Arcola Theatre Autumn/Winter 2026 Season

This season brings 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. Moving between the intimate and the historical, the season explores the pressures that force people to choose between self-preservation, compassion and courage.

At the heart of the season is David Edgar’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s The Master Builder (Wednesday 16 October - Saturday 21 November) – a striking new staging of the classic psychological drama exploring ambition and legacy from Arcola’s Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen. The play follows Halvard Solness, a celebrated architect at the height of his fame, as he attempts to secure his legacy whilst the past resurfaces around him. Exploring the moral destruction wrought by systems of power on both a geo-political and personal scale, Arthur Miller’s Incident at Vichy (Friday 15 January - Saturday 20 February) continues the season’s examination of individuals confronted by forces far greater than themselves.

Continuing the season’s interrogation of complicity, exile and state violence, Julia Pascal’s new play The Banality of Evil: Hannah Arendt, France, 1940 (Wednesday 7 October - Saturday 7 November) brings a vital female perspective to the politics of displacement and survival. Blending cabaret, physical theatre and satire, this urgent new production uncovers an extraordinary and often overlooked history of female exile and survival under fascism.

Exploring the tensions between climate activism, grief and belonging, John Webber's new play Fire Fire (Wednesday 9 September – Saturday 3 October) examines how personal loss collides with urgent calls for collective action. Finally, bringing a haunting edge to the season, Henry James’ gothic classic The Turn of the Screw (Friday 11 September – Saturday 10 October) will transform our humble space into a world of shadows, secrets and creeping dread, as a young governess becomes convinced the children in her care are being haunted by sinister forces.

Tickets between £12 – £39, with Pay What You Can continuing every Tuesday

Further Information: Home - Arcola Theatre