From Shakespeare to South London council estate, Norwich’s Sewell Barn Theatre has announced its new programme of plays.
The 2025/6 season starts on October 9 with Federico Garcia Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba, an emotional story of a wife and daughters’ eight years of mourning, directed by Sabrina Poole.
Jez Pike brings a new production of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus to the Sewell Barn’s intimate stage from 20 November, mixing war and politics.
Leadership of a different sort is the focus of Crown Matrimonial by Royce Ryton from 15 January 2026, exploring the constitutional crisis caused by Edward VIII’s love for American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
The politics lurch to the left with Tom Mcleannan’s centenary adaptation of Robert Tressell’s The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists from 5 March, taking in cross-channel immigration, tariff wars, and political coalitions.
Female Transport by Steve Gooch explores the punishment of transportation in the 19th century, following six woman sentenced to a life of hard labour in the Australian penal colonies, starting its run on 23 April.
Emerging young love comes under the spotlight in Beautiful Thing by Jonathan Harvey from 4 June, charting South London estate teenagers Ste and Jamie’s developing relationship and sexuality.
The season finishes with more traditional relationships in J B Priestley’s When We Are Married, with three Northern couples celebrating their joint 25th wedding anniversary – but things aren’t quite all that they seem.
- The new season is preceded by the final production of the 2024/5 programme, Charley’s Aunt by Brandon Thomas from 10 July 2025.
