The Young Vic’s 25/26 Season features seven productions, six from directors making their Young Vic directorial debuts.
Entertaining Mr Sloane by Joe Orton
Directed by Nadia Fall will play at the Young Vic 15 September – 08 November 2025.
Nadia Fall launches her first season as Young Vic Artistic Director with Joe Orton’s 1964 cult classic brimming with manipulation, seduction, and a devilish wit.
“Tell him to put some trousers on. Cantering around the house with a bare bum… Can’t leave you alone for five minutes.”
When lonely Kath (Tamzin Outhwaite) offers the mysterious Mr Sloane a room to rent in the family home, her businessman brother Ed (Daniel Cerqueira) does not approve. After all, what will people say? But soon, he becomes equally taken with the charismatic young Sloane. Only their old Dada remains wary, convinced that he recognises this stranger. What begins as a convenient living arrangement spirals into a dangerous game of desire and deceit.
The creative team also brings together Designer Peter McKintosh, Lighting Designer Richard Howell, Sound Designer Tingying Dong, Movement Director James Cousins, Casting Director Amy Ball CDG, Wig, Hair & Make-Up Designer Carole Hancock, Fight and Intimacy Director Haruka Kuroda, Costume Supervisor Yvonne Milnes, and Props Supervisor Jamie Owens.
Full casting and further creative team to be announced.
BSL Performances
Thu 16 Oct, 7.30pm & Wed 29 Oct, 2.30pm
Captioned Performances
Mon 20 Oct, 7.30pm & Fri 31 Oct, 7.30pm
Audio Described Performances
Sat 18 Oct, 2.30pm & Thu 23 Oct, 7.30pm
Relaxed Performances
Mon 20 Oct, 7.30pm & Sat 01 Nov, 2.30pm
Ohio by The Bengsons
Directed by Caitlin Sullivan will play at the Young Vic 30 September – 24 October 2025
What happens when we die?
An intimate and rousing new musical experience by real-life couple Abigail and Shaun Bengson, known for their evocative Indie-folk music and deeply personal storytelling.
When Shaun turned his back on the church, he found a new home in music. Confronted now with acute degenerative hearing loss, he’s making the choice to live joyfully in the face of life’s many unanswerable questions.
Featuring creative captions, Ohio is an exhilarating and celebratory true story about losing faith and finding hope in the darkest of places, directed by Caitlin Sullivan.
From Obie-winning duo The Bengsons, brought to you by the Olivier Award-winning producers of Fleabag, Baby Reindeer and An Oak Tree.
BSL Performances
Sat 18 Oct, 3pm & Thu 23 Oct, 8pm
Relaxed Environment
Tue 14 Oct 8pm (the show itself will not be adapted, but the audience environment will be relaxed with house lights up and the ability to leave and re-enter as needed)
An Audio Guide will be available to download ahead of all performances. The visuals of this production remain static throughout and will be described in this guide.
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo by Rajiv Joseph
Directed by Omar Elerian comes to the Young Vic 2 December 2025 – 31 January 2026.
Omar Elerian directs the European Premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s surreal and profoundly dark comedy Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. Following its premiere on Broadway, the play received multiple Tony nominations and recognition as a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
When an atheist suddenly finds himself walking around after death, he has got some serious re-evaluating to do.
Iraq, well into the new millennium. A fast-talking Tiger haunts the streets, plagued by a fundamental question: “Why am I here?”.
And he’s not the only one.
US forces have long since toppled Saddam Hussein, yet Baghdad remains aflame. In the chaos, the lives of American Marines Tom and Kev collide with Iraqi translator Musa after their chance encounters with the Tiger. Iraqi or American, man or beast, they are all searching for meaning, revenge, forgiveness, and a solid gold toilet seat that’s worth a fortune.
Olivier and BAFTA award-winner David Threlfall (Hangmen) stars as the Tiger, with Olivier Award-nominee Arinzé Kene (Misty) as American Marine Kev, Ammar Haj Ahmad (The Jungle) as Musa, and Hala Omran (I Medea) as Iraqi woman/Leper. Full cast to be announced.
The production will feature Designs by Rajha Shakiry, Lighting Design by Jackie Shemesh, Sound Design by Elena Peña, Casting Direction by Heather Basten CDG,Costume Supervisor, Male Arcucci, and Associate Designer Yimei Zhao.
