This playwright is the voice of a generation

by Marianka Swain

The Royal Court hosts the much-anticipated UK transfer of Broadway sensation John Proctor Is the Villain. Belflower’s debate-sparking, Tony-nominated play sees a #MeToo-era high school class grappling with Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and with power and gender dynamics in their own environment. It announces American playwright Belflower as a major talent and a vital chronicler of young women’s experiences in the 21st century.

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Creating vibrant, alive productions that thrill

by Anya Ryan

Being nominated for an Olivier Award twice is no small feat – and director and dramaturg Milli Bhatia has done just that. Her productions, Blue Mist and seven methods of killing kylie jenner, show her gift for creating theatre that feels vividly alive. From the chilling King Troll (The Fawn) to the sharp comedy of Speed, Bhatia’s work is dynamic, distinctive, and rooted in an unwavering commitment to amplifying diverse talent.

A bold designer creating magical worlds

by Matt Wolf

Frankie Bradshaw won the 2025 Critics’ Circle award for best design for her stunning work on the National’s productions of Ballet Shoes and Dear Octopus, and has two Olivier nominations, as well – for Ballet Shoes and a third National entry, Blues for an Alabama Sky. Her designs tend towards richly imagined, detailed evocations of the milieu at hand: rooted in the given text but also visually rewarding in their own right.

Shining her brilliant light on taboo topics

by Olivia Rook

Sophia Chetin-Leuner is a rising star of the playwriting world, and her name was finally put on the map in 2025 when Ambika Mod starred in Porn Play — a fearless examination of pornography addiction at the Royal Court. Prior to this, she tackled the NHS’s crumbling mental health service in This Might Not Be It at the Bush Theatre. I can’t wait to see what she writes about next.

A powerhouse director making serious waves

by Theo Bosanquet

Far from being an emerging talent these days, Carrie Cracknell is now firmly established as one of UK theatre’s leading directors, with recent credits including Portia Coughlan at the Almeida and The Grapes of Wrath at the National. The latest showcase of her talents is her revival of Tom Stoppard’s masterpiece Arcadia at The Old Vic, the first major production since the playwright’s death late last year. Next up, she’ll be making her Donmar Warehouse debut with Mass, Fran Kranz’s adaptation of his own film about the aftermath of a school shooting, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2021.

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A stunning new voice in musical theatre

by Stephen Crocker

When Chumisa Dornford-May steps onto a stage, the atmosphere shifts instantly. She is currently captivating audiences in Into The Woods, bringing her trademark emotional clarity and vocal strength to Sondheim’s intricate score. She previously shone as Christine in The Phantom of the Opera and was Olivier-nominated for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. Whatever the role, Dornford-May brings precision, passion and undeniable charisma.

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A visionary director now running the Young Vic

by Holly O’Mahony

Nadia Fall has an eye for talent. She directed Michaela Coel’s Chewing Gum Dreams at the National Theatre’s pop-up venue The Shed, and Inua Ellams’ Three Sisters in its Lyttelton space. After eight years as artistic director of Stratford East, she’s now taken up that same mantle at the Young Vic, where her buzzy first season includes a revival of Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass, and a new Alexander Zeldin play, Care.

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A stunning new voice emerges

by Matt Wolf

Debut plays don’t get more piquant than After Sunday, which ran last autumn at the Bush – the very theatre whose enterprising Writers’ Group produced the show’s author, Sophia Griffin. The onstage cooking was immediately alluring; so too was Griffin’s easy control over a community at risk of becoming unmoored – four men sequestered away within a mental health hospital and the occupational therapist, Naomi, who views food as a salutary way towards self-fulfilment.

After the Bush, she is taking on the West End

by Aliya Al-Hassan

An assured and award-winning director, Lynette Linton made a significant impact as artistic director of London’s Bush Theatre. There she championed exciting new writing, particularly from Black-British and Asian-British writers. Now a freelancer, Linton has taken on her first musical, directing The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind at the RSC, which comes to @sohoplace later this year.

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Actor, writer, singer, songwriter, and more

by Anya Ryan

If Anoushka Lucas is onstage, it is nearly impossible to look anywhere else: she’s a vision. An award-winning actor, playwright, singer and songwriter, her career spans an extraordinary range of work – she recently appeared in the National Theatre's Ballet Shoes as Sylvia. Her debut one-woman play Elephant showcased her myriad talents, weaving original songs into a sharp exploration of mixed-race identity. Her crystal-clear voice is one we should hope continues to shine.

