The New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme will end its 40th-anniversary year by reviving The 39 Steps in spring 2027, in a season that also brings Nell Leyshon's Folk and Steven Moffat's The Unfriend to its stage in the round.
The Staffordshire theatre has announced three productions of its own and three visiting shows for spring 2027, running from March to July. Tickets go on general sale on Monday 9 November 2026.
The 39 Steps
The 39 Steps opens the season from Saturday 20 March to Saturday 17 April 2027. The New Vic first staged Patrick Barlow's comic version of John Buchan's spy novel in 2019, and that run was cut short by the pandemic. Artistic director Theresa Heskins directs the revival, and Michael Hugo and Gareth Cassidy return from the original company. Heskins's credits include the Olivier Award-winning West End production of The Worst Witch and Marvellous at @sohoplace.
The production closes the theatre's programme marking 40 years since the New Vic opened as Europe's first purpose-built theatre in the round. "When we originally staged the production in 2019, I spent every rehearsal day laughing till I was in actual pain; and then it was a joy to see audiences of all ages doing exactly the same as they delighted in its unique mayhem," Heskins said.
Folk
Nell Leyshon's Folk follows from Friday 7 to Saturday 29 May 2027. The play takes its story from the composer Cecil Sharp, who gathered and wrote down traditional songs in the early 20th century, and is about music, memory and the customs that tie people to a place. Polly Wain, the New Vic's resident director, whose work there includes The Miner Birds and Rats' Tales, directs.
The Unfriend
A new staging of Steven Moffat's The Unfriend ends the season, from Saturday 19 June to Saturday 10 July 2027. The comedy thriller, by the writer of television's Sherlock and Doctor Who, turns on a very British habit, keeping quiet out of good manners, and the trouble that follows. John Young directs, in his first production at the New Vic; his credits include The Gangs of New York at Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, Chester. Heskins called the play "a brilliant piece of playwriting by one of the UK's best writers, that turns an ordinary social encounter into a starkly comic whodunnit, ending with a breathtaking twist."
Visiting productions
The John Godber Company brings John Godber's new comedy This Is The Life from Wednesday 21 to Saturday 24 April 2027, in which two jaded backstage workers put on an adventure of their own to keep their theatre from closing. London Classic Theatre follows from Thursday 3 to Saturday 5 June 2027 with Alan Ayckbourn's Snake in the Grass, a dark comedy with a supernatural turn in which old family secrets come to the surface.
From Wednesday 9 to Saturday 12 June 2027, A Place for Us Theatre Company presents Electric Dreams, which moves Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream into the 1980s, keeping the original text and adding a live band playing hits by Eurythmics, Bonnie Tyler, Heaven 17, Irene Cara and The Weather Girls.
All six productions play at the New Vic Theatre on Etruria Road, Newcastle-under-Lyme.
For more information, visit the official website.
