The National Theatre Launches Touring Partnership With 12 Theatre
The first tour under new partnership will be The Rise and Fall of Little Voice starring Francesca Mills, Jill Halfpenny and Paul Chuckle.
The National Theatre has announced National Theatre Nationwide: a new landmark partnership with 12 leading theatres in all nine regions of England dedicated to ensuring parity of access to art and culture, enriching people’s lives–wherever they live.
The network is envisioned as a cornerstone for a more connected, resilient and accessible National Theatre that is present across the nation, with different facets of the scheme to be developed over time subject to funding, with a clear ambition to grow the impact of the model.
This announcement, as the first initiative for the network, centres on the partners’ shared, deep commitment to boosting the touring ecology. This includes touring National Theatre productions direct from its London stages, with original cast, to venues in all English regions, supported by Arts Council England. In addition, there will be subsidised tickets and new schools touring productions around the country.
National Theatre Nationwide addresses one of the key challenges to achieving parity of access: the decline in the number of touring productions around the country. Recent research from Arts Council England shows that the number of plays touring England has fallen by 64% since 2019.
The partnership proudly brings together the expertise and reach of theatres across England to address this. Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, Birmingham Hippodrome, Leeds Heritage Theatres, Curve, Leicester, Lowry in Salford, Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Norwich Theatre, Sheffield Theatres, Southampton Mayflower, Theatre Royal Plymouth and Theatre Royal, Nottingham join together to form a new network with The National Theatre.
The details include:
- One major main stage production will now tour annually, directly from The National Theatre to partner venues: giving audiences immediate access to the shows with the original cast, backed by investment from Arts Council England over the next two years.
- Original and annual National Theatre-commissioned tours for schools, offering children and young people vital first encounters with curriculum-relevant theatre.
- Targeted and subsidised ticket funding for tours to break down barriers to entry and build new audiences for theatre across the country.
The first main stage production to tour under National Theatre Nationwide with its original cast will be a new production of Jim Cartwright’smodern classic The Rise and Fall of Little Voice directed by Deputy Artistic Director, Robert Hastie. The Rise and Fall of Little Voice is a joyful, tender and bittersweet celebration of music, ambition and the courage it takes to be heard featuring iconic music from the likes of Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey, and more.
Following its run at The National Theatre from 2 December 2026 until 23 January 2027, the show will embark on a tour across England with the following partners in the Nationwide network:
opening at Newcastle Theatre Royal (3-6 February 2027) and then touring to Sheffield Theatres (9–13 February 2027), Belgrade Theatre, Coventry (16-20 February 2027), Lowry, Salford (23- 27 February 2027), Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury (2-6 March 2027), Theatre Royal Plymouth (16-20 March 2027). Additionally, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice will also tour to Wolverhampton Grand Theatre (9-13 March 2027).
Joining Francesca Mills (Silent Witness, BBC), who will play the title role of Little Voice, will be Olivier Award-winning actress, Jill Halfpenny (The Long Shadow, ITV) and BAFTA Award- winning actor, Paul Chuckle (The Madam Blanc Mysteries, Channel 5), who will play the roles of Mari Hoff and Mr Boo, respectively. Further casting will be announced soon.
Director Robert Hastie is joined in the artistic team by set and costume designer Janet Bird, lighting designer Paul Pyant, sound designer Mike Walker, composer and music director David Shrubsole, voice coach Shereen Ibrahim with casting by Alastair Coomer CDG.
Tickets for The Rise and Fall of Little Voice will go on sale from midday on Thursday 21 May 2026 with some venues going on sale at a later date.
A different NT main stage show will be touring to the other members of the Nationwide network in late spring 2028. In addition, a new Nationwide schools touring programme will deliver original, curriculum-linked productions directly into a range of primary and secondary schools and local venues each year.
The first, in autumn 2026, sees writer Nima Taleghani join director Hannah Hauer-King to create an adapted version of a main stage production especially for schools, following Bacchae’s debut at The National Theatre as part of Indhu Rubasingham’s inaugural season. This modern retelling of Euripides’ ancient Greek tragedy will be brought to life through rhythm, movement and music.
The tour will visit secondary schools and colleges across the country, working with the following partners in the Nationwide network throughout 2026: Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury (28 Sep - 2 October), Norwich Theatre (5-9 October), Birmingham Hippodrome (12-16 October), Wolverhampton Grand Theatre (19-21 October), Belgrade Theatre, Coventry (22-23 October), Newcastle Theatre Royal (2-6 November), Theatre Royal, Nottingham (9-13 November), Lowry in Salford (16-21 November) including public performances at the Quays Theatre on 20- 21 November and Sheffield Theatres (23-27 November).
The second, in a co-production with the Unicorn Theatre, the UK’s leading theatre for young people, is The Last Wild - a new version for primary school and family audiences adapted by Jude Christian from the award-winning eco-thriller by Piers Torday. It will be directed by the Unicorn Theatre’s Artistic Director Rachel Bagshaw, opening at the Unicorn Theatre from 30 January - 7 March 2027. Packed with action, heart and humour, The Last Wild is an epic adventure about courage, friendship and fighting for a world worth saving. The production is creatively captioned and will go on a national tour with the following partners in the Nationwide network through 2027: Theatre Royal Plymouth, Mayflower Studios in Southampton, City Varieties Music Hall in Leeds, Lowry in Salford, Curve, Leicester, Belgrade Theatre, Coventry and Newcastle Theatre Royal. The primary touring performances are free for all schools thanks to Hearn funding.
Kate Varah, Executive Director & Co-Chief Executive of The National Theatre said, “Today’s announcement is rooted in the National Theatre’s overarching commitment to ensure people across the nation can experience and benefit from our work and impact. Fresh analysis, supported by McKinsey, highlights that The National Theatre puts £241m back into the UK economy each year, £87m of which already flows into regional economies. This new Nationwide partnership will deepen and grow that contribution, not only ensuring the long-term resilience of theatre but crucially, supporting local communities and businesses, schools, teachers and their students, the growth of future audiences, and engendering pride in place.
“What better way to launch this partnership with 12 outstanding partners than with a strong commitment to touring between all of our venues, seeing modern classic The Rise and Fall of Little Voice shared with audiences across England, alongside our schools productions of Bacchae and The Last Wild. Together with our new Nationwide partners, we are grateful to Arts Council England for this significant and timely investment in the touring ecology, recognising the vital role it plays in widening access to live performance; as well as the many existing National Theatre supporters whose generosity makes the range and breadth of this work possible.”
Hannah Lake, Director, Touring Transformation, Arts Council England said, “Touring plays a crucial role in our cultural landscape, ensuring people can access the very best art and culture close to where they live. This innovative new partnership bringing work directly from the renowned National Theatre stages to major theatres across every English region, alongside an extensive programme engaging young people in theatre through schools productions does just that, which is why we are so pleased to be supporting it. Our research shows a decline in drama touring in recent years and we hope this significant investment, in addition to our own work of reimagining how best we can support touring, including the development of a new Touring Service, will work to combat that and grow audiences for the future”.
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