Tilda Swinton and Gary Oldman lead Royal Court’s 70th anniversary season

Tilda Swinton arrives at the 2nd Annual Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Gala presented by Rolex held at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on October 15, 2022 in Los Angeles, California, United States. (Photo by Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency)

The Royal Court Theatre will mark its 70th anniversary in 2026 with a star-powered programme that brings Tilda Swinton and Sir Gary Oldman back to the London stage after decades away.

Swinton, 64, returns to Manfred Karge’s Man to Man, the role she originated at the Royal Court in 1988. The revival reunites her with original director Stephen Unwin. The production runs at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs from 5 September to 24 October 2026, then heads to the Berliner Ensemble, with a New York transfer planned for spring 2027.

Oldman, 67, will star in and direct Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, his first Royal Court appearance since the 1980s. The engagement runs from 8 May to 30 May 2026, following his performances of the piece earlier this year at York Theatre Royal. Each evening will open with Godot’s To-Do List, a Beckett-inspired short by Leo Simpe-Asante, winner of the 2025 Royal Court Young Playwrights Award.

The anniversary year is pitched as a celebratory showcase of the theatre’s past, present, and future. The season opens with the world premiere of Luke Norris’s Guess How Much I Love You and closes with Ryan Calais Cameron’s The Afronauts, which explores Zambia’s 1960s space race ambitions. Additional titles include The Shitheads by Jack Nicholls, Monument by Rhys Warrington, John Proctor Is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower, Between the River and the Sea by Yousef Sweid and Isabella Sedlak, Are You Watching? by Georgie Dettmer, Archduke by Rajiv Joseph, and Blood of My Blood by Joy Nesbitt.

Beyond the stage, the Royal Court will collaborate with BBC Radio 4 and playwright Mark Ravenhill on a curated series of audio adaptations drawn from seven decades of the broadcaster’s archives. Executive director Will Young outlined a plan to channel new resources into developing writers, with an additional annual investment aimed at growing the pipeline of new work.

The programming answers ongoing debate about celebrity casting in the West End by positioning household names within a laboratory for bold writing. The theatre nods to a lineage that includes Peggy Ashcroft, Laurence Olivier, and landmark titles such as Look Back in Anger, while setting a forward course with commissions and partnerships designed to shape the next generation of playwrights.

Tickets and further casting details will be announced by the Royal Court in due course.

Photo Credit: DepositPhotos.com

Belaid S