Pleasance London Announces Programming for Fall And Winter

From political drama and musical mayhem to community storytelling and unexpected perspectives, Pleasance London's Autumn 2026 theatre season brings together ambitious new work, international collaboration, emerging voices and returning favorites, as the venue celebrates 30 years of championing artists and new ideas.

Across the Main House and Studio, audiences can expect everything from a building-wide celebration of Palestinian arts and culture and world premiere musicals to award-winning theatre, queer comedy and, for anyone wondering how Pleasance could possibly follow last year's viral panto success, not one but two pantomimes this festive season. 

PALArt Festival will run September 23 – October 3 and take over the entire Pleasance Islington venue for the opening two weeks, transforming the venue into a hub for Palestinian performance, storytelling and cultural exchange. 

The world premiere of BOYHOOD, running October 14-31st, arrives in the Main House for a three-week run. Created by multi-award-winning hip-hop theatre maker Conrad Murray and Attic Theatre Company, this new British musical combines razor-sharp wit, emotional honesty and an electrifying original soundtrack to explore friendship, fatherhood and modern masculinity.  

Fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe and winner of Pleasance's prestigious Charlie Hartill Fund,
Remember, Remember!, running from November 4-21st, lights the fuse on Bonfire Night. This ridiculously camp British history parody musical reimagines the Gunpowder Plot through hilarious original songs, forbidden love and gloriously inaccurate storytelling. Featuring a special voice cameo from Stephen Fry, it's a riotous and wildly misinformed retelling of one of Britain's most infamous tales of treason.

Spotlighting Asian representation is Dragon Boiz Present: The Full Monty on November 20th, a cheeky, feel-good queer cabaret reimagining of the iconic film. Blending striptease, drag, cabaret and 90s nostalgia, the show explores masculinity, vulnerability, identity and body confidence through the lens of an all-Asian cast.

Following last year’s viral sell-out Christmas season, Pleasance is once again decking the halls with a festive program bursting with mischievous holiday madness. Yankl and the Beanstalk, running December 2-12th,  brings a saucy, silly and politically playful retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk. Featuring the voice of Michael Rosen and packed with pickles, this queer Jewish panto serves up anarchic festive fun, while matinee performances offer a PG and Kosher alternative for younger audiences. Additional guest talent will be announced in the coming months.

Materialising from the minds of Gallifrey Cabaret and Just Something Different, It’s Behind Who!, running December 9-19th, is a wildly unhinged queer Doctor Who panto bringing its TARDIS to London for the very first time. Following acclaimed runs in Cardiff and Manchester, this joyful collision of drag, cult fandom and festive silliness features major Doctor Who cameo guests yet to be revealed.  

Returning after two years of sell-out runs, Our Gay Maria brings its outrageous Christmas
extravaganza to the Main House for its biggest edition yet. Glamorous, deranged and
unapologetically queer, the Marias’ cult festive favourite serves up a high-energy night of yuletide nonsense. 

As Halloween approaches, Pleasance serves up a theatrical trick-or-treat packed with horror, camp and cult classics. Following four years of sold-out Buffy the Vampire Slayer singalongs, Gigi and Crusty return with SCARY MOVIES: Gigi and Crusty Play Literally Everybody, running October 30-31st, a brand-new creepy cabaret tearing through horror movie hits with perverted parody songs and sinister singalongs. Champagne, performing on October 29th  reimagines classic horror tales through a comic burlesque lens in this gothic camp spectacular, while THE ROGERING, running on October 28-29th, brings
drag-infused queer horror to the stage with its spoof of ghost hunters, demonology and occult culture. Completing the Halloween line-up, The Triumph of Death running on October 30-31st,  blends clowning, puppetry and musical theatre into a bloody, biting and politically sharp satire exposing moral compromise and culture wars. 

Over in the Studio, the season opens with the emotionally charged two-handler BROS, running October 6-10th. Deeply funny and raw, this female-led, cross-gender performance examines masculinity through the female body. For audiences craving high-energy comedy, Terry's An American Tragedy About Cars, Customers, and Selling Cars to Customers races into Pleasance, where David Lynch meets Wes Anderson in a surreal, fast-paced world of marketing jargon and absurdist workplace satire. I Was Always Here, running October 20-22nd, brings uplifting verbatim theatre to the stage,
celebrating trans and gender-expansive lives across generations. 

Closing Pleasance’s 30th Anniversary Season, Tale of a Crescent, running December 17-19th, is a community production from Islington exploring gentrification and city life through both human and animal perspectives. Spanning 70 years of fragmented stories, this visually inventive multimedia production combines puppetry, stop-motion animation and micro-camera technology to create a darkly comic and tender portrait of urban change. 

With additional productions still to be announced, Pleasance’s landmark season brings together the breadth of work that has defined the venue for three decades, from world premieres and international collaborations to community productions and festive favourites.

Ellie Simpson, Head of Theatre at Pleasance London, shares, "This season brings together an incredible range of artists, stories and perspectives. There aren't many places where all of these productions can sit alongside one another and feel completely at home, but that's what Pleasance has always done best. Nearly 30 years on, we’re still backing artists to take risks, try something new and tell stories in their own way. At the heart of it all are artists who have something urgent, playful or surprising to say."