The Hunger Games: On Stage ignites at new Docklands theatre

A fresh stage adaptation of Suzanne Collins’s dystopian bestseller has opened in a purpose built 1,200 seat venue in London’s Docklands, aiming to satisfy a fiercely loyal global fandom while pushing immersive theatre to blockbuster scale. The production, titled The Hunger Games: On Stage, combines aerial work, hand to hand combat, practical flame effects, blood rigs and an on screen cameo from John Malkovich as President Coriolanus Snow, all inside a brand new Troubadour Theatre raised at Canary Wharf.

The venue itself is part of the story. Built on reclaimed land in what was described as a hole in the ground, the semi permanent structure was assembled with six cranes and tens of thousands of steel components, drawing on live events techniques to compress a years long construction timeline into months. At final rehearsals the site still hummed with hundreds of workers as seating banks were tested and reconfigured. The design allows sections of the audience to surround parts of the action, shifting the piece into the round for key sequences.

Early previews were not without friction. A delayed start and online grumbles about unfinished areas, along with complaints that bars and exits felt undersized for crowd peaks, gave the launch a rough edge. Even so, the company earned a standing ovation and the creative team pressed on with refinements.

Seven years of development with Lionsgate underpins the adaptation. Playwright Conor McPherson has shaped the script in close collaboration with Collins, who contributed new story details and names for tributes that had previously been known only by district. Those additions now sit firmly within the franchise canon, threading the stage version to both the novels and the multi billion dollar film series.

Director Matthew Dunster leans into the saga’s political undertow. The production foregrounds Collins’s concerns about spectacle, class division and the ease with which societies normalise violence. The love triangle remains, but Peeta and Gale are also framed as opposing moral responses to conflict, one clinging to humanity, the other arguing that grim means can serve a greater end. Cast and creatives workshopped these ideas throughout rehearsals, treating the arena as a mirror held up to a culture that consumes ruthless competition as entertainment.

On the floor, the demands are punishing. Mia Carragher, taking on Katniss Everdeen, is seldom off stage and trained in archery, circuits and fight craft to carry the role’s physical load. Fight director Kev McCurdy focuses on proximity and intention to keep the violence convincing while maintaining safety, accepting the inevitable bruises of boot camp as part of the process. The younger performers are integral to the show’s visceral jolt, with moments that place the audience uncomfortably close to adolescent combat.

Staging the saga’s signature images is the central challenge. The flaming chariot ride arrives as a live spectacle rather than a screen effect. The tracker jacker sequence trades digital swarms for choreography and sound. Most striking is the treatment of the genetically engineered mutts in the endgame. On stage, the creatures are embodied by the actors who previously played fallen tributes, a choice that restores the story’s original sting and lands with a human weight that cinema avoided. Movement director Charlotte Broom has built a crawling, ground hugging vocabulary for the pack, brutal on the body yet precise enough to let flickers of the lost children show through.

The team continues to trim and tighten, with an eye to the communal rhythm of a full house. The aim is a leaner opening than the first preview, on the premise that an audience thinks faster together and the production must stay half a step ahead to sustain its charge.

Troubadour’s latest venture slots neatly beside the company’s record of large scale, site specific builds, from pop up railways to repurposed industrial spaces. The Docklands theatre blends that nimble DNA with the bones of a long term home, flexible enough to host other projects yet muscular enough to carry a franchise title at stadium stakes.

With critics due to deliver their verdicts this week, the commercial signs are already encouraging. The run has been extended to October 2026, giving Katniss, Peeta and the cannon shot theatrics of Panem a long window to prove that spectacle, philosophy and fan service can coexist under one roof. In a city that knows a thing or two about pageantry and power, the odds, for now, appear favourable.

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