BSL Performance
Wed 14 Jan, 2.30pm & Fri 16 Jan, 7.30pm
Captioned Performances
Sat 10 Jan, 2.30pm & Fri 23 Jan, 7.30pm
Relaxed Performances
Sat 10 Jan, 2.30pm & Wed 21 Jan, 7.30pm
Audio Described Performances
Sat 17 Jan, 2.30pm and Thu 22 Jan, 7.30pm
Museum of Austerity – a mixed reality exhibition
Directed by Sacha Wares comes to the Young Vic 5 December 2025 – 16 January 2026
Witness the human stories of Austerity Britain in this arresting mixed reality installation.
In 2016, the UN found that “grave or systemic violations” of the rights of disabled people were taking place throughout the UK. Wearing a mixed reality headset, you will enter a striking, holographic gallery that lays bare the consequences when state safety nets fail.
Museum of Austerity is more than an exhibition; it’s a blend of theatre, history and humanity. A place to reflect on the past, and confront the future.
This powerful installation combines verbatim testimony with the skills of theatre/XR director Sacha Wares and the in-depth knowledge of John Pring, editor of Disability News Service. It was a finalist in the XR History Awards, nominated for Best Digital Innovation at the UK Theatre Awards and won International Documentary Festival Amsterdam’s (IDFA) Best Immersive Production.
Museum of Austerity is accessible to wheelchair users and can be tailored in a variety of ways at every performance, including captions which appear within the headset, audio description, the assistance of a sighted guide host, and optional removal of sensitive content. What to Expect information, including access options, can be found in the visitor guide here.
A number of supporting events will accompany the run, including an event with Imogen Day and China Mills from the Deaths by Welfare project at Healing Justice Ldn, further details to be announced.
Imogen Day has been campaigning for changes to the welfare system ever since her sister, Philippa Day, died in 2019, due to fatal mistakes within the benefits system.
Deaths by Welfare investigates deaths of disabled people linked to welfare state violence and documents disabled people’s resistance. Link: https://deathsbywelfare.org
Healing Justice Ldn builds the capacities, skills, and infrastructures we need to support community-led health and healing.
Broken Glass by Arthur Miller
Directed by Jordan Fein comes to the Young Vic 21 February – 18 April 2026
Olivier Award nominated Best Director Jordan Fein (Fiddler on the Roof) brings this rarely performed Arthur Miller play to the Young Vic.
It’s like she’s connected to some… truth that other people are blind to.
Brooklyn, New York, 1938. Sylvia Gellburg reads about the violent attacks against Jewish communities carried out an ocean away in Germany. Most people look away, believing it will pass. Not Sylvia. Her obsession grows and soon she loses her ability to walk — a paralysis her husband, Phillip, believes is all in her head. Sylvia forms an undeniable bond with Dr Hyman and soon the cracks in her marriage become impossible to ignore. In the face of silence, Sylvia rises in defiance.
A bold and passionate story about the consequences of disconnecting with the realities of our world.
Full cast and creative team to be announced.
CARE, written by Alexander Zeldin
Directed by Alexander Zeldin comes to the Young Vic 11 May – 11 July 2026
Internationally acclaimed auteur Alexander Zeldin (LOVE, The Confessions, The Other Place) makes his Young Vic debut to direct CARE, his life affirming play about the elusive connection between loss and rebirth.
I never saw any of that before. All that the birds do… I see it now
Will they be gone too?
A single mum, two feuding pre-teens, and their gran. When Grandmother takes a fall, she is hastily moved to a care home she doesn’t want to be in, surrounded by other elderly people longing for comfort and missing home. But as time passes, she comes to see what really matters in life and between loss and loneliness, we glimpse the unexpected joy in life’s everyday moments.
Full cast and creative team to be announced.
Sting by Sophie Swithinbank
Directed by Nancy Medina comes to the Young Vic 18 June – 18 July 2026
Nancy Medina directs the World Premiere of Sophie Swithinbank’s (Bacon) urgent new play Sting. Sophie is the recipient of the 2023 Peggy Ramsay/Film4 Award and the Sonia Friedman Productions Prize for Best Play.
I should never have let you in. I usually don’t let people in.
Ash is off the rails.
Going straight from the sparkly sweat and tequila shots of the club to her first day of a new job, her new boss Lily is unimpressed. Their assignment: to catalogue historic cases of women accused of being witches. After an incident at work, Ash’s boyfriend Dom enters the scene as a knight in shining armour, even providing Ash with the best present she could hope for: a pet rabbit. But as the women delve into researching a disturbing series of murders, Lily starts to get the sense that something is wrong with Ash. Or maybe, something is wrong with Dom.
Sting casts a scathing light on the systemic injustice that permeates the very institutions sworn to protect us.
