DANCING AT LUGHNASA

By Brian Friel

Directed by Tom O’Connor

MAIN HOUSE

Wednesday 03 December - Saturday 13 December

“You leave convinced that this is one of Friel's finest plays.”

Michael Billington, Guardian

Following Brian Friel’s award-winning play Translations performed at the Loft last year to great acclaim, we are now staging his greatly loved 1990 play Dancing at Lughnasa.

This semi-autobiographical play, set in 1936 in the Ireland of his boyhood, features five unmarried sisters based on his mother and aunts.

It is Harvest time in County Donegal, 1936.

Outside the village of Ballybeg, the five Mundy sisters battle poverty to raise seven-year-old Michael and care for their brother, ‘Uncle’ Jack.

During the Festival of Lughnasa, Pagans and Christians meet and collide. The sisters fight each other, love each other, dance together, yearn and survive.

Brian Friel’s Olivier Award-winning play, most recently performed in a revival at The National Theatre in 2023, is an astonishing evocation of a family’s world on the brink of change.

Friel’s artful blend of nothing and everything happening at once is finely calibrated here. Brian Friel is one of the finest writers and this is a showcase for his skill.  We love to bring his work to the Loft stage.

FILM NIGHT

Main House

Monday, 15 December at 7.30 p.m.

LEAMINGTON HISTORY GROUP

LEAMINGTON AT WAR

Created by local film maker Mark Ellis

What was life like in Leamington Spa during World War 2, and how did the people of the town contribute to the war effort? These are the questions explored in Leamington at War, a new documentary created by Leamington History Group and local film maker Mark Ellis.

Find out more about the Camoufleurs, who worked in secret on the site of the current Loft Theatre; hear from the diary of a young soldier of the Free Czech Army, living in exile in the town; and re-live deadly bombing raids that nearly knocked Queen Victoria off her plinth.

With a mix of archive images, expert interviews, animation, and reconstructions of wartime life, specially shot at the Loft, Leamington at War will transport you back to this dramatic and poignant period of the town’s history.

UNCLE VANYA – LOFT FILMED PRODUCTION

Tuesday,16 December, 2025 at 7.30 p.m.

Main House

By Anton Chekhov, in a new version by David Fletcher

Directed by David Fletcher

Videographer Michael Wheeldon

AN UNMISSABLE CHANCE TO SEE THIS BEAUTIFUL, HIGHLY ACCLAIMED PRODUCTION, FILMED LIVE AT THE LOFT THEATRE IN OCTOBER 2024.

The Loft is proud to present their 2024 production of Uncle Vanya, filmed live at a performance.

“Chekhov’s melancholy masterpiece, Uncle Vanya, comes to The Loft Theatre in a magnificent production, directed by David Fletcher. Featuring the cream of The Loft’s actors, the company delivers a tragedy worthy of any stage, professional or otherwise. “Nick Le Mesurier Warwickshire World.

“David Fletcher’s Uncle Vanya at The Loft is a rare fusion of vision, artistry, and profound performance, breathing new life into this masterpiece….A revelatory and exquisitely crafted production” Mark Pitt Choppanews.

Sonya and her Uncle Vanya lead a difficult, uneventful life on their country estate, animated only by visits from the dashing local doctor. When Sonya’s famous father and his glamorous new wife unexpectedly turn up, old grudges return and new desires ignite. In the heat of summer, tempers boil over and forbidden lusts threaten to end in tragedy.

Anton Chekhov's play Uncle Vanya was first staged at the Moscow Arts Theatre in 1899. In this new compelling version by David Fletcher, the script illuminates these characters in the clearest light, fully embracing their tenderness, passion, sadness and comedy in this most exquisite of plays.

If you missed the original production, this is a wonderful opportunity to see the live filmed performance, in a new version of a Russian masterpiece. Is there anyone better than Chekhov to offer us a comedic and tragic focus on our humanity – our hopes, dreams and regrets.

ANIMAL FARM

by George Orwell, adapted by Peter Hall, 

with lyrics by Adrian Mitchell and music by Richard Peaslee

Director: Mark Crossley

MAIN HOUSE

21 Jan – 31 Jan 2026

“Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole.” George Orwell

At once funny and frightening, delightful and devastating, Animal Farm charts the fall of idealism and the rise of tyranny, after the animals of Manor Farm rise up against their oppressive human owner in a struggle for rights and equality.

