Birmingham Rep, has unveiled its highly anticipated Autumn 2026 season, following on from its ambitious Spring 2026 season marking Artistic Director, Joe Murphy’s first year.

This bold season continues The Rep’s 2026 artistic vision of showcasing world premieres, celebrated revivals, and festive family favourites, reaffirming the theatre’s commitment to producing and hosting productions that are Proudly Birmingham, Distinctively Rep.

Leading up to the newly announced Autumn season, Spring will see a major new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, marking the directorial stage debut of The Rep’s Artistic Director Joe Murphy and Deputy Artistic Director Madeleine Kludje.

In this vibrant new adaptation, The Rep’s artistic team promises a distinctively Birmingham interpretation of Shakespeare’s beloved comedy perfect for ‘Bard veterans and newbies alike’, as the magical tale of love, mischief and transformation takes to The Rep stage through the lens of the Birmingham’s energy, diversity and creativity.

Half of the cast, including the hilarious Adam Carver (aka cabaret sensation Fatt Butcher) are local Birmingham and West Midlands actors, with three of the cast members having been selected from the open casting call the venue launched last year.

Get ready to enter a neon rave in an enchanted forest where boundaries blur, music pulsates, and love is celebrated in all its glorious forms in this colourful new adaptation of Shakespeare’s most romantic comedy, playing from Saturday 25 April – Sunday 24 May. To celebrate the venues’ return to modern-dress Shakespeare (first devised by The Rep in the 1930’s), The Rep is offering 5,000 tickets at just £5 for young people and schools across the city aged under 25.

The Spring/Summer season will also feature an epic revival of Stephen Sondheim’s gothic musical thriller Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Directed by Artistic Director Joe Murphy and designed by Elin Steele, The Rep will bring the legendary composer’s thrilling score and darkly comic story of vengeance and obsession to The House in a bold new staging of what is considered ‘one of the greatest musicals ever written’ from Saturday 4 July – Sunday 9 August. This dark and razor-sharp musical thriller will star Iranian-Canadian born musical theatre star Ramin Karimloo (Phantom of The Opera, Les Misérables, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Addams Family) as Sweeney Todd, award-winning radical entertainer, Meow Meow (Emma Rice’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Guys and Dolls) as Mrs. Lovett and three-time Olivier Award-winning actor David Bedella (& Juliet, In The Heights, Jerry Springer: The Opera) as Judge Turpin.

The autumn season will feature the third Rep co-production with award-winning deaf-launched and led theatre company, Deafinitely Theatre alongside Park Theatre. Who will be bringing Mike Bartlett’s Bull in the intimate The Door performance space from Saturday 12 – Saturday 19 September.

Bull is a strained and unsettling examination of workplace bullying, power and survival. As pressure builds, alliances shift and cruelty surfaces, exposing a system where fear thrives and empathy disappears. The play explores how people will do anything to survive when the stakes are high; directed by Paula Garfield, this production will be presented in Deafinitely Theatre’s renowned bilingual style, combining British Sign Language, spoken English and creative captions.

September will also see a major new revival of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time return to the stage (Saturday 5 September – Saturday 19 September). Christopher Boone is gifted with a brilliant mind for numbers but unsettled by the unpredictability of people and everyday life. When a neighbour’s dog is discovered killed, he finds himself under suspicion. Determined to prove his innocence, Christopher becomes both detective and suspect, drawn into a mystery that grows darker and more complex with every clue he uncovers. Based on the internationally acclaimed, award-winning novel by Mark Haddon, this visually inventive production co-produced by The Rep and Melting Pot (Inspector Morse: House of Ghosts, The Battle), combines the intrigue of a whodunnit with a powerful coming-of-age story in an unforgettable theatrical event.

September in The House concludes with the return of Bill Kenwright’s powerful and critically acclaimed production of Twelve Angry Men - thirteen years after making its stage debut at The Rep in 2013, the show is back in session! Following multiple record-breaking West End seasons, this timeless and electrifying adaptation of the 1957 three-time Academy Award nominated film, is considered one of the great ‘must sees’ of all time, to The Rep for a limited run from Monday 21 – Saturday 26 September. A jury has murder on their minds and a life in their hands as they decide the fate of a young delinquent accused of killing his father. But what appears to be an open and shut case soon becomes a huge dilemma, as prejudices and preconceived ideas about the accused, the trial, and each other turn the tables every which way, until the nail-biting climax…

Continuing The Rep’s commitment to developing new work, two major world premiere co-productions will arrive in Birmingham just in time to usher audiences into the autumn season.

