"Stratford East - formerly known as Theatre Royal Stratford East - comes with one of the weightiest legacies in all of London theatre. It was formerly run by Joan Littlewood, the hugely influential mid-20th century iconoclast who gave British theatre an almighty kick up the backside and probably stands as the second most famous London artistic director of all time after Olivier."
"Many of her successors have tried to grapple with this legacy - reviving some of her greatest hits, building a big statue of her - and maybe that's something newcomer Lisa Spirling (formerly of the small but influential Theatre 503) will get into in the future. But for now she's dropped a slick three-part season that's full of early promise."
"That'll be followed by a revival for (Mar 26-Apr 25 2026) by playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney (probably best known for his hit film Moonlight). Telling the story of gifted Black queer singer and soloist who encounters friction with a peer, the Nancy Medina-directed production won great notices at the Bristol Old Vic a couple of years back and now heads over here."
Lisa Spirling has announced a three-play season for Stratford East in 2026. The season opens Jan 31–Feb 28, 2026 with Moisés Kaufman's Pulitzer-nominated docudrama Here There Are Blueberries, which dramatizes the 2007 discovery of an album of photographs showing Nazi staff at Auschwitz at leisure, with Kaufman directing. A revival of a Tarell Alvin McCraney play runs Mar 26–Apr 25, 2026; that Nancy Medina-directed production follows a gifted Black queer singer who encounters friction with a peer and previously received strong notices at Bristol Old Vic. Spirling will make her directorial debut with Ava Pickett's Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy, an irreverent feminist take on Helen's return home after the war.
Read at Time Out London
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