Dorset Theatre Festival Unveils 2026 Season Lineup Featuring DECEIVED and More

Dorset Theatre Festival has unveiled its 49th Main Stage Summer Season beginning June 19, 2026. The four-show lineup includes Deceived, a chilling new adaptation of the classic thriller Gaslight, by Johnna Wright & Patty Jamieson (June 19 - July 4); The Understudy by Theresa Rebeck (July 10 - July 18); the New England Premiere of Advice by Brent Askari (July 31 - August 15); and Lobby Hero by Kenneth Lonergan (August 21 - September 5). All performances will take place at the historic Dorset Playhouse.

DECEIVED

Based on the play Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton
By Johnna Wright & Patty Jamieson
Directed by Jackson Gay
June 19 - July 4, 2026

The 2026 season will open with the new gripping adaptation of a classic psychological thriller, Deceived by Johnna Wright & Patty Jamieson, based on the play Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton.

Before "gaslighting" was a term, it was a weapon. In fog-bound 1901 London, a young bride begins to sense something terribly wrong in her home-dimming lights, phantom footsteps, whispers in empty rooms. Her devoted husband insists it's all in her imagination. As the disturbances grow more sinister, she must uncover the truth before she loses her sanity. Based on Patrick Hamilton's 1938 thriller and newly adapted by Johnna Wright and Patty Jamieson, this gripping drama delivers shocking twists and a final, breathtaking reveal.

Jackson Gay returns to Dorset to direct after helming the Festival's acclaimed productions of The Book Club Play (2025), Sidekicked (2024), Stephen King's Misery (2023), Wait Until Dark (2022), and Slow Food (2019), which reunited actors Dan Butler and Peri Gilpin, both alums of the TV comedy Frasier.

Johnna Wright and Patty Jamieson are Canadian theatre artists and collaborators whose work blends deep theatrical experience with a passion for storytelling. Wright-director, dramaturg, and co-founder of Vancouver's Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival-has premiered dozens of new plays and received multiple Jessie Richardson Awards. Jamieson is a longtime member of the Shaw Festival acting ensemble, where she has appeared in more than 60 productions, and is also a writer, producer, musician, and educator. Together they co-wrote Deceived (adapted from Gaslight) and are developing The Three Musketeers, creating work that champions compelling stories and underheard voices.

THE UNDERSTUDY

Written & Directed by Theresa Rebeck
July 10 - July 18, 2026 (11 Performances Only!)

The Dorset season will continue with a wickedly funny, fast-paced comedy written and directed by Dorset's Resident Playwright and Emmy and Pulitzer Prize Nominee Theresa Rebeck.

Break a leg!...or someone else's. When a struggling actor lands an understudy role on Broadway in a long-lost Kafka play, he thinks his luck has changed-until a swaggering Hollywood star storms into rehearsal. As egos collide and old tensions resurface, a sharp-witted stage manager fights to keep the show from imploding. Theresa Rebeck's The Understudy is a sharply funny backstage comedy about ambition, jealousy, and the fragile line between art and ego.

Director Theresa Rebeck is a widely produced writer for stage, film, television and novels, whose work can be seen and read throughout the United States and internationally. With five plays produced on Broadway, Rebeck is the most Broadway-produced female playwright of our time.

As the Festival's resident playwright, Rebeck has developed more than eight productions at Dorset Theatre Festival that have gone on to other stages around the country including 2017's Downstairs starring Tim and Tyne Daly and the 2016 World Premiere of her play The Way of the World starring Kristine Nielsen.

ADVICE

By Brent Askari
Directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt
July 31 - August 15, 2026
New England Premiere

Next on the 2025 Main Stage will be a lively and raucous new play, Advice.

This new pointed comedy recently completed its National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere and now makes its New England debut at Dorset.

Ron and Joy's anniversary dinner implodes when Gary-recently divorced, chronically chaotic, and newly self-declared life coach-arrives with a surprise: a self-help book he's written called How To Maximize The Most Successful You. The catch? His life is a mess. As they try to stop him from quitting his job, wine flows, "team-building" begins, and brutal truths spill. Brent Askari's sharp, fast-paced comedy skewers marriage, friendship, and the danger of asking the wrong question at exactly the right time.

Playwright Brent Askari's work has been developed at leading theaters across the country. Askari is a Persian-American playwright and actor whose work has been developed at leading theaters across the country. A former member of HBO's New Writers Project and an Associate Artist at Portland Stage Company, Askari has established himself as a prominent voice in contemporary American theater. He is best known for his play Andy Warhol in Iran, which won the Berkshire Theatre Critics Award for Best New Play. His other acclaimed works include The Refugees (winner of the NNPN Smith Prize for Political Theater) and American Underground. Beyond the stage, Askari is an ensemble member of Mad Horse Theatre Company and has written for major studios including Paramount Pictures and Marvel Films.

Directed by seven-time Festival director, Adrienne Campbell-Holt, whose previous Dorset World Premieres, Downstairs (2017) by Theresa Rebeck starring Tim and Tyne Daly, and Still (2023) by Lia Romeo starring Tim Daly and Jayne Atkinson, went on to acclaimed Off-Broadway productions in NYC.

Katie Lowes, playing the role of Joy, is widely known for her role as Quinn Perkins on ABC's Scandal and for appearances in Inventing Anna and The Hunting Wives. Adam Shapiro (Gary) is recognized for roles in The Bear, Never Have I Ever, and The Lincoln Lawyer, as well as stage performances and films including Mank and Steve Jobs. Together, married couple Lowes and Shapiro bring real-life chemistry and comic precision to this explosive dinner party comedy.

LOBBY HERO

By Kenneth Lonergan
Directed by M. Bevin O'Gara
August 21 - September 5, 2026

The season concludes with Kenneth Lonergan's Tony Award-winning play.

In the lobby of a Manhattan apartment building, nothing ever happens-until everything does. When a murder investigation entangles a drifting security guard, his rule-bound boss, and two clashing police officers, the lobby becomes a pressure cooker of secrets and shifting loyalties. As duty collides with desire, each must decide what-and who-they're willing to protect. Smart, funny, and crackling with tension, Lobby Hero by Kenneth Lonergan is a riveting comedy-drama about moral gray areas and everyday heroism.

Kenneth Lonergan is an Academy Award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and director renowned for his intricate, naturalistic portrayals of human emotion and everyday life. A founding member of the theater company Naked Angels, Lonergan first gained major acclaim with his 1996 play This Is Our Youth, followed by the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Waverly Gallery and the Olivier-nominated Lobby Hero. His transition to film has been equally distinguished. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Manchester by the Sea (2016), which he also directed.