‘I love London Society! It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics.’

Sir Robert Chiltern is riding high on all the very best that modern life has to offer a man of his impeccable taste and immaculate reputation. The house, the clothes, the wife.

All seems well until the arrival of the devious Mrs Cheveley, who has a taste for drama and secrets to spill. Her revelations threaten scandal, betrayal, public disgrace: so how far will this perfect gentleman go to protect his good name?

This bold new production of Oscar Wilde’s enduring comedy is directed by the Lyric’s Associate Director Nicholai La Barrie.

A double-bill presented as part of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School's Summer Festival.

Island Town by Simon Longman

A funny life-affirming coming of age story which follows teenagers Kate, Sam and Pete drink, chat, and dream of leaving their unnamed, dead-end British town.

"A moving three-hander about the claustrophobia and hopelessness of broken small-town life... Longman takes a potentially bleak subject and fills it with unexpected shards of humour." The Stage

Blackthorn by Charley Miles

Blackthorn is a lyrical, decade-spanning drama that explores the shifting relationship between the only two children born into a small North Yorkshire village as they struggle to reconcile their shared past with a rapidly changing rural landscape.

"A heartbreakingly honest look at the cost of progress... It asks what happens to a community when its heart is ripped out to make way for commuters and 'second-homers'." The Yorkshire Post

‘I’m not gonna stand up in front of a bunch of strangers and tell stories about you and me.’

She’s signed them both up. Her and her husband. For stand-up comedy.

So tonight, they’re locking themselves in their living room until they’ve got a ‘tight five’, delving through their past for material. But some jokes hurt, and laughter isn’t always the best medicine.

With the clock ticking and nothing but a baby monitor for an audience, they wrestle with the spotlight as questions about their future are forced to the surface.

A new play about hope, endings and how to survive if a knock knock joke hits you in the gut, I’m Not Being Funny is written by Piers Black (Catching Comets, Pleasance & UK tour), directed by Traverse Theatre Associate Artist Bryony Shanahan (Bloody Elle, West End) and produced by Prentice Productions (How I Learned To Swim, Brixton House).

Frankie Goes to Bollywood returns — bigger, bolder, and bursting with Bollywood glamour.

This dazzling musical comedy-drama dives deep into the glitzy, high-pressure world of Indian cinema, where dreams are mass-produced, identities are reshaped, and women are expected to smile and play by the script written for them.

At the centre of it all is Frankie, a young British woman with little interest in fame. But her quiet suburban life is turned upside down as she is thrust into a world of dazzling lights, choreographed perfection and media obsession. Frankie must decide: Can she become a star without losing who she really is?

What must she give up to succeed in a man’s world — and what is she willing to fight for?

With show-stopping choreography, lavish costumes, and a cast of unforgettable characters, Frankie Goes to Bollywood is a bold, uplifting story of ambition, transformation, and the power of telling your own story.

Featuring original Bollywood songs by hit composer Harry Anand, this is Rifco Theatre Company’s most ambitious production yet —a celebration of love, identity and courage, packed with joy, drama, and spectacular entertainment.

Whether you're a fan of musicals, Bollywood films, or powerful British stories, this is a night at the theatre you won’t want to miss.

Approximately 2 Hours 30 mins

We all want to meet people from history. The trouble is everyone is dead!

So, it’s time to prepare yourselves for Horrible Histories live on stage! Using actors and eye-popping 3D special effects, these two astounding shows are guaranteed to thrill you and your children. Historical figures and events will come alive on stage and hover at your fingertips!

Approximately 1 Hour 30 mins

“For my lunch today I would like… a nice juicy little child!”

He’s greedy, he’s grumptious, he’s horrid!

The Enormous Crocodile is weaving his way through the jungle to Bristol Old Vic in search of delicious little fingers and squidgy podgy knees… Only the other jungle creatures can foil his secret plans and clever tricks, but they’re going to have to find a large amount of courage to stop this greedy brute.

This mischievous musical based on Roald Dahl’s snappy book has toe-tapping tunes by Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab, a rib-tickling book and lyrics by Suhayla El-Bushra, and additional music and lyrics by Tom Brady. Developed and directed by Emily Lim, it features a menagerie of puppets by co-director and puppetry designer Toby Olié, with set and costume design by Fly Davis and puppetry co-designed and supervised by Daisy Beattie.

Snap up your tickets today for this wickedly funny musical adventure, perfect for the whole family!

Approximately 0 Hour 55 mins

Following a sell-out run in 2024, Black Is The Color Of My Voice returns to Bristol Old Vic.

Inspired by the life of Nina Simone, and featuring many of her most iconic songs performed live.

Apphia Campbell’s acclaimed play follows a successful jazz singer and civil rights activist as she seeks redemption after the untimely death of her father. She reflects on the journey that took her from a young piano prodigy destined for a life in the service of the church, to a renowned jazz vocalist at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement.

