NINA, ROOM 13 and More Set For Battersea Arts Centre's 2026 Autumn-Winter Season
The London venue will present an immersive horror and a festival of music among its upcoming highlights.
Battersea Arts Centre has announced its Autumn/Winter 2026 Season of performances. The new season will feature two world premieres: BAC Production' NINA, The Seagull-inspired meta theatrical fever dream on coercion, power and the quest for creative expression, written by Caroline Williams and co-directed with Deborah Pearson, and Room 13, a site specific experiential horror from Immersive Octopus and multi-award-winning Secret Cinema director Tom Maller. It also includes the UK premieres of Good Sex an unrehearsed show bringing together two strangers and an intimacy director, and Gothic Opera's La Dame de Pique last staged in 1850s' Paris, alongside Action Hero's wildly inventive and absurdist A Song and Dance. UNREAL: A Festival of Magic and Performance showcases extraordinary artists from across the UK and Europe curated by Tom Cassani, Augusto Corrieri and Tim Bromage.
Building takeovers for Halloween and Christmas will celebrate Battersea Arts Centre's historic home. These follow the success of The Art of Mini Golf, a major international playable exhibition designed by leading women artists, which recently announced a 2-week extension until 9 August by popular demand. Halloween season offerings include Room 13, La Dame de Pique and a children's adaptation of Lemony Snicket's The Dark by Peut-Être Theatre. Christmas will welcome Dear Santa, a live stage show from Dear Zoo children's author Rod Campbell alongside Festive Soft Play and, of course, a trip to Santa's Grotto.
Pelin Başaran, Creative Director of Battersea Arts Centre says: “This season invites audiences to look at the world from new perspectives. Through extraordinary artists from across the UK and around the world, we explore the stories we hear, the narratives we challenge, and the realities we choose to create together. Whether questioning power, belief, or memory, these works remind us that we are not watching the story unfold, we are part of it.”
Tarek Iskander, Artistic Director and CEO of Battersea Arts Centre says: "At Battersea Arts Centre, we're committed to championing artists who push the boundaries of live performance and creating experiences audiences won't find anywhere else. This season reflects that ambition, bringing together an extraordinary breadth of work, from world premieres and immersive experiences to festivals and family takeovers. It celebrates bold artists and ideas from across disciplines and borders, while continuing to reimagine how audiences experience live theatre."
NINA
The season opens with NINA, the debut play written by celebrated director Caroline Williams and co-directed with award-winning artist Deborah Pearson. NINA questions why so many women are drawn to play an actress who has everything taken away from her by men. And why do the men in Chekhov's original play keep trying to turn the girls they fancy into dead seagulls? Inspired by watching hundreds of women read Nina's monologue on YouTube, in a post #MeToo era, NINA is a meta theatrical fever dream on coercion, power and the quest for creative expression. A BAC Production. Running 6 - 24 Oct, Press Performance: 8 Oct.
Room 13
An Immersive Octopus and BAC Co-Production from renowned director Tom Maller (Peaky Blinders: The Rise, Doctor Who: Time Fracture, The Paddington Bear Experience and Secret Cinema productions of Casino Royale, Blade Runner, and Romeo + Juliet), Room 13 invites groups for an experience that combines live performers, special effects and immersive design to conjure supernatural storytelling. Following the fire at Battersea Arts Centre on 13 March 2015, a major restoration project began to rebuild and return the Grand Hall to its former glory. During the restoration, builders uncovered a sealed chamber in the original stone structure. What they found was so disturbing that the renovation came to an immediate halt. 11 years later, the door is unsealed once again. The door to Room 13… Running 16 - 31 Oct, Press Performances 16 – 18 Oct.
The Dark
Peut-Être Theatre, creators of ambitious early years experiences, present The Dark, adapted from the book by famed children's author Lemony Snicket. This universal and empowering family adventure merges vibrant physicality with live music to create captivating performances for ages 4+. Accessible for blind and visually impaired children through integrated audio-description and touch tours. Running 27 - 31 Oct, Press Performance: 27 Oct.
