Damian Lewis to Lead Henry V at The Old Vic in Rupert Goold's First Season

Damian Lewis will star in Henry V at The Old Vic in London, the first season programmed by Rupert Goold, the theatre has announced. WhatsOnStage reported the line-up on 10 November 2026.

Goold directs the production, which runs from 26 January to 27 March 2027. Its press night, the performance when critics are invited, is on 9 February. The production also marks 90 years since Laurence Olivier played the same role on the same Old Vic stage.

The season opens a few weeks later with a new take on a very different play. Milly Alcock stars in Julie, a version of August Strindberg's Miss Julie adapted and directed by Rebecca Frecknall, the theatre's associate director. It runs from 10 April to 29 May, with a press night on 20 April. The play was last staged at The Old Vic in 1966, when Maggie Smith played Julie.

Goold also directs a musical in the summer. Assassins, by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman, runs from 15 June to 21 August. It is a show about people who tried to kill American presidents, and it is one of Sondheim's darker works.

Late summer brings a one-person show. Arinze Kene performs Kohlhaas, adapted by Marco Baliani and Remo Rostagno from Heinrich von Kleist's 1810 novella about a horse dealer who takes on an unjust system. Omar Elerian translates and directs the piece, which was first produced by Brighton Festival. It runs from 27 August to 4 September, with a press night on 31 August.

The theatre has also launched Old Vic New Directors, a scheme backing three directors. Each will present work in the Greene Studio, the theatre's smaller space, in 2027.

The main season therefore runs from January to early September.