The London International Festival of Theatre will return from 3 June to 4 July 2027, the first edition under Pelin Başaran and the first presented by Battersea Arts Centre, with a new showcase for touring work made in England added to the five weeks.
The London International Festival of Theatre has fixed its 2027 dates: five weeks, from 3 June to 4 July. It is the first edition since Battersea Arts Centre took the festival on, a handover first signalled when the venue set out its autumn-winter season in July, and the first programmed by its new artistic director, Pelin Başaran, who keeps her role as Creative Director at Battersea Arts Centre alongside it. What today's announcement does not yet contain is the productions themselves. Those are held back for the full programme, due in February 2027.
The outline is clear enough. Companies from Asia, the Middle East, Australia, North and South America and Europe are promised, with UK and London premieres of large-scale international work set beside smaller pieces and free performances in public spaces, so that the festival turns up in streets and unexpected corners of the capital as well as in its theatres.
The structural change is LIFT Off, a showcase funded by Arts Council England for contemporary performance made in England. Six tour-ready productions will be chosen by the end of 2026 and staged from 28 June to 4 July 2027, the festival's final week, in front of the public and of the international presenters who book work for venues and festivals abroad. The partners are the Barbican, Southbank Centre, the Royal Court, Soho Theatre, Sadler's Wells East, Wapping Powerhouse, Unlimited, Theatre Green Book and Battersea Arts Centre itself.
Tarek Iskander, Artistic Director and CEO of Battersea Arts Centre, singled the showcase out: “Personally, I’m especially excited about LIFT Off. We’ve spent years helping England’s most daring artists reach new international audiences and partners, and a new showcase in the heart of London is the perfect way to introduce tomorrow's remarkable voices to the world.”
Başaran said: “I am so honoured to be appointed LIFT’s next Artistic Director. Many people across London have their own special LIFT memories, experiences that transformed the way they think and feel, and which have stayed with them for years.” She added: “I feel a huge responsibility to build on that legacy, while asking what an international festival can mean for London today.”
The festival was founded in 1981 by Rose Fenton and Lucy Neal and now runs every two years. Its recent editions brought The Second Woman by Nat Randall and Anna Breckon, co-produced with the Young Vic in 2023, in which Ruth Wilson played opposite 100 different scene partners over 24 hours, and the climate opera Sun & Sea in 2022, which filled a south-east London theatre with a beach. Earlier titles include East Wall and Fly by Night in 2018, Sky Orchestra in 2012, Life Streaming in 2010 and Small Metal Objects in 2007.
Glass Castle, the philanthropic foundation restoring Wapping Hydraulic Power Station as Wapping Powerhouse, is Lead Programme Partner for 2027, with the British Council as Programme Partner. Battersea Arts Centre leads the festival as an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.
