John Bradley, Joe Dempsie, Katie Leung and Jamie-Lee O’Donnell make up the company of Expecting, a new play about the parenthood question that has its world premiere at Riverside Studios in the new year. Tickets went on sale this morning, alongside those for Tom Schulman’s Sacrilegious.
John Bradley and Joe Dempsie, both alumni of Game of Thrones, are joined by Katie Leung and Jamie-Lee O’Donnell in Expecting, a new play by Scott Elmegreen and Drew Fornarola that receives its world premiere at Riverside Studios from 30 January to 27 March 2027.
Bradley plays Matt and Dempsie plays Ethan, with Leung as Zoey and O’Donnell as Trish. Andy Sandberg directs for producer ABS Productions, and press night is Tuesday 9 February 2027 at 7pm.
At the centre of the play are Zoey and Ethan, a couple with their careers and routines in order and one question they cannot settle: whether to start a family. Zoey’s younger sister Trish has made that decision already, twice over, and now has a new boyfriend, Matt, who can feel like a third child. Played out against falling birth rates, the story looks at why so many couples now put parenthood off, or decide against it entirely. The show’s own tagline is “Baby, we need to talk…”.
Leung’s stage credits include Comeuppance at the Almeida, Snow in Midsummer for the Royal Shakespeare Company and The World of Extreme Happiness at the National Theatre, and screen audiences know her from Bridgerton and the Harry Potter films. O’Donnell, who played Michelle Mallon in Derry Girls, is currently filming the lead role in the BBC comedy Hopley Hall. Bradley’s recent television includes 3 Body Problem, and Dempsie, whose credits run from Skins to Toxic Town, will next be seen in the new series of Sherwood.
Expecting is the third production in the Mainstage Season, five new works at Riverside Studios that Sandberg directs as the season’s artistic director; he also runs the Hermitage Artist Retreat in the United States. It follows Sacrilegious, the first original play by Tom Schulman, who won the Academy Award for his Dead Poets Society screenplay and later adapted that story for the stage. Sacrilegious runs from 5 December 2026 to 23 January 2027, with press night on Tuesday 15 December at 7pm, and its cast is still to be announced.
Schulman’s comedy is set during the High Holy Days, when an idealistic young rabbi takes on the billionaire president of his own congregation and questions a gift worth millions. With $30 million in play, the community has to work out what its principles are really worth. The production’s line for it is “Who says money can’t buy morality?”
The season opened with Affluenza, starring Noah Schnapp, which is in previews now and has extended its run to 28 November 2026, with press night on Monday 5 October. Two further productions, and their casting and creative teams, are yet to be announced.
Both new plays are booking now: tickets start at £25, with concessions available, and every seat at the first preview of each production is £25. Performances run Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm, with Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm, and each play has one captioned matinee: Saturday 9 January 2027 for Sacrilegious and Saturday 6 March 2027 for Expecting.
