Today, The Yard Theatre in Hackney Wick, London, announces its first season in its new building. Six productions running from July 2026 to April 2027, including a 50th-anniversary revival of Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf directed by Diane Page, Holly Robinson’s adaptation of Mrs Dalloway, and Ian McKellen returning to the stage in Lear, reimagined by Artistic Director Jay Miller and playwright Simon Stephens.
The Yard opened in 2011 in a Hackney Wick warehouse built with a team of fifty volunteers, a £9,000 Arts Council England grant and materials reclaimed from the Olympic Park. It was meant to last six months. Fifteen years on, the original building has been demolished and replaced with an entirely new venue on the same spot. Designed from scratch by RIBA award-winning Takero Shimazaki Architects, the new Yard is more than twice the size of the original. A 220-seat curved auditorium. A six-storey natural ventilation chimney. Reused brick from the original building. Low-carbon products throughout. A dedicated space for the venue’s artist development programme working with young people from primary age through to young professionals. New backstage, dressing rooms and office facilities.
Tickets start at £10 across every production. There are £5 tickets on the door for under-27s through No Empty Seats, the venue’s scheme running since 2017. Premium tickets fund the cheapest ones. Every production starts at £10, McKellen’s Lear or a debut play.
A REIMAGINED BUILDING:
● TAKERO SHIMAZAKI RELEASES NEW RENDERING OF THE VENUE AS IT DOUBLES IN SIZE AND IMPROVES ECO FOOTPRINT, DESIGNED TO MEET EVOLVING NEEDS OF AUDIENCES AND ARTISTS ALIKE
THE YARD PROGRAMME – THREE WORLD PREMIERES, ONE LONDON PREMIERE, ONE ★★★★★ SMASH-HIT TRANSFER AND ONE REVIVAL:
● MALMÖ STADSTEATER BRINGS THE LONDON PREMIERE OF JACKIE COLLINS’ NOVEL THE WORLD IS FULL OF MARRIED MEN
● 50TH ANNIVERSARY REVIVAL OF NTOZAKE SHANGE’S FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE / WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF DIRECTED BY DIANE PAGE
● IAN MCKELLEN RETURNS TO THE STAGE IN LEAR: A REIMAGINING BY ARTISTIC DIRECTOR JAY MILLER AND PLAYWRIGHT SIMON STEPHENS
● VIRGINIA WOOLF’S CLASSIC MRS DALLOWAY IS ADAPTED FOR THE STAGE BY HOLLY ROBINSON, DIRECTED BY ANNA HIMALI HOWARD
● SEX EDUCATION WRITER TROY HUNTER PRESENTS THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT ADAM BLACK, DIRECTED BY TATENDA SHAMISO
● IN BED WITH MY BROTHER OPEN THE SEASON WITH THE PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD, THEIR ★★★★★ EDINBURGH HIT ABOUT CULT OUTSIDER BAND THE SHAGGS
Founder & Artistic Director Jay Miller says “In 2011 I opened The Yard as a DIY theatre that was supposed to be here for six months.
On The Yard’s 15th anniversary, I’ll open it again.
Same spirit, this time in a better, bigger theatre.
In the twelve months we’ve been closed, we’ve been playing with shows that pop. A debut play by Troy Hunter; toy dolls playing with Jackie Collins; a brilliant actor playing in ways he’s never played before. Virginia Woolf, Ntozake Shange, and the world’s worst band, all on the same stage in the same season.
They said it wouldn’t happen. It’s happening.
Deep breath in.”
Also soon to be announced, Metamorphosis. A new strand of commissioning running through the new Yard Theatre’s opening year. New artworks, including collaborations with artists from visual arts and music, alongside theatre makers. New partnerships with the cultural and community organisations based in and around Hackney Wick, from Gainsborough Primary School to V&A East. And new experiences for audiences, residents and young people. All enabled by a major project grant from Arts Council England.
The Yard also announces the appointment of writer Dipo Baruwa-Etti as New Work Associate. Baruwa-Etti, whose An unfinished man, premiered at The Yard in 2022, joins the artistic team to lead on developing new writing and supporting the next generation of artists through The Yard’s commissioning programme.
Tickets for all newly announced productions will go on sale to members first: Yard Residents on 21 May at noon, Yard Regulars on 22 May at noon, and to the general public on 28 May at noon. Tickets for Lear will go on-sale at a later date.
Architect, Takero Shimazaki commented:
“The design journey of the new Yard Theatre has been the most unique and extraordinary experience in my career as an architect. We began in 2019 following a competition process to be selected as the architect for this special project, from a group of outstanding architects.
The whole of the Yard team, led by Jay Miller and Ashleigh Wheeler have been the most ambitious, creative, resilient and fun-loving community to design a new space for. Their ever-uncompromising quest to express the architectural language for The Yard will result in the truly maximalist experience for their new 220 seat theatre, its bar and the community spaces. We have studied, visited and were inspired by some wide-ranging architecture and spaces, such as classical Greek and Italian amphitheatres, contemporary performance spaces across Europe, Art spaces, old West End theatres, Churches to Villas. We have questioned and debated what it means to be building in Hackney Wick today with its changing city landscape. We have challenged ourselves and our network of specialists on how we could build sustainably and what it would mean to re-use in this context of the existing industrial built language.
We have engaged with diverse community members and theatre goers, hosting and debating in person and on-line. We have not designed a building like this before. We are not sure if we ever can again. This building will be a genuine special homage to the pop, classical, messy, refined, surprising and generous being that is The Yard Theatre.”
