingham Playhouse (Tue 10 - Sat 14 Nov).

Director Daniel Bailey said: “It's an enormous privilege to be bringing August Wilson's Fences to the stage this year, a play that is a barometer for our time. I have such huge admiration for the productions that came before but I hope we're able to create a new idea of what this play is for a new generation.”

The creative team for Fences includes Casting Director Heather Basten CDG, Set & Costume Designer Lily Arnold, Composer and Sound Designer Khalil Madovi, Lighting Designer Jai Morjaria, Movement Director Shelley Maxwell, Fight Director Kev McCurdy and Design Associate Emily King.

August Wilson's landmark play set in the 1950s, returns in a vital new production directed by the award-winning Daniel Bailey. From one of America's most influential 20th century writers, this is a story of ambition for our time. Troy Maxson has cheated death once, but the past keeps closing in. On Pittsburgh's streets, he cracks jokes and spins stories, yet at home, the pressure is building. His wife, Rose holds the family together. She sees a changing world and hopes their son Cory might step into it with more freedom than Troy ever had. But when dreams collide, and tempers flare, the Maxson's edge towards a reckoning that could reshape everything they know.

Headlong and Leeds Playhouse have forged a highly successful Associate Partnership during Holly Race Roughan's tenure, collaborating on a string of critically acclaimed productions including Henry V, The House Party, A Raisin in the Sun, A Midsummer Night's Dream and August Wilson's Jitney. Fences signals the start of an exciting new chapter in their creative relationship, with Wilson's masterful writing warming the house for Tom Wright's  forthcoming season of new work at Leeds Playhouse.

Leeds Playhouse Artistic Director Tom Wright said: “Fences is an exhilarating way to open my first season at Leeds Playhouse and the next chapter of our partnership with Headlong. August Wilson is one of the great modern playwrights, and this landmark play reminds us that every classic was once a brave new work. As we look to champion original voices and new writing, it feels right to start with a play of such power, humanity and enduring relevance.”

This production also sees Headlong and Leeds Playhouse reuniting with long-term tour de force collaborators the Lyric Hammersmith after their joint success in 2024 of A Raisin in the Sun, and with HOME in Manchester after their hit The House Party. Headlong will also be returning to their Associate Partner Oxford Playhouse, with their third major touring show at Oxford Playhouse since Headlong relocated to the city.

Also announced, Naeem Hayat has been named as Associate Artistic Director of Headlong effective from January 2026. Co-director of Headlong's current production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Naeem Hayat also collaborated with Artistic Director Holly Race Roughan on 2022's Henry V. He was Resident Associate Director at Shakespeare's Globe in 2023 and other work as Co-Director and Associate Director includes The Comedy of Errors, Burnt at the Stake, Much Ado About Nothing and  Macbeth. As an actor he has featured in The Girl on the Train (UK Tour),  Nora: A Doll's House (Royal Exchange Theatre); The Village (Theatre Royal Stratford East) and the 2016 world tour of Globe to Globe: Hamlet in the title role.

Naeem Hayat said: “I'm beyond thrilled to be working with Holly and the brilliant team at Headlong. To join a company known for such bold, exciting and dynamic work is a real privilege. I'm incredibly passionate about the power and importance of touring theatre and can't wait to get stuck in!”

This Summer, Headlong and the Schwarzman Centre will present ROBOTA: A Creation Story for the End of Time - the first full scale theatre production to be staged at Oxford toUniversity's new Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, playing from 3 - 18 July 2026.

Ella Road (The Phlebotomist, Black Mirror) has today been announced to adapt and reawaken Karel Čapek's original 1920's play. Roy Alexander Weise (The Hot Wing King at the National Theatre, Much Ado About Nothing at The RSC) returns to Headlong to direct; after their critically acclaimed collaboration on untitled f**k miss saigon play (Young Vic, Royal Exchange, Manchester International Festival).

ROBOTA promises to be a high-voltage piece of theatre for the age of artificial intelligence. Created with Oxford University's Schwarzman Centre, ROBOTA collides theatre, Sci-Fi, and philosophy in a charged exploration of power and progress. Blending origin story with sci-fi, myth with machine, this is a bold, unsettling look at what it means to create life – and what happens when it turns on its maker.

Now in its sixth year, Headlong has announced the 2026 participants in their pioneering Origins programme, celebrating and developing emerging theatre directors from across the UK based outside of London. Headlong's Origins is supported by the Backstage Trust and continues the company's ambitions of nurturing talent from across the UK within the heart of the organisation.

Directors are invited to work closely with the company for 12 months, during which they will receive mentorship from leading industry professionals and Headlong's producing and creative team. The artists will have the opportunity to join Headlong's R&D sessions and workshops, engage with rehearsal processes and see work across the country, as they develop their own work and artistic vision.

The Origins 2026 cohort includes Amelia Michaels (Leicester), Ciaran Stewart (Manchester), Oisín Kearney (Belfast), Robert Furey (Bristol) and Amy Hailwood (Wigan).

After concluding its highly successful run at Shakespeare's Globe's Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on Saturday 31 January, Artistic Director Holly Race Roughan's acclaimed new take on A Midsummer Night's Dream, co-directed by Naeem Hayat, will begin its UK tour at Shakespeare North Playhouse from 3-7 February. The production will then tour to Leeds Playhouse, a Headlong Associate Partner venue (14-28 February 2026), Bristol Old Vic (4-21 March 2026) and Oxford Playhouse, a Headlong Associate Partner venue (24-28 March 2026).

A Production by Headlong and Shakespeare's Globe, with Bristol Old Vic and Leeds Playhouse, this striking new staging continues Headlong's signature lens of staging all plays like they are new plays, no matter their age or place in the public conscience, asking audiences to look at the stories they think they know afresh.

Holly Race Roughan, Artistic Director at Headlong and Lisa Maguire, Executive Director of Headlong said: “At Headlong, our mission is to serve the country with high-quality main-stage drama that makes the big questions of the moment thrilling. This year's programme does exactly that.

“We confront a world politically turned inside out with a dark, touring reimagining of A Midsummer Night's Dream. We grapple with the existential promise - and threat - of AI with Robota in Oxford's Schwarzman Centre. And we return to the road with the masterful writing of August Wilson, rediscovering Fences: an extraordinary story of racial injustice, class struggle and family fault lines that still cuts deep.