The Oresteia Tickets

The West End has a reputation for producing some of the best theatre in the world. And it’s a reputation it both earns and defends consistently. As well as being home to The Mousetrap – the longest-running play in the world – London is the birthplace of many groundbreaking shows that will soon experience global success.

From fresh new plays and highly anticipated transfers to innovative revivals and A-list casts, there’s always something exciting opening in London.

Whether you’re making last-minute plans, want to be the first to see the next big thing, impress your friends with your theatre know-how, or you’re just curious, you can find out about all the new theatre opening this month right here with us.

Every year there is a truly incredible array of shows available to see, and this month is no exception. So keep your finger on the pulse of West End plays as we dive into all of London’s new theatre this month.

Theatre Starting This Month

There are so many new plays opening this month in London. From West End giants to family shows, you can see it all – and book it all here while you’re at it.

All The Things We Can’t Explain

This community production at Kiln Theatre is an original piece exploring the speculative future of Kilburn. When the area starts to go through a "rejuvenation," a mysterious object appears – the bloody, beating heart of Kilburn itself. The residents go into chaos as they discover the fate of their neighbourhood is under threat, and they must come together to save the town they love.

All The Things We Can’t Explain opens on 31 July 2026.

Allegra

Dame Maureen Lipman stars in the new comedy, Allegra.

Allegra sees the world differently. She hears it differently, too. All because she can’t stop herself from singing. Her carers are trying to look after her the best they can, but when Allegra’s musical world slips from her mind into the real world, the boundaries between imagination and reality start to blur, and her joy becomes an issue that needs to be resolved.

Allegra opens at the Harold Pinter Theatre on 8 July 2026.

Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story

For seven performances only, you can see Awkward Prods’ hilarious and ridiculous show that wowed audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe.

This is a celebration of Princess Di. It mixes drag, multimedia, audience participation, puppetry and queer joy to create a truly unique show. It’s one of the unmissable pieces of new theatre this month.

Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story will be playing at the Arcola Theatre for one week only from 6 July 2026.

Dreamscape

This award-winning production is a truly unique and important piece of new theatre opening this month.

Telling the shocking true story of the shooting of Tyisha Miller, Dreamscape combines beatboxing, rap and hip-hop dance to explore how the 19-year-old was shot four times by Californian police officers in 1998. Powerful and moving, it’s a must-see for July.

Dreamscape opens at the Arcola Theatre on 28 July 2026.

Gruffalo

Everyone’s favourite forest beast is coming back to London just in time for the summer holidays.

Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s beloved picture book is coming to life once more as The Gruffalo stomps onto the Lyric Theatre stage.

Watch as Mouse manages to trick his way out of the bellies of a bevy of predators in this uplifting and charming show.

The Gruffalo opens on 17 July 2026.

David Morrissey, Mary Louise Parker, Rosie Sheehy, and Tom Glynn-Carney star in The Oresteia at the Bridge, a new contemporary version of the Greek tragedy written and directed by Simon Stone. This should be quite something because Stone has already delivered some of the most memorable shows of the last 15 years, including Medea at the Barbican and the astonishing Yerma at the Young Vic with Billie Piper. Aeschylus’ mighty play may have been written two millennia ago, but Stone is likely to make it seem fresh off the page. 

Simon Stone’s theatre is always pretty distinctive, but it looks quite tame compared with the work of Japanese theatre-maker Hideki Noda, whose work has included The Bee with Kathryn Hunter and A Night at the Kabuki, which fused Romeo and Juliet with Queen’s A Night at the Opera. At Sadler's Wells this week, Noda and his 25-strong company can be seen in −320°F, a piece inspired by the Faust myth about a man in search of the secret of eternal life.

Reasons to see The Oresteia at the Bridge Theatre

Yes, I know you are disappointed that Chris Pine won’t be on the London stage until 2027 in Ivanov at the Bridge Theatre, but the postponement offers the opportunity for rising levels of anticipation (like looking forward to a holiday booked months in advance) and could just make way for the show of the year. To fill the slot, writer/director Simon Stone is instead turning his attention to that big daddy of revenge tragedies, Aeschylus’ The Oresteia, first performed in 458 BC. Your added bonus is that it stars David Morrissey, Mary-Louise Parker, Tom Glynn-Carney and Rosie Sheehy. 

Won’t it be a bit old and crumbly?

Well, yes, it is extremely old and the only complete trilogy of plays to survive from Ancient Greece, but it’s also an award-winner. It won first prize at the city of Athens festival of Dionysia. So, it was the Olivier Award winner of its day. Apparently, there was a team of judges, but they were strongly influenced by how hard the audience clapped; clearly, an early version of the clapometer was in operation for the judging process.

So, what’s it about?

Revenge and justice. In the first play, Agamemnon returns triumphant from the Trojan Wars but is murdered by his wife Clytemnestra, who, not surprisingly, hasn’t got over the fact he sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia to appease the gods and get a fair wind to set sail to Troy. In the second play, the husband and wife’s son, Orestes, murders his mum to avenge his dad’s murder. In the third play Orestes is pursued by the Furies demanding that Clytemnestra is avenged. So it’s three plays condensed into one, asking, 'Can the cycle of revenge and generational trauma ever be broken?' 

Ok, I like a bit of revenge, but it still feels as if it will be all Greek to me.

It might well do so if it were not for the fact that it is being rewritten and directed by Simon Stone, who has a real knack for bringing old and older texts right up to date. He had a huge hit with a knock-out version of Lorca’s Yerma set in contemporary London with Billie Piper in the lead, and he did a brilliant Medea set in contemporary America.  So, this version is about a family in the here and now, not one living thousands of years ago. Stone has previously said of his work, “What if it’s about you? " What if it’s a very old story about you?” This version of The Oresteia will be, and it will raise questions: how does society deal with a father who has killed his daughter and a son who slays his mum? Those questions are as pertinent to us today as they were in Ancient Greece. 

The incessant sounds of clocks ticking as you entered the auditorium for Oresteia at Trafalgar Studios gave the impression that it was only a matter of time: that we were simply waiting for the hammer to fall. And when it fell, it hit hard.

Oresteia, currently playing at Trafalgar Studios, is a contemporary retelling of the Greek tragedy. Adapted by Robert Icke (who also adapted 1984), the production is passionate, subtle and stylistic. The more you think about Oresteia, the better it gets.