Key Points
- Leeds Playhouse has announced Artistic Director Tom Wright’s first season, running from autumn 2026 to summer 2027, across the Quarry Theatre and Courtyard Theatre.
- Wright said the season is built around theatre that “should entertain and challenge in equal measure” and will include four new works, plus landmark plays, reimagined classics, and large-scale spectacle.
- Chief Executive Shawab Iqbal said the theatre is entering a new phase of development while remaining rooted in Leeds and working with partners including Arts Council England, Leeds City Council, and the Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation.
- The season opens with August Wilson’s Fences, followed by Peanut Butter & Blueberries, Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical, Romeo & Juliet, Sirens, The Secret Garden, Frankenstein and Little Shop of Horrors.
- Leeds Playhouse is also refreshing its Playhouse Connect programme and expanding its Furnace artist development work, including an entry-level writing scheme and an emerging writers’ programme for Leeds-based artists.
- The theatre says the changes are designed to broaden engagement with audiences, communities, and artists across Leeds and Yorkshire.
Leeds (The Leeds Times) May 4, 2026 Playhouse announced the first season under its new Artistic Director, Tom Wright as a programme that aims to combine entertainment, challenge, and civic purpose across its main spaces. The theatre said the line-up will run from autumn 2026 through summer 2027 and will be staged in the Quarry Theatre and Courtyard Theatre, with additional activity in the Bramall Rock Void.
As reported by Leeds Playhouse, Wright said his first season is guided by “a simple idea” that theatre should entertain and challenge at the same time, while speaking to the world people are living in. He added that the season includes four new works, two original stories, and two bold adaptations, alongside major plays, reinventions of classics, and large-scale theatrical spectacle.
The Playhouse said the season also reflects a mix of artists with established ties to Leeds and others joining the venue for the first time. Wright said he is proud the programme will include four directors making their first Playhouse-produced work in the Quarry, which he described as part of helping shape the future of British theatre.
What did Shawab Iqbal say about the theatre’s direction?
Chief Executive Shawab Iqbal said Leeds Playhouse remains one of the UK’s leading producing theatres and is entering a new phase that is confident, outward-looking and ambitious. He said the organisation is focused on work with “real impact” through a collaborative production model spanning the commercial and subsidised sectors.
Iqbal also said the Playhouse has been a “people’s theatre” for more than 55 years and that the founding idea that “a city without a theatre is a city without a heart” continues to shape its work.
He said Leeds is one of the UK’s largest and fastest-growing cities and that the theatre is making work that reflects the city’s scale, diversity, and ambition.
He added that the Playhouse is “leading from Leeds” and said the organisation is grateful for support from audiences, funders and partners, including Arts Council England, Leeds City Council and the Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation.
Which productions are in the season?
The first title announced for the new season is August Wilson’s Fences, which opens in the Courtyard Theatre from 11 to 26 September 2026, with a press performance on 16 September. Leeds Playhouse described the production as a co-production with Headlong, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, and HOME Manchester, directed by Daniel Bailey and set in the 1950s.
Next is Peanut Butter & Blueberries, by playwright, poet, and educator Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, running from 22 October to 7 November 2026, with a press performance on 23 October.
The Playhouse said the work builds on the success of its 2024 world premiere and will be directed by Sameena Hussain.
For the festive period, the theatre and Running Subway will present Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical, directed by Tom Wright and featuring book and lyrics by Timothy Mason and music by Mel Marvin. It is scheduled to run from 19 November 2026 to 16 January 2027, with a press performance on 26 November.
What comes next in 2027?
The new year begins with a fresh production of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet in the Quarry Theatre from 3 to 20 March 2027, with a press performance on 4 March. Leeds Playhouse said the play will be part of the Quarry programme, which Wright described as the place for epic theatrical events and reinventions of major titles.
Wright will also write and direct Sirens, a new play in association with Belgrade Theatre, which will run in the Courtyard Theatre from 15 March to 3 April 2027, with a press performance on 18 March.
The Playhouse described it as an intimate, witty, and deeply human story about ordinary people bound together by unexpected danger.
In spring 2027, the Courtyard will host The Secret Garden, a co-production with Theatr Clwyd, adapted by Linda Marshall Griffiths from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel and directed by Amy Leach. It is scheduled from 23 April to 15 May 2027, with a press performance on 29 April.
Leeds Playhouse and Rose Theatre Kingston will then present Frankenstein, adapted and directed by Leeds-born Jeff James, in the Quarry from 12 to 29 May 2027, with a press performance on 13 May. The theatre said the production will examine AI, creation, and humanity’s role in shaping technology.
The final title announced is Little Shop of Horrors, directed by Associate Artistic Director Jamie Sophia Fletcher, which will run in the Quarry from 23 June to 17 July 2027, with a press performance on 29 June. Leeds Playhouse said this marks her first Playhouse-produced work in the Quarry and a new chapter in her work with the theatre.
What is changing in audience engagement?
Alongside the main season, Leeds Playhouse said it is launching a refreshed Playhouse Connect programme to widen engagement across Leeds and Yorkshire. The programme will run through three strands: People’s Playhouse, Playhouse Ensembles and Furnace.
The theatre said these strands will deepen audience engagement, create opportunities for communities to perform on Playhouse stages, and support emerging creative voices. It said the work will include wrap-around events, civic partnerships, performance ensembles, and artist support, with the aim of strengthening the theatre’s role as a creative home for the city.
Wright also said the Courtyard will focus on contemporary voices and stories of the present, while the Quarry will present larger-scale theatrical events and reinventions of known titles. He added that the Bramall Rock Void will host a year-round programme for emerging artists and visiting companies, creating space for experimentation and discovery.
What does Furnace now include?
As part of the new season, Leeds Playhouse said it is expanding Furnace, its artist development programme, to strengthen pathways for artists at different stages of their careers. The theatre said the updated offer includes an entry-level writing scheme for people who are discovering playwriting for the first time.
It also includes a dedicated emerging writers’ programme for Leeds-based artists developing their first full-length play. According to the Playhouse, the aim is to build a long-term, sustainable ecosystem of writers and original stories rooted in Leeds, alongside year-round opportunities for directors, makers, and theatre professionals.
The theatre said Furnace will continue to support writers, directors, and theatre-makers through collaboration, experimentation, and growth. It described the programme as part of its wider effort to support bold storytelling and innovative performance rooted in West Yorkshire and beyond.
Background of the development
Leeds Playhouse said Tom Wright is originally from Coventry and has more than a decade of experience developing new work with theatre artists, including roles at Kiln Theatre and The Old Vic. Shawab Iqbal also brought a long theatre and dance background to the organisation before becoming Chief Executive, including senior posts at the Gate Theatre, Eclipse Theatre Company, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, the Bush Theatre, and Boy Blue.
The Playhouse’s season announcement sits within a wider strategy to position the theatre as a major producing house with local roots and national reach. Its programme combines canonical titles, new writing, adaptations, and festive family work, while its engagement and artist-development strands aim to bring in more communities and support future talent.
Prediction for audiences
For regular theatre-goers in Leeds, this season is likely to offer a wider mix of large-scale productions, new writing, and familiar titles across different age groups and interests. The combination of a Christmas musical, Shakespeare, a classic American drama, a new play about technology, and fresh work from Leeds-linked artists suggests the Playhouse is trying to attract both loyal audiences and first-time visitors.