Black Is The Color Of My Voice is touring the UK in 2026 after sell-out seasons in Adelaide, Shanghai, New York, Edinburgh and London’s West End.

Approximately 1 Hour 10 mins

Don your deerstalker, grab your magnifying glass and get your ‘finger of suspicion’ at the ready because Edinburgh Fringe favourites, Degrees of Error, are bringing back their multiple sell-out show for your sleuthing pleasure.

They’ll create a classic murder mystery on-the-spot in this ingenious improvised comedy. You, the audience, become the author as the cast act out your very own Agatha Christie-inspired masterpiece live on stage. At each show this extraordinarily talented company use audience suggestions to create a unique, original and extremely comical murder mystery just for you. All you have to do... is solve it!

Ms Gold poisoned at a synchronised swimming gala? Dr Blue exploded by cannon during a hot air balloon race? Professor Violet crushed to death at a Love Island recoupling? You decide!

But will you guess whodunnit before the killer is revealed?

With Lost Dog’s blend of dance, theatre and comedy, this duet reveals the real story of Romeo and Juliet. It turns out they didn’t die in a tragic misunderstanding, they grew up and lived happily ever after. Well they lived at least.

Now they’re 40ish, at least one of them is in the grips of a mid-life crisis, they feel constantly mocked by their teenage selves and haunted by the pressures of being the poster couple for romantic love. They have decided to confront their current struggles by putting on a performance – about themselves. Their therapist told them it was a terrible idea.

Directed by award-winning director/choreographer Ben Duke, Juliet & Romeo takes on our cultural obsession with youth and our inevitable issues with longevity.

Approximately 1 Hour 15 mins

Stevie Martin (Taskmaster, 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown) has been doing online comedy for a while (45 million views worldwide) but is now returning to live comedy with her latest show, which sold out at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and at Soho Theatre earlier this year.

It's like her online stuff but she'll be on a stage and you can't pause her to get a snack (meats?). Also you have to sit in a specific room to watch it (please don’t bring your meats to this room).

Approximately 1 Hour

This uplifting comedy brings you a jet-powered tour through your favourite characters, and all the romance and action of Tom Cruise’s aerial blockbuster, alongside the heartfelt story of father and son superfans who can’t agree on anything except their favourite film.

Can Maverick and best friend Goose beat Iceman to the Top Gun trophy? Can instructor Charlie get a drink without anyone singing at her? Can one Fringe First-winning poet/nerd re-enact the movie’s signature dogfights – alone?

On the 40th anniversary of Top Gun’s cinema release, this unauthorised parody celebrates the iconic film and its enduring fandom. Essential viewing for Top Gun veterans and rookies alike, this show will take your breath away.

From the creative team behind the global smash hit Yippee Ki Yay. Written and performed by Richard Marsh – Fringe First-winner, London poetry slam champion, BBC Audio Drama Best Scripted Comedy Drama award-winner and fighter pilot (one of these is untrue).

Approximately 1 Hour 10 mins

The time has come for critically acclaimed musical comedy duo Flo & Joan to write another bio as they make their highly anticipated return to the stage with a brand-new show.

“Gosh, they are almost like a real band” (Bruce Dessau, Beyond a Joke). The pair will try and take up as much of the stage and as little of your patience as possible as they use another "real band's" setlist to write their own show - ruminating on themes such as ‘what is music?’, ‘how do you be a band?’, and ‘is comedy?’ in the sharp-tongued, deadpan way they have become accustomed to.

As seen on Live at the Apollo, The Royal Variety Performance, Comic Relief's Red Nose Day Live 2023 and their own comedy special Alive on Stage for Amazon Prime.

Approximately 1 Hour 50 mins

Not far from Bristol, there is a village.

This village belongs to the people who live in it and to those who lived in it hundreds of years ago. It belongs to England’s mysterious past and its confounding present.

It belongs to families dead for generations, and to those who have only recently moved here, such as the boy Lanny, and his mum and dad.

But it also belongs to Dead Papa Toothwort, who has woken from his slumber in the woods. Dead Papa Toothwort, who is listening to them all.

By the author of Sunday Times Bestseller, Grief is the Thing with Feathers, Max Porter’s spectral novel Lanny rocked the literary world in 2019. Described as “a joyously stirred cauldron of words” (The Guardian) that is “magically beguiling” (Financial Times), it intertwines reality and imagination to thrillingly eerie effect.

Adapted for the stage by award-winning West Country playwright Bea Roberts (And Then Come the Nightjars), and directed by Nancy Medina (The Beautiful Future Is Coming; A Good House; Choir Boy – Best Director, Black British Theatre Awards 2024), this dark and powerful story of folklore, fable and the nature of belonging is the flagship production of our 260th year.

Have you ever forensically over-thought your life choices? Are they all somehow connected to a passing comment your Spanish teacher made when you were 15? Has it impacted everything from your love life to your career?

Following sold-out shows across the UK, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Soho Theatre, Celya AB (“One of the most gifted joke writers of her age” – Chortle) