We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Lyric Hammersmith
- Opens: Thursday, 7 October 2027 -
Booking until: Saturday, 6 November 2027
We Have Always Lived in the Castle description
We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a new stage adaptation of Shirley Jackson's 1962 novel about a family that has shut itself away from the world.
Six years after most of the Blackwood family died of arsenic poisoning at the dinner table, the survivors live in isolation in the family house: 18-year-old Mary Katherine, known as Merricat, her older sister Constance and their ailing Uncle Julian. Constance was tried for the poisonings and acquitted, but the villagers nearby still treat the family with suspicion and hostility. The household holds together through strict routines and Merricat's private rituals, until the arrival of their cousin Charles unsettles the balance.
Jackson's novel, narrated by Merricat, was published three years before the author's death and was adapted for the cinema in 2018. This stage version is a world premiere at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, where it closes the theatre's 2027 season.
The adaptation is by Alistair McDowall, whose plays include Pomona and X. It is directed by Sarah Frankcom, former artistic director of the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, whose productions there included Hamlet with Maxine Peake in the title role.
Book tickets for We Have Always Lived in the Castle at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and see Jackson's unsettling story of the Blackwood sisters on stage.
