Cadel: Lungs On Legs, the award-winning solo play in which Connor Delves cycles 27km on stage at every performance, arrives at Riverside Studios for a five-week London premiere season from Tuesday 13 October.
Cadel: Lungs On Legs runs at Riverside Studios from Tuesday 13 October to Sunday 15 November 2026, with press night on Thursday 15 October at 7.15pm. Tickets start at £10, and the season is limited to five weeks.
The play is the true story of Cadel Evans, the first and only Australian to win the Tour de France. Connor Delves created it and performs it alone, staying on stage for the full 70 minutes and pedalling live on a 2011 yellow BMC "Cadel Evans" SLR01, the same model Evans rode to victory in 2011. Live race commentary from Phil Liggett runs alongside the storytelling, and Delves covers 27km before the audience each night.
Mark Barford directs and is the production's dramaturg, and Delves co-wrote the play with Steve McMahon. Production design is by Imagine Black, with lighting by Mitchell Fenton and video by Lauren Cochrane, both for Imagine Black. Nate Edmondson designs sound, Mecca Christy is on-stage ASM and featured ensemble, and Eva Sheehy-Moss is assistant director. James Seabright presents the London season.
The production arrives with a run of awards behind it. At the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe it was named Best Show of the Fringe by Theatre Weekly, took Underbelly's Fringe Fix Wild Card and its London West End Showcase selection, and received an EFFTA Award from the Fringe Theatre Awards. A sold-out Australian premiere tour followed, and it returned to the Fringe this August as one of the nine shows we picked out of this year's Edinburgh programme. It has since won a Theatre Weekly award at Adelaide Fringe and an OFFIE nomination.
Delves grew up inside the sport. His parents owned a bike shop, his mother Vicki Delves holds the WA Sport Award (May Campbell Medal), and his father raced internationally alongside Evans in the 1990s. Australian-born and now based in New York, Delves played Mercutio in the UK premiere of Starcrossed at Wilton's Music Hall, which brought OFFIE and BroadwayWorld nominations.
Evans himself is involved from the start. "I have always been well aware of the drama, thrill, and often suspense of cycling - but now, I get to see my sport as an art form," he said. "He'll be riding a BMC, just like I did (and do!), wearing the same yellow jersey I wore, and actually riding on stage every night... how cool is that?"
Performances are at 7.15pm from Tuesday to Sunday, with 3pm matinees on Saturday and Sunday. There are no performances on 19 and 26 October or 2 and 9 November. Riverside Studios is at 101 Queen Caroline Street, London W6 9BN.
