A great season ahead at Royal & Derngate, including Matthew Bourne’s The Midnight Bell, Dinosaur World Live, Bat out of Hell and Breaking the Code
Through the summer and beyond, Royal & Derngate offers an exciting programme of drama, music, comedy, dance and family entertainment for Northampton audiences.
There is a great selection of drama coming to the Royal stage over the coming months starting with improvised whodunit Murder, She Didn’t Write which offers a different murder mystery every night! Award-winning author Malorie Blackman’s brilliant novel Pig Heart Boy is brought to the stage in a brand-new adaptation by Winsome Pinnock, and physical theatre company Le Navet Bete present Robert Louis Stevenson’s beloved Treasure Island as a swashbuckling comedy for all the family. For one night only, Matthew Seager’s intimate, humorous and deeply moving drama In Other Words examines the power of music, memory and the nature of enduring love. Edinburgh Fringe smash hit …Earnest? takes to the Derngate stage for one chaotic and impromptu performance.
The Made in Northampton season continues in September with Royal & Derngate’s new production of Hugh Whitemore’s classic play Breaking the Code, exploring the life of visionary mathematician and codebreaker Alan Turing, directed by the theatre’s Artistic Director Jesse Jones. Working with The Wardrobe Ensemble, the theatre’s festive production will be Mog’s Christmas, bringing Judith Kerr’s dearly loved, iconic stories to life for a new generation of children. Newly on-sale for spring 2026, local playwright Samson Hawkins’ brand new play Top G’s Like Me will see Derngate auditorium transformed into a skatepark, in a dynamic production diving headfirst into the influence of online culture, the pull of toxic masculinity, and the search for identity in a digital age.
Looking ahead on the touring schedule, tickets are already on sale for some must-see plays heading to the Derngate stage, including Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile and John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers, both in November, and Danny Robins’ 2.22 A Ghost Story, returning in January 2026.
Tickets are selling fast for West End musical comedy Only Fools and Horses which can be seen in June, with another smash-hit musical Bat out of Hell following in September. Local group Northampton Musical Theatre Company perform Jesus Christ Superstar in October.
One of the highlights of a packed summer of family entertainment is the roar-some interactive show Dinosaur World Live, returning for five performances. Tall Stories bring another classic Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler picture book to life, with their adaptation of The Smeds and the Smoos, and Rude Science returns with a highly explosive new show. With the Easter school holidays approaching there is still time to book for Horrible Histories, Mark Thompson’s Spectacular Science Show and Tom Fletcher’s There’s a Monster in Your Show. Planning ahead for the summer break, the theatre’s weeklong Holiday Clubs return this August. Tickets are also flying out fast for this year’s Christmas pantomime The All New Adventures of Peter Pan.
Dance lovers can look forward to a wonderfully diverse selection of shows this summer. For a week in July there will be the chance to see Matthew Bourne’s award-winning production The Midnight Bell, bringing to life intoxicated tales from darkest Soho, inspired by the writing of the great English novelist Patrick Hamilton. Birmingham Royal Ballet return in May for two performances by BRB2, their second company of rising stars. Performances by Strictly stars include Karen and Gorka’s Speakeasy, Dianne and Vito in Red, Hot and Ready!, Anton and Giovanni’s Together Again and Jukebox Idols which brings together dancer Nadiya Bychkova with vocal harmony group The Overtones.
There will be classical music performances from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Northampton Opera Group, with the GUS Band performing live accompaniment to Wallace and Gromit’s The Wrong Trousers. Other music highlights include gigs from Mike + The Mechanics, The Searchers and The Shires, and solo artists John Power, Nathan Carter and Paul Young. Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood sings hits from his debut album, Liza Pulman and Joe Stilgoe entertain with some classics in A Couple of Swells, the D-Day Darlings celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day and Old Time Sailors perform uproarious folk and shanty songs.
A jam-packed comedy line-up in Derngate auditorium includes Stewart Lee vs The Man-Wulf, Nick Mohammed is Mr Swallow in Show Pony and Russell Kane’s HyperActive. Performances on the Royal stage include Jenny Éclair, Jamali Maddix, Viggo Venn, Andrew Bird and Richard Herring. Underground gigs include Sally-Anne Hayward, Nabil Abdulrashid, Ahir Shah and Nathan Caton, along with two more Screaming Blue Murder Comedy Club nights.
Ghosts star Kiell Smith-Bynoe leads a cast of comedians and special guests in improvised comedy show Kool Story Bro, while Shoot from the Hip bring their award-winning, TikTok viral improv, and MC Hammersmith presents an evening of improvised comedy raps!
A diverse summer of entertainment also includes three days of GamesWorld, an interactive video gaming experience featuring the best of video games and consoles from the past 50 years. Other highlights include An Evening of Burlesque Cabaret, Cirque the Greatest Show Reimagined, with its blend of circus and musical theatre, and the legendary Discos for Grown Ups. Sir Tim Rice reflects on his life and career, accompanied by some of the great songs he has written, and there’s a chance to hear from explorer Levison Wood and For the Love of Rugby podcasters Ben Youngs and Dan Cole, while Brian Bilston and Henry Normal deliver an evening of poetry.
Nurturing home-grown talent, Royal & Derngate’s Actors Company perform a powerful reimagining of Jekyll & Hyde, adapted by Evan Placey, the Young Company stage Boudica, by Tristan Bernays and the Community Choir will be singing on a float in the Carnival procession. Other dramas by local community groups include White Cobra’s production of The King’s Speech and performances of Earthquakes in London and A Dream by the University of Northampton’s BA Acting Students.
For more information about any of these events, call Box Office on 01604 624811, or visit the theatre’s website, www.royalandderngate.co.uk. Information about creative activities and projects, including youth theatre classes, can be found in the Get Involved section of the website.
The Made in Northampton season is sponsored by Michael Jones Jeweller. The orchestral season is in association with SpecSavers.
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