Theatre at the Tabard – What’s on in Summer and Autumn 2026?

There’s a busy run of shows at the Tabard over the coming months, from returning Edinburgh Fringe hits to a brand new in-house musical and a new stage version of Treasure Island for Christmas…

Smile: The Charlie Chaplin Story

Created and performed by Marcel Cole, this runs from 29 July to 1 August and traces Charlie Chaplin’s journey from poverty and hardship to global stardom as the world’s best loved silent film comedian. The show uses physical theatre and storytelling to get at the man behind the Little Tramp, and has picked up ten festival awards on its way from the Edinburgh Fringe to venues across three continents.

Book tickets: Smile: The Charlie Chaplin Story

Clive

Paul Keating, winner of an Off West End Award, stars in Michael Wynne’s one-person play about a man whose carefully ordered, solitary life starts to unravel, with only a towering cactus called Clive for company. Directed by Lucy Bailey for Cahoots Theatre Company, it plays two performances at the Tabard on 2 August, following a well received run at the Arcola Theatre and ahead of a transfer to the Edinburgh Fringe.

Book tickets: Clive

The following evening, on 3 August, BAFTA nominated comedian Mark Steel and fellow stand-up Limahl Germain test out new material in a work in progress double bill. It has already sold out.

Winston and David

Robert Lloyd George’s play about the friendship between Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George returns to the Tabard from 6 to 29 August, following a sold-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe. Drawing on previously unseen family papers, it follows the two men from early political rivalry through to the decisions that shaped Britain’s path into the First World War. Nick Hennegan directs.

Book tickets: Winston and David

Mettle

From 1 to 5 September, Nicholas Collett performs Mettle, a solo play built from his own father’s story. His father served on the Atlantic convoys during the Second World War and said almost nothing about it until 1993. After his death, Collett found service records that revealed what he had lived through, and the play weaves that research together with testimony, music and soundscapes from the era. Gavin Robertson directs.

Book tickets: Mettle

Horatio Nelson: Fever and Fire

Adam Preston’s one-man show about Horatio Nelson returns to the Tabard from 8 to 12 September, following its sell-out run at the theatre back in April. It looks past the familiar image of Britain’s most famous naval hero to the personal story underneath: the loss of his mother as a child, his relationship with Emma Hamilton, and the drive that carried him from a struggling young sailor to national legend. The costumes are by Dougie Hawkes, who won a Primetime Emmy for his work on Bridgerton. The Chiswick Calendar called it ‘an impressive journey through an extraordinary life’ when it first ran.

Book tickets: Horatio Nelson: Fever and Fire

What We Know Now

From 16 to 20 September the Tabard welcomes two well known screen actors to the stage for a one-off musical show. Elizabeth McGovern, known to millions for Downton Abbey and an Oscar nominee for Ragtime, is joined by Ann Cusack, whose credits include A League of Their Own and Better Call Saul, for an evening mixing original songs with old favourites, reflecting on their careers and the business they’ve worked in. The Tabard’s artistic director, Simon Reilly, directs, with live music from The Hotheads.

Book tickets: What We Know Now

Girl Out of the Blue

Giles Cole’s new play runs from 23 September to 10 October. It follows seventeen-year-old Abi after she tracks down the man she believes is her father, a successful journalist called Doug with a wife, children and a carefully ordered life. Abi’s mother Beth has spent seventeen years protecting her daughter from the truth, and Abi’s search threatens to unravel it for both families. Cole’s previous Tabard production was After All These Years.

Book tickets: Girl Out of the Blue

Who Put the Bomp?

Keith Strachan, the director behind the Tabard’s recent Gilbert and Sullivan revivals The Mikado and HMS Pinafore, returns with something different: a brand new in-house musical called Who Put the Bomp?, running from 14 October to 7 November. Set among a group of London teenagers, it follows shy schoolboy Billy Johnson as he starts a doo-wop vocal group with his friends, with music teacher Miss McTavish keeping them in line. Strachan is credited as director of the West End hits Dreamboats and Petticoats and Dancing in the Streets.

Book tickets: Who Put the Bomp?

Freud’s Last Session

Freud’s Last Session imagines a meeting between Sigmund Freud and a young C.S. Lewis on the day Britain goes to war, as the two debate faith, love and the existence of God over a single afternoon. Finlay McLean (Taggart) plays Freud and John Kay Steel (Case Histories) plays Lewis, in a production directed by David Ian Neville. It runs from 10 to 28 November.

Book tickets: Freud’s Last Session

Treasure Island

The Tabard’s Christmas show this year is Treasure Island, adapted for the stage by Louise Haddington and directed by artistic director Simon Reilly. Robert Louis Stevenson’s story of young Jim Hawkins, a treasure map and Long John Silver runs from 4 December to 2 January, from the same producing team behind last year’s Railway Children.

Book tickets: Treasure Island

Full listing, July 2026 to January 2027

27 – 28 July: An Audience with Virginia Woolf

29 July – 1 August: Smile: The Charlie Chaplin Story

2 August: Clive

3 August: Mark Steel and Limahl Germain (work in progress)

6 – 29 August: Winston and David

1 – 5 September: Mettle

6 and 13 September: Rob Newman’s Survival Guide to the 21st Century (work in progress)

8 – 12 September: Horatio Nelson: Fever and Fire

16 – 20 September: What We Know Now

23 September – 10 October: Girl Out of the Blue

27 September: Siân Phillips: The Greeks

14 October – 7 November: Who Put the Bomp?

1 November: The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town

10 – 28 November: Freud’s Last Session

22 – 24 November: In the Lady Garden

4 December – 2 January: Treasure Island

For more information, visit tabard.org.uk

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