Woolwich Works is skipping panto this Christmas. Its festive programme runs from 22 November to 3 January and is led by Neon Sun – Roller Circus and Protein's dance-theatre The Magic Flute, with drag, a solo A Christmas Carol and a family show set inside a sherbet factory alongside them.
Panto is the default setting for a London venue in December. Woolwich Works has gone the other way, with a festive programme of circus, dance-theatre, drag and family shows running from Sunday 22 November 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027 at the Royal Arsenal.
The headline booking for families is Neon Sun – Roller Circus, which arrives on Sunday 29 November. It sets high-speed roller-skating, circus stunts and 90s street culture to an old-school hip-hop soundtrack, performed by an international company. There are two shows, at 1pm and 3pm, in the Fireworks Factory, and tickets are £17.50.
A week later the venue's resident company takes the room. Protein brings The Magic Flute to the Fireworks Factory on Saturday 5 December as part of its 2026 tour, in an adaptation directed by Luca Silvestrini that retells Mozart's opera through dance, storytelling, singing and design. Papageno and Prince Tamino still set out to rescue Princess Pamina. It follows the company's award-winning family show The Little Prince and is made for children aged 7 and over and the grown-ups with them; performances are at 11.30am and 3pm, tickets £17.50.
British Youth Music Theatre follows on Sunday 6 December with BYMT Presents '26, a one-night showcase that reunites performers and musicians from its 2026 season to sing numbers from the new musicals it premiered this year at Greenwich Theatre, Birmingham Hippodrome and Hull Truck Theatre. The company on stage is aged 11 to 21, the audience is anyone curious about what gets written next, and the 6pm show is £26.
Christmas turns less reverent on Thursday 10 December, when Drag The Halls fills the Ropekeepers Studio with queens, kings and things, plus burlesque, clowning, comedy and live singing. It is an 18+ night, at 7.30pm, and tickets are £13.50.
Families get The Elf Factory on Sunday 13 December, a show set inside a sherbet factory run by three eccentric elves whose machinery goes badly wrong. Science, circus and a little magic carry the chaos; performances are at 1pm and 3pm, tickets £17.50.
The most traditional thing in the programme is also the barest. A Christmas Carol is performed on Thursday 17 December by a single actor using Charles Dickens' unaltered words, leaving voice and performance to do the work a cast and a set usually share.
Around those shows sits a programme that is more dance floor than auditorium: stand-up from The Comedy Store on 27 November, a standing disco night with Brixton Chamber Orchestra on 28 November, the returning Christmas Ceilidh, drag bingo, Bollywood brass, karaoke, quizzes, two Santa's silent discos, a Baby Gospel Christmas special and a free New Year's Eve party with DJ Baz and a live-streamed countdown to midnight. A Santa's Grotto returns as well, with details still to come and tickets going on sale on 1 October.
Nick Williams, Director of Woolwich Works, said: “Christmas at Woolwich Works is a magical time, with the full breadth of what we do here on stage and ensuring that there's something for everyone. From circus and comedy, cabaret to family shows, our Santa's grotto, live music and plenty of chances to get down on the dance floor, we offer a range of festive fun, whatever your age.”
Further events are still to be announced. The season runs at Woolwich Works in the Royal Arsenal, across the Fireworks Factory, the Ropekeepers Studio and the Visitors' Book Café, and follows the venue's autumn season.