Peter Hall's critically acclaimed adaptation of Animal Farm, originally staged at the National Theatre in the 1980s, successfully translated Orwell's political allegory to the stage.

Fresh and witty, whilst remaining true to the savagery of Orwell’s satirical novel, it features a narrator and a cast of animals, effectively using music and physicality to convey the story's themes of revolution, power and corruption.

Through text and song the play illuminates perfectly the succession of steps through which by persuasion, lies, force and propaganda, some of the animals become “more equal than others”.

This amateur production of “Animal Farm (Hall)” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French Ltd.

www.concordtheatricals.co.uk

DOWN FOR THE COUNT ALL-STARS

SUNDAY 1 FEBRUARY 2026 AT 7.30 P.M.

MAIN HOUSE

Join the UK’s hardest swinging band Down for the Count All-Stars for “one hellova celebration of vintage music” (TimeOut London) – it’s time to Swing That Music!

Described as “a breath of fresh air on the swing scene” (Twinwood Festival) Down for the Count’s 10-piece mini big-band is regularly found in jazz clubs across the UK and abroad (Ronnie Scott’s London, Le Caveau de la Huchette Paris), at festivals including London Jazz Festival and on BBC Radio.

Now they are bringing the sounds and feels of the best jazz clubs once more to the Loft Theatre, with an electrifying show.

Their always sell-out show recreates the music of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Nat ‘King’ Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and more – but this is no mere nostalgia trip, as the band perform each song in their own unmistakeable style, breathing new life into the best vintage music.

Combine that with the band’s top class instrumental solos, sublime vocal performances and irresistible humour and joie de vivre and you get a show that will leave you feeling uplifted and wanting more.

“Awesome!!!” Michael Bublé 

“My first impulse on leaving Cadogan Hall in the wake of a standing ovation on Sunday evening was to ask permission to lay 10 stars on this outstanding gig rather than the usual five.” Jazz Journal

IMPROVESARIOS

An evening of improvised opera

LOFT STUDIO

14 February 7.30 p.m.

“Absolutely brilliant show. Bravo. Laughed my socks off!” -

Audience Member

Following two sell-out performances in the Loft Studio over the last two years, the Improvesarios are back for an evening of fun and mayhem as they put down their scores and put their creative prowess to the test.

Using your suggestions, this group of classically trained musicians improvise a brand new opera completely on the spot! Help them make beautiful musical moments or laugh along as they try to hold it all together. Their fate is in your hands...

Hot off their award winning season, the Improvesarios return will bring you more wild and wacky musical exploits. With previous adventures including prison breaks, lost love in the hotel business and even the sacking of Rome, no scenario is too outlandish or too mundane for this group to turn into an opera.

DOUBT: A Parable

By

John Patrick Shanley

Director: Chris Gilbey-Smith 

MAIN HOUSE

25 February – 7 March, 2026

“Like all good parables, its story feels both timeless and more timely than ever, its ideological arguments speaking to our world of social media silos and ‘Punch and Judy’ political debates.”

Arifa Akbar, The Guardian 



John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt: A Parable, originally premiered on Broadway in 2005 and was awarded a Pulitzer prize and several Tony awards, including Best Play. Shanley went on to adapt this stage play for a 2008 film version starring Meryl Streep, which earned five Oscar nominations, including Best Adapted Screenplay and nominations for all of the cast of four.

This taut, unsettling drama is set in a convent in the parish of St Nicholas in New York’s Bronx, against the backdrop of the mid-60s, in the midst of political and social change.

A modernising priest’s conduct comes under question by the Principal of this Catholic School. As the actions and motivations of each are scrutinized and suspicion mounts, the two are drawn into a battle of wills that threatens irrevocable consequences for everyone involved.

This challenging, provocative drama, by this much garlanded playwright, is both impeccably written and compellingly topical. Unmissable.

Originally produced on Broadway

By Carole Shorenstein Hays, MTC Productions, Roger Berlind, and Scott Rudin on March 31, 2005.

Originally produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club on November 23, 2004.”