Pleasance announces its spring/summer 2027 theatre season, featuring political satire, interactive horror

From political satire to kinky opera and electrifying music, Pleasance London’s spring/summer 2027 theatre season spotlights daring new writing, emerging talent and award-winning creatives. As the Pleasance celebrates 30 years in Islington, their new season spans everything from murder mystery whodunnits and interactive horror shows to queer cabaret and thought-provoking new theatre. Across the Main House and Studio, audiences can expect radical new double-bills, original musicals, drag performances and more.

Kicking off the season is Rochester Knockers (3rd – 4th February), a séance-sational new musical from Swipe Right Theatre. Inspired by the true story of the Fox Sisters, the sisters whose séances sparked the worldwide spiritualism movement in the 1800s, this production blends an original pop-powered score by Matthew Floyd Jones (Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder) with illusions and dark comedy.

Following this, No Place Like Scone (5th – 6th February) arrives at the Main House, which sees RuPaul’s Drag Race legend and West End star Victoria Scone in her first one-woman show. Combining outrageous stories, theatrical trauma and a song or ten, the show sees Scone revisit the questionable decisions and unforgettable experiences that shaped her journey to becoming the drag queen she is today.

Fresh from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Jill’s Tupperware Party (4th – 6th March) invites audiences into a pastel-hued suburban fantasy where plastic lids click, smiles never falter and things take a sinister turn. Blending retro camp with B-movie horror, this interactive comedy promises broken sales records, questionable friendships and a disco after-party as part of the event.

Fringe First-winning writer Luke Wright presents his show Yes. (10th March), exploring what happens when old certainties begin to wobble, heroes become more complicated and the answers no longer seem so clear. Part poetry, part stand-up, the show asks how we can change our minds without losing our convictions.

Returning to Pleasance once again, The London 50-Hour Improvathon 2027 (12th – 14th March)

will present a wonderful weekend of improv. Set in Paris’s most notorious club, the improvised comedy soap opera in 25 episodes will feature exciting guests to celebrate its 16th anniversary in style.

For fans of a good whodunnit, A Murder Most Foley (19th – 20th March) follows the Private Detective Dick Reference as he finds himself trapped in a mansion on an island with a group of strangers, all trying not to be the next victim. Spoofing Agatha Christie’s classic murder mysteries and featuring a live Foley desk and a colourful cast of characters, this new comedy proves that murder never sounded so funny.

Following a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe, Dan Bishop presents Target Audience (31st March – 3rd April), in association with Pleasance. The new socio-political comedy, which was a Charlie Hartill finalist, is from the writer of 2025 Fringe smash hit Brainsluts (Popcorn Writing Award shortlist, published by Methuen Drama). When a TV production company is ordered to align its programming with the government’s plans to prepare the country for war, writer Tobias is offered an exorbitant fee to pen a pro-weapons sitcom, forcing him to choose between his morals and his mortgage.

Inspired by true events, the multi-award nominated In the Land of Eagles (28th April) takes audiences into the heart of Albania, as a young woman and her grandfather navigate receiving a devastating diagnosis. By turns unexpected and fantastical, this moving story explores heritage, family and the lengths we go to make amends for the mistakes of our past, taking audiences across borders and into a country often misunderstood.

Mixing queer and kinky cabaret with classical opera, Operotica: Lovers In Every Lifetime (14th – 15th May) is a wild journey as fetish-approved opera singers return from the dead to explore their past lives. Joined by psychic extraordinaire Séayoncé, the pair revisit their many past lives, from star-crossed nuns to 18th-century ladies-in-waiting, exploring love and lust.

As part of a Main House takeover by Richard Jordan Productions and playwright Philip Stokes, THIS IS NOT AMERICA – A Razor-Edged New Play (19th–22nd May) is a gripping psychological nightmare.

When three identical brothers are taken in for questioning following the discovery of a dead body, the play explores the fault-lines between identity, truth and violence, while tearing into the notion of the American Dream.

Continuing the Takeover, the play is followed by LASH: A Pulsating New Play About Going Out Out! (19th May – 22nd May), a part-theatre and part-gig experience following Sonny as he hits the town in a hilarious and heartbreaking lyrical trip through his wasted youth. The double-bill sees Philip Stokes (Heroin(e) for Breakfast, Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019), named a Culturally Important Playwright by the British Library, reunite with Olivier, Tony and Emmy award-winning producer Richard Jordan (Roadkill, Theatre Royal Stratford East).

Written and performed by Marie Hamilton, Madonna On The Rocks (25th – 29th May) is a visceral and hilarious call to arms. The show explores the clash between responsibilities and desire to be an artist while juggling parenthood, set to a live soundtrack of Madonna, Peaches and Nina Simone.

Over in the Studio, Sea Sides: Unannounced & Life Guard (5th – 22nd May) is set against the backdrops of beaches in New Jersey and Whitley Bay. The double-bill, running for three weeks, explores fractured relationships and unexpected encounters. Over three decades after its original 1993 production, Fiona Padfield’s STRIP (26th May – 5th June) returns to the stage for a two-week revival. Drawing on Padfield’s own experiences working as a stripper in Soho, the play follows a dancer and her relationship with her sadomasochist lover, exploring sexual fantasy, intimacy and loneliness.

Also featuring in the studio programme is BRICKS (30th March – 3rd April), a new play that confronts the past and questions whether long-term friendships still serve us, in an unflinching look at male mental health. Following is The Wise Men (31st March – 3rd April), a dark comedy performed and created by Yael Elisheva, using drag, original song and character work to examine Jewish masculinity. Celebrating poetic storytelling and a love for greeting cards, Just to Say! (7th – 10th April) sees Ray over six therapy sessions as she attempts to overcome her devotion to doting. Mixing religion with glitter is Bad Boy Disco (9th – 10th April), in a wild and unfiltered deep dive into the world of cancel culture and fandom. Rounding off the Studio season is I Was A Teenage Bisexual (1st June), where vintage horror film meets teen flick to capture the hardships of growing up as bisexual.

Closing the Spring season in the Main House is REWIND (22nd – 26th June) with a one-week run. Inspired by testimonies from Latin American refugees and migrants, this powerful production combines theatre and science to uncover the intimate, backward journey of Alicia, a young woman who dared to resist authoritarianism. In a whirlwind of electrifying live music and raw physicality, Associate Artists and production house Ephemeral Ensemble shine a light on the timeless and universal struggle for social justice.