La Dame de Pique
This Halloween, a society on the brink crumbles into grime, decay and dissolution in La Dame de Pique (The Queen of Spades) presented by Gothic Opera. This witty, gritty opera by Fromental Halévy premiered in 1850 Paris but has never been staged since. Featuring a cast of exciting emerging singers and a chamber orchestra, this operatic game of power will transport you to the dying days of the Ancien Régime in France. In a story perfect for the spooky season, a shifting web of ambition, strategy, and survival is played out across every level of society… but the dealer always wins. Running 29 Oct - 1 Nov, Press Performance: 29 Oct.
Good Sex
Following hit runs in Ireland and New York, acclaimed theatremakers Dead Centre and award-winning novelist and essayist Emilie Pine, present Good Sex, a sublimely funny love story for a loveless age. How do you have sex on stage? How do you even have sex? To try and find an answer, each night, two brand new actors tell a story of desire, betrayal and loneliness. They have never rehearsed together or read the script. They are strangers. But they are not alone.To help and guide them they are joined on stage by an Intimacy Director, trained in the art of teaching people how to touch. So, you can rest assured that the sex will be safe. It will be consensual. And it will be good. Running 4 – 6 Nov, Press Performance: 4 Nov.
A Song and Dance
Experimental theatremakers Action Hero return to Battersea Arts Centre with A Song and Dance about masking, performing and 'acting the part'. Lost inside a recurring nightmare filled with the phantoms of his disapproving ancestors, a reluctant actor returns to the stage. In an attempt to conquer an 8-year period of intense stage fright, he replays his own life story and starts to lose the plot. But he's not going to make a big song and dance about it. Instead, he's determined to keep the show on the road, re-writing his anxiety dreams live on stage in the hope of banishing the ghosts of performances past. Running 17 – 21 Nov, Press Performance: 17 Nov.
UNREAL: A Festival of Magic and Performance
Whether you're a fan of magic, curious about contemporary performance, or simply searching for something unexpected, UNREAL: A Festival of Magic and Performance is an invitation to experience the impossible, together. Curated by Tom Cassani, Augusto Corrieri and Tim Bromage, UNREAL brings together extraordinary artists from across the UK and Europe working at the intersection of magic and performance. Across five days, encounter incredible images, strange transformations and moments of collective awe as sleight of hand and stage illusion are reimagined through theatre, choreography and live art. The festival invites audiences behind the curtain, questioning assumptions and asking us to look again at what we see, hear and believe. Various events running 7 – 14 Nov.
Battersea Arts Centre will enjoy a Christmas building takeover with events for all the family as the festive season gets underway this winter.
Dear Santa
From the author of the well-loved children's book Dear Zoo, Rod Campbell, comes Dear Santa and it's LIVE! Santa is determined to deliver the most fantastic Christmas present to Sarah, but he doesn't get it right straight away. With the help of his cheeky Elf, he finally settles on something 'perfect', just in time for Christmas Eve. This show is an ideal introduction to theatre for those aged two and over. Running 28 Nov – 24 Dec, Press Performance: 1 Dec.
Santa Claus is returning to Battersea! Transport yourself and your loved ones to the North Pole as Santa makes another scheduled stop in Battersea Arts Centre's magical building this December. Setting up shop in his very own Grotto, little ones can share their Christmas wishes, get their name added to the nice list and receive a gift from the main man himself, creating lasting memories for the whole family at the most wonderful time of the year. Running 4 – 24 Dec.
This winter, BAC is opening its doors for a Festive Soft Play adventure for little ones and their grown-ups.Specially designed for children aged 0-5, this colourful play space is the perfect place to climb, crawl, slide and explore together. Take a break in BAC's pop-up café, serving seasonal snacks and hot drinks. Running 1 – 24 Dec.