Planet Omar, based on the much-loved children’s book series by Zanib Mian, and brought to life by award winning playwright Asif Khan and director Sameena Hussain. The fantastically joyful and heartfelt new co production from Leeds Playhouse, in association with Unicorn Theatre &; The Rep brings the adventures of an 8-year-old with a wild imagination, a big heart, and a knack for getting into trouble, to the stage for the very first time from Wednesday 17 June – Sunday 21 June.

Christmas 2026 promises to transform the venue once again into a festive destination for families with three magical Christmas productions.

The beloved seasonal classic The Snowman™ flies home to Birmingham with a mesmerising new makeover from Tuesday 20 October – Sunday 1 November before transferring to Peacock Theatre, Sadler’s Wells home in the West End, for Christmas. Based on Raymond Briggs’ cherished book, The Rep’s sparkling new production features Howard Blake’s iconic score including the Christmas classic Walking In The Air, beautifully crafted puppets and of course… a gravity-defying friendship! This new production is directed and choreographed by Olivier Award-winner Will Tuckett, with production design by multi-award-winning designer Anna Fleischle.

During the Christmas period, J.M Barrie’s classic Peter Pan will whisk audiences away on a swashbuckling adventure to Neverland from Wednesday 18 November – Sunday 17 January. Adapted by internationally renowned writer and former director of The Rep Youth Theatre Phil Porter, with music by West Midlands composer Ruth Chan, it marks the fourth and final Rep Production with Artistic Director, Joe Murphy at the helm (of the pirate ship) this year.

For younger audiences, Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale The Ugly Duckling comes to The Door from Thursday 3 December – Sunday 10 January by Katherine Chandler and directed by Caroline Wilkes, completing a joyful festive line-up for all ages.

Looking further ahead to spring 2027, with thanks to funding from The Sir Barry Jackson Trust, the venue will host Chains - written by Birmingham writer Rem Conway and directed by The Rep’s own Deputy Artistic Director Madeleine Kludje. This production is co-produced by The Rep in association with the Legacy Centre of Excellence, Europe’s largest Black Arts, Business and Heritage Centre, based in Birmingham.

Chains, originally commissioned by Senti, will premiere in The Rep’s intimate performance space The Door from Thursday 4 – Sat 20 February before continuing on to the Legacy Centre of Excellence and a wider community tour. Junior – a young man on the brink of fatherhood – wakes up in a vast, empty void, his body bound by rusty, corroded chains. Determined to break free, he soon realises he’s not alone. At the other end of the chain sits his estranged father, Norman – a man who knows this place all too well. As father and son confront the choices that shackled them, the chain between them takes on new meaning — no longer just metal and rust, but the echo of an umbilical cord that once gave life and now denies freedom. To break it is to face the inevitable truth of growing up: that every son must, in time, cut the cord, and in doing so, learn how to stand as his own man.

2027 will also see the return of two highly anticipated, sell-out productions.

The first being A Thousand Splendid Suns, returning after its sold-out tour in Birmingham, Nottingham and Leeds in 2025. The Rep’s hugely acclaimed adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, adapted for the stage by Ursula Rani Sarma returns to The House stage to usher in the 2027 season, with performances running from Friday 29 January – Saturday 13 February, giving audiences another opportunity to experience this sweeping and deeply moving stage adaptation.

Following this, the four-time Oliver nominated Punch will be making a stop on its UK tour to The House for a limited one-week run. Based on Jacob Dunne’s extraordinary true story, Olivier award-winning writer James Graham has adapted this gripping and deeply moving tale to the stage, directed by Adam Penford.

Further casting, creative teams and performance dates for the Autumn 2026 – Spring 2027 season will be announced in due course. To book, visit: birmingham-rep.co.uk