An award-winning actor and writer

by Aliya Al-Hassan

Writer, singer, composer and actor — Maimuna Memon is one to watch. Already an Olivier Award winner for her brilliant performance as Sonya in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, she is now about to bring her deeply personal piece of gig theatre, Manic Street Creature, to the Kiln after a stellar run at the Southwark Playhouse last year.

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Bringing her talents to the West End in style

by Stephen Crocker

Ntombizodwa Ndlovu is a thoughtful, assured performer with a quietly compelling presence. She is currently making her West End debut as Marie Knight in Marie & Rosetta at @sohoplace, a performance that already earned her a UK Theatre Award nomination. A graduate of the Manchester School of Theatre, her work at the Royal Exchange includes The Mountaintop and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, reflecting a steady commitment to character-driven storytelling. If this marks her West End debut, it suggests a career with an exciting road ahead.

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This writer is going between stage and screen

by Holly O’Mahony

2025 was a big year for Ava Pickett. The 32-year-old made her playwriting debut with 1536 at the Almeida – earning awards and an upcoming West End transfer. Since then, she’s already gone on to deliver a contemporary reimagining of Jane Austen’s Emma, and has an adaptation of The Manningtree Witches on the way. But theatre will have to continue sharing Pickett with the screen for now: she’s co-writing Baz Luhrmann’s Jehanne d’Arc after all.

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Back on stage, playing an icon

by Julia Rank

This spring, Miranda Raison returns to the West End for the first time since playing Hermione in Kenneth Branagh’s production of The Winter’s Tale in 2015. In David Hare’s play Grace Pervades, she plays Ellen Terry, the most celebrated actress of the second half of the nineteenth century, opposite Ralph Fiennes as Henry Irving. The luminous Raison is sure to be perfectly cast as this much mythologised legend of the stage.

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Making a statement at Stratford East

by Theo Bosanquet

After spending a successful decade as artistic director of new writing powerhouse Theatre503 in Battersea, Spirling recently moved across the capital to Stratford East. Her statement-making first season has just opened with the UK premiere of the Pulitzer-nominated play Here There Are Blueberries, which is followed by Oscar winner Tarell Alvin McCraney’s gospel-infused Choir Boy. Spirling then makes her own TRSE directing debut with Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy by Ava Pickett.

Writing for stage and now directing movies

by Julia Rank

Jessica Swale first came to prominence with her witty productions of 18th-century plays by women writers at the Southwark Playhouse before writing her own historical plays Blue Stockings and Nell Gwynn for Shakespeare’s Globe, as well as writing and directing the independent film Summerland. The book of a musical is crucial, and Paddington benefits immeasurably from Swale’s warm-hearted and playful approach. It has recently been revealed that her next musical in development is the intriguingly titled God Is A DJ. Watch this space!

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Powerhouse performer returns to the stage

by Marianka Swain

The Oscar nominee made a blistering return to the stage after a 15-year absence in Suzie Miller’s Inter Alia at the National Theatre last year, and she’s reprising her role as a conflicted crown court judge in the West End this spring. Pike is simply phenomenal as the judge whose professional and family worlds collide when her own teenage son is accused of rape. It’s an extraordinary tour-de-force performance in a gripping, potent drama.

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Swapping Broadway for the West End

by Olivia Rook

Sadie Sink is best known for her star-making turn as Max Mayfield in the Netflix TV series Stranger Things, but she actually cut her teeth on Broadway in Annie. Last year, she starred in Kimberly Belflower’s love letter to girlhood John Proctor Is the Villain, and now she turns her attention to the West End in Rob Icke’s production of Shakespeare’s greatest love story: Romeo & Juliet.

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Skilled performer rises to the challenge

by Matt Wolf

Thomasina Coverly in Arcadia is a gift of a role but also a challenging one, requiring an actress to age from nearly 14 to almost 17 – no mean feat for a performer inevitably older than the character. But the transcendent Isis Hainsworth brought an astonishing emotional transparency to the part in the recent Old Vic revival, completing a dazzling trio of performances that include her Juliet at the Almeida and the youngest daughter, Adela, in the National’s 2023 revival of The House of Bernarda Alba.

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