Barbican Reveals Spring/Summer 2027 Theatre & Dance Season

The Barbican has announced its Spring/Summer 2027 Theatre & Dance programme, with both our Theatre and The Pit hosting world-class productions from homegrown talent as well as International Artists and companies, many of whom have notably had a prolific history of collaboration with the Barbican. The season features two UK premieres (Caroline Guiela Nguyen's Saigon, Plexus Polaire's A Doll's House), two world premieres (ZooCo's Three Men on a Billboard, and CRIPtic Arts' Romeo & Juliet), plus the welcome return of some Barbican favourites (Death Note: The Musical, A Night with Boy Blue, and our continuing partnership with MimeLondon). From inventive new narratives to striking reinterpretations of classic stories, our Spring/Summer season highlights that for almost thirty years, the Barbican's groundbreaking theatre programming has been vital in championing artists and productions both large - and small-scale, becoming a home in London for theatrical excellence and innovation.

Saigon

Internationally acclaimed French-Vietnamese writer and director Caroline Guiela Nguyen returns to the Barbican's main stage following the UK premiere of LACRIMA in 2025, with the UK premiere of her epic Saigon (11 – 13 Mar) as part of an international tour, marking 10 years since the production was first created in 2017. The result of long-term research and engagement in both France and Vietnam, the collectively devised production is set in a Vietnamese restaurant that shifts between Saigon in 1956 and Paris in 1996, bringing together characters across generations as they reckon with exile, longing, memory and the lasting impact of history. Blending personal stories with historical events, Nguyen creates a richly detailed portrait of migration and belonging, exploring the enduring connections between Vietnam and France.

A Night with Boy Blue

Barbican Associate Artists Boy Blue are back at the Barbican with A Night with Boy Blue (19 – 21 Feb), celebrating twenty-five years of the groundbreaking hip-hop company. A show of two halves, A Night with Boy Blue will showcase the whole of the Boy Blue family, with almost 200 dancers of all ages who have participated in Boy Blue training programmes, followed by a conceptual journey through Boy Blue's repertoire, bringing back iconic pieces as well as some familiar faces. Alongside these performances, Boy Blue will hold a series of events across the weekend embodying their creative mission to 'Educate, Enlighten, Entertain', with a Frontline Battle in the Theatre on Saturday afternoon (20 Feb), and interactive dance workshops on Sunday (21 Feb) with more information to be announced soon.

A Doll's House

Also returning to the Barbican Theatre in Spring 2027 is Plexus Polaire, the multi-award-winning French-Norwegian theatre company who were last at the Barbican in 2015 with their critically-acclaimed take on Moby Dick. This time, they turn to the seminal work of Henrik Ibsen with an adaptation of A Doll's House (3 – 6 Feb), starring Plexus Polaire's artistic director Yngvild Aspeli, which celebrates its UK premiere at the Barbican as part of our ongoing partnership with MimeLondon. In this 'brilliantly inventive' (New York Times) interpretation, we follow Nora Helmer, a housewife reckoning with the web of lies her marriage has been built on. Masterfully designed human-sized puppets, striking imagery and Plexus Polaire's characteristically intelligent perspective on classic literature combine to reimagine this story of artifice and deceit via the most apt of mediums - puppetry.

Absence and Presence

Earlier in the season, The Pit welcomes another MimeLondon curation with Andrew Dawson's first performance of his award-winning Absence and Presence (19 – 23 Jan) in two decades. The show follows Dawson's experience of grief after finding his father had passed away, with his body laying undiscovered for ten days after his death. A mixture of dance, mime, and sculpture, Absence and Presence notably includes personal letters as well as the unique use of video, with Dawson portraying his own father. The performance is set to a score from award-winning composer for stage and screen Joby Talbot. Dawson explores his own deeply personal understanding of grief and bereavement through a manipulation of physical movement for the first time since his last rendition of the show in 2007.

Tout/Rien (All/Nothing)

Also as part of the MimeLondon series, the Barbican welcomes Belgium's Compagnie Modo Grosso with the London premiere of Tout/Rien (All/Nothing) (12 – 16 Jan). Created by Alexis Rouvre and performed by Loïc Faure, Tout/Rien unfolds as a circus of fabrics, chains, and stones, all serving as poetic devices to explore the relationship between the moving body, objects and stage space. It asks how it is possible to see and feel time, how can it be captured in movement. Inspired by the school of thought of astrophysicist Carlo Rovelli, Faure manipulates balance, falling, and persistence, whilst juggling with time rather than gravity.

Three Men on a Billboard

Returning to The Pit for the third time, multi-award-winning theatre company ZooCo present the world premiere of Three Men on a Billboard (8 – 13 Feb), following the critically acclaimed world premiere of Perfect Show for Rachel at the Barbican in 2022 and sold-out run in 2024. Created by ZooCo and Jackson Used, this production tells the remarkable true story of three men who, in 1982, entered a radio competition to win a mobile home by living on a 30-foot billboard beside a motorway. What was expected to last a few weeks became a 261-day endurance test, turning the three men into unlikely celebrities and a marketing stunt into one of America's strangest media sensations. Directed by ZooCo co-founders Fleur Rooth and Flo O'Mahony, they live-direct the action each night as life on the billboard becomes entangled with their own decade-long creative partnership. Charged, playful and unpredictably live, the production moves between public spectacle and private intimacy to explore what it takes to build, share and sustain something together.

Witness

Next, a work aimed at both schools and adult audiences, created in collaboration with Theatre Peckham in partnership with Words of Colour and directed by Dr. Suzann McLean MBE, comes to The Pit in the form of Witness (3 – 6 Mar). Bringing to life the novella by Alex Wheatle MBE, Witness sees young student Cornell navigate life outside of mainstream school in a specialist environment. Suddenly confronted by a shocking act of violence, his world changes forever, leaving him torn between speaking out and risking everything or staying silent to protect those closest to him. Witness will hold a two-week residency in The Pit, with one week dedicated to rehearsal and workshops, and the other week for public performances, including some performances held solely for school students with moderated conversations around masculinity and mental health which support relevant curriculum framework.

Romeo & Juliet

Long-standing Barbican collaborators CRIPtic Arts return to The Pit with the world premiere of Romeo & Juliet (13 – 15 May). Directed by CRIPtic Artistic Director Jamie Hale and starring Tatum Swithenbank and Steph Castelete, this bold reimagining of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet explores independence, autonomy and infantilisation through the lens of disability. As the two disabled stars find joy and intimacy together under the watchful eyes of their overprotective families, the production asks whether the real tragedy is their deaths, or the world they live in. Using abridged original language, this challenging and vital production continues CRIPtic's trailblazing work in disabled-led theatre.

Death Note: The Musical

Rounding out the season and following a record-breaking summer 2026 run and critical acclaim (“the best show I have seen in the last decade” - Radio Times), Death Note: The Musical returns to the Barbican (23 Mar – 15 May) by popular demand, a continuation of our thriving partnership with Trafalgar Entertainment. Tickets for Death Note: The Musical are on sale now.

Open Lab

Open Lab programme will return for 2027/28, which gives artists the opportunity to develop a new project, idea or performance as well as taking part in a year-long programme of support. Through Open Lab, the Barbican supports early to mid-career artists and companies working in theatre and dance. Applications open 10am on 30 November 2026, and close 12pm on 15 January 2027.