Matt Smith is back in the West End next autumn, starring in the world premiere of The Humans, Jack Thorne's new play from the novel by Matt Haig. Tickets go on sale today at 12pm, with 15,000 seats at £25.
The Humans comes to the Theatre Royal Haymarket for a strict 13-week run. Previews start on Saturday 30 October 2027. Opening night is Tuesday 16 November 2027, and the final performance is on Friday 28 January 2028.
Booking opens at 12pm on Wednesday 11 November 2026. Across the run, 15,000 tickets will be priced at £25.
Smith plays the story's nameless antihero: an alien sent to Earth to stop humanity from advancing any further. It arrives inside the body of Professor Andrew Martin, a Cambridge mathematician, and lives his life from within, flaws, contradictions, kindness and all. By the end, the visitor is changed. Haig's book treats it as a dark, funny and philosophical satire on what being alive really involves.
Jeremy Herrin, whose credits include Middlemarch and Guess How Much I Love You?, directs. The rest of the cast and the creative team are still to be announced. Melting Pot and Second Half Productions produce, in association with Len Blavatnik and Danny Cohen for Access Entertainment.
Smith said: “I’m thrilled to be reuniting with Jeremy Herrin to bring Matt Haig’s The Humans to the stage for the first time, adapted by the brilliant Jack Thorne. It’s going to be a blast.”
Thorne said: “I love The Humans, the chance to work on Matt Haig's beautiful book with Jeremy Herrin has been an absolute dream. It is a story, at its heart, about an alien learning the complexity of beauty, and I can't think of a more beautiful alien than Matt Smith.”
For Haig, the book is a personal one: “Of all my novels The Humans is possibly the most ‘me’ so I am instinctively protective over it, but I am a massive fan of Jack Thorne and as soon as I saw his incredible script I knew this was being elevated into something very special indeed.”
Thorne's stage writing includes the Old Vic's A Christmas Carol, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and The Motive and the Cue and After Life at the National Theatre; on television he wrote Adolescence. Smith is known on screen for Doctor Who and House of the Dragon, while Haig's other books include The Midnight Library and Reasons to Stay Alive.
The Humans runs at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, 18 Suffolk Street. Evening performances are Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm, with Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm. The venue suggests the play for ages 12 and over.
