Hampstead Theatre Unveils Four World Premieres for Early 2027
Hampstead Theatre Unveils Four World Premieres for Early 2027
Hampstead Theatre has announced its programme for the first part of 2027. It includes four world premieres, meaning plays staged for the first time anywhere, and a revival of Michael Frayn's Democracy. WhatsOnStage first reported the line-up on 12 November 2026.
Public booking opens on 19 November at 10:30am. Members of the theatre's Patrons, Friends Plus, Friends and Young Friends schemes can book before that.
The main stage season starts with Portrait of a Man by Alexis Zegerman, running from 11 February to 20 March. Anna Ledwich directs. The play is inspired by a meeting between the artist Elaine de Kooning and President John F Kennedy, and it looks at the making of his official portrait in 1962.
Democracy follows on the main stage from 26 March to 1 May. It is the first major London revival of the play. Jeremy Sams directs, and this is his first production at Hampstead. Frayn's play is set in West Germany in 1969. It follows Chancellor Willy Brandt and his assistant Günter Guillaume, who was spying for East German intelligence.
Downstairs in the smaller Hampstead Downstairs space, Josh Azouz's The Rabbi, The Wife & The Prick opens on 26 February and runs to 3 April. Hannah Hauer-King directs, and the production is presented by MMXX. The story follows Rene, who is divorced in civil law. Her former husband must still sign a Get, the traditional Jewish divorce document, for the divorce to be complete in religious law.
Isabella Waldron's It Never Rains in Kennebunkport runs downstairs from 9 April to 15 May. Alice Hamilton, the theatre's associate director, directs it. Waldron is a recent graduate of Hampstead's Inspire programme. The play follows a teenager called Sadie, who believes former US president George W Bush is her father. She raises money for a September 11 memorial garden in Devon to try to get his attention.
The last premiere is Chloë Lawrence-Taylor's Driftweed, which runs on the main stage from 4 June to 10 July. Júlia Levai directs. The play is set in a British coastal town where residents face rising sea levels and the demolition of their homes. Lawrence-Taylor's earlier play, Personal Values, was staged at Hampstead in 2025.
Booking for all of these shows opens to the public on 19 November.
