Bristol Old Vic Reveals 2027 Season of Revivals and World Premieres

Bristol Old Vic has announced its 2027 season: a programme of major revivals, a world-premiere musical and a new take on a theatrical classic. Shows go on General sale Wed 14 Oct at 12noon.

Leave Taking

Bristol Old Vic is thrilled to present Winsome Pinnock's landmark debut play Leave Taking from 23 Sep – 16 Oct 2027, bringing it back to the stage for a major 40th anniversary revival, directed by NANCY MEDINA. Leave Taking premiered at Liverpool Playhouse in 1987, won the 1991 George Devine Award and, in 1994, was the first play by a Black British woman to be produced by The National Theatre.

Set in North London, Leave Taking follows Enid, a British-Jamaican mother who came to Britain as part of the Windrush generation, and her teenage daughters Del and Viv. As Enid works to hold the family together, she turns to Mai, an Obeah woman, and family friend Broderick for guidance.

Winsome Pinnock is an award-winning writer for stage, radio, film and television, described as “the godmother of Black British writing” (The Guardian). Her phenomenal body of work has been produced on the British stage and internationally since 1985 and includes Rockets and Blue Lights (National Theatre, Manchester Royal Exchange & BBC Radio3), Mules (Royal Court and Internationally), the recent The Authenticator (National Theatre) and many more. In 2024, she was announced as Bristol Old Vic's first writer appointed as part of the theatre's Five Year Commitment residency for four writers.

Disco Dracula

Summer 2027 erupts in a blaze of mirror balls and fangs as Bristol Old Vic and Disco Dracula Productions co-produce the spectacular Disco Dracula – a hilarious, bloodsucking romp of a new musical running 27 May – 19 Jun. It's like if Rocky Horror and Saturday Night Fever had a baby – and then that baby ate you.

Tired, stale couple John and Mina just want a normal night out. Instead, they're lured into a disco vampire lair where the drinks are strong, the grooves are deep and the Count is holding auditions for eternity. As Dracula and his Brides turn up the seduction, John and Mina's crumbling relationship is put to the ultimate test: can two people who can barely make it through date night survive a rendezvous with the Lord of Darkness?

As the night goes on, and the stakes get higher, Stayin' Alive becomes a challenge as John and Mina learn the true meaning of Till Death Do Us Part…

With an infectious original disco score, jump scares, conga lines, and – most frightening of all – audience participation, Disco Dracula is a musical comedy fever dream of gothic horror proportion.

From the multi-Olivier-and-BAFTA-winning producers of Derren Brown and Peep Show, Disco Dracula has Music by Charlie O'Connor (Off Broadway comedy hit Pepper Slit; FX's Adults) and Book and Lyrics by Alena Henke and Charlie O'Connor, and will be directed by Robyn Grant (smash-hit cult musical comedy Unfortunate; Mischief Theatre's Thespians; Associate Director on 2:22 A Ghost Story (West End), Sweeney Todd (Birmingham Rep) and The Hunger Games On Stage).

Uncle Vanya

From 22 Apr–15 May, Bristol Old Vic's RYTDS Associate Artistic Director Rikki Henry brings a thrilling new vision to Chekhov's tragi-comic masterpiece Uncle Vanya, in an English version by David Lan and in co-production with Stratford East.

“I've let my life slip away when all these years I could have had everything – which now I can't because I'm forty-seven!”

Relocated to a rundown office: dripping water cooler, towering filing cabinets and reams upon reams of paper. Time stands still. Windows 95 chimes. The phone rings, and rings, and rings.

In the midst of a midlife crisis, Vanya, his dedicated niece Sonya and the local doctor Astrov are visited by Alexander, the widower of Vanya's late sister and Sonya's father, and his glamorous new wife Yelena. Vanya has spent years financing their lavish city lifestyle, only for Alexander to arrive with the surprise declaration that he intends to sell the business.

While Vanya and Astrov appear to fall under Yelena's charms, Sonya is less convinced. Polite facades quickly crumble and long-repressed, vodka-fuelled confessions of love have devastating consequences.

Bristol Old Vic Associate Artistic Director Rikki Henry's wonderfully creative concept won plaudits at Theater Dortmund in 2023. Now, in an entirely new English language production and using David Lan's “notably sharp, bright translation” (The Times), Chekhov's classic is brought to darkly witty life once more.

Are we all condemned to live the lives we started, or is fundamental change possible?

Visiting Work

In Summer 2027, Dog Man: The Musical is touring to Bristol Old Vic from 24–27 Jun. This hilarious new musical for anyone aged 5+ is based on the worldwide bestselling book series from Dav Pilkey, the creator of Captain Underpants and Cat Kid Comic Club. Best friends George and Harold have been creating comics for years, but now that they're ten, they figure it's time to level up and write a musical based on their favourite character, Dog Man, the crime-biting sensation who is part dog, part man and ALL HERO! How hard could it be?

This is followed by Housemates by Hijinx (30 Jun – 3 Jul), in association with Sherman Theatre. In the 1970s, Alan, a young man with Down's syndrome, crashed into the life of student Jim. Alan had lived as a resident in a Cardiff Hospital since childhood; all he wanted was to live in a house and be in a band. Jim wanted to make a difference in the world, but didn't know how. Together with their friends, they embarked on an experiment that transformed how things were done, how people were treated and who got to tell you how to live. This was the beginning of the end of institutionalised care and the birth of Supported Living. Performed by a cast of neurodivergent and neurotypical actor-musicians, Housemates packs a punch and touches the heart.

From 22–23 June, join Pride and Prejudice's most roguish gentleman, George Wickham, on the eve of his sixtieth birthday, to lift the sheets on what exactly happened thirty years on from where we left him… and discover his own version of some very famous literary events. Being Mr Wickham stars Adrian Lukis, who played Mr Wickham in the renowned 1995 BBC TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

These productions for 2027 join visiting Theatre work already on sale including: The Signalman, bringing Victorian illusions and ghost stories with occult illusionist David Alnwick to the stage (19–21 Jan); a glittering evening of Shakespearean music, verse and anecdote with Food of Love (28 Jan), and Austentatious, the award-winning smash-hit comedy where the all-star cast improvise a hilarious new Jane Austen novel every night (29–30 Jan). We also open up the theatre to the next generation of performers as Bristol School of Acting bring Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along to the Theatre stage from 12–17 Jul.

In the Studio

In the Studio, the multi-award winning Until I Find You runs from 6–17 Apr. Alma is a mother searching for her missing daughter, one of the many people who have disappeared without trace in Mexico. As she looks for her daughter, Alma finds others living through the same nightmare. Families come together, strangers become lifelines and what begins as a solitary struggle grows into a collective act of resistance. Created by internationally acclaimed, multi-award-winning theatre companies Ad Infinitum (UK) and El Ingenio del Caldero (Mexico), Until I Find You combines fierce, raw physicality with powerful storytelling.

This is followed by New Perspectives and Royal & Derngate's Let The Whale Die, a strange and unsettling journey into the mind of a woman who's stopped explaining herself and has no intention of giving people what they expect. Running from 18–22 May.

It joins previously announced Studio Productions including darkly comic new drama, Birdcatcher about a teenage girl trying to find herself in a world that's about to end (26–30 Jan); Bristol Old Vic Young Company's Isle of Glass, a story about fate and the lives we choose, written and directed by Maddie Wakeling (20–23 Jan); and Undone Theatre's The Butterfly Project, an irreverent look at the stories that shape us, whether we like it or not, presented by Kakilang (27 Apr–1 May).

Comedy

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