Five new productions have been announced as part of the season, which will run from the 9th September until the 20th February 2027.
The Arcola Theatre has announced its autumn/winter season, with tickets on sale now.
This newly announced season will bring together plays that confront individuals at moments of moral and emotional reckoning. Across stories shaped by political violence, private ambition, environmental uncertainty and collective trauma, the work asks what it means to act responsibly in a world marked by fear, instability and change.
At the centre of the season there is David Edgar’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s The Master Builder – a striking new staging of the classic psychological drama exploring ambition and legacy from Arcola’s Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen (The Enemy of the People; Richard III) starring Laurence Olivier nominated Actor Greg Hicks (Coruilanus, Old Vic).
Meanwhile Arthur Miller’s Incident at Vichy will continue the season’s examination of individuals confronted by forces far greater than themselves. Set in Nazi-occupied France, a group of detainees await interrogation, forced to face questions of complicity, identity and human responsibility. In a revival from Olivier and Tony Award-nominated director Melly Still (My Brilliant Friend, National Theatre) playing in Studio 1, Miller’s gripping ensemble drama reveals the quiet terror of authoritarianism and the fragile line between self-preservation and sacrifice.
This will then be followed by Julia Pascal’s new play The Banality of Evil: Hannah Arendt, France, 1940 which will provide a female perspective to the politics of displacement and survival. Arrested in France at the outbreak of war, political theorist Hannah Arendt, artist Charlotte Salomon, and Communist schoolgirl Eva Daube are imprisoned in Camp Gurs, where each must decide whether to endure, resist or flee. Blending cabaret, physical theatre and satire, this urgent new production uncovers an extraordinary and often overlooked history of female exile and survival under fascism.
Elsewhere, John Webber’s new play Fire Fire examines how personal loss collides with urgent calls for collective action. Directed by Jennifer Tang, this explosive two-hander follows two strangers who meet on opposing sides of a protest, only to find their lives becoming unexpectedly entwined.
Finally, Henry James’ gothic classic The Turn of the Screw will take to the Arcola Theatre stage directed by Nicky Allpress ahead of a UK tour. It will take audiences into a world of fshadows, secrets and creeping dread, as a young governess becomes convinced the children in her care are being haunted by sinister forces.
Talking about the news Arcola’s Artistic Director, Mehmet Ergen, said: “At Arcola, we are drawn to work that engages urgently with the world we live in. That world, today, feels like a world in flux. Responding to this uncertainty, across the season, we explore the many forms power can take. The power of governments, institutions and ideologies, but also the quieter power of memory, desire, fear and conscience. These are plays about individuals wrestling with responsibility in a changing world, asking how we retain our humanity when the pressures around us demand compromise.”
To book tickets visit: https://www.arcolatheatre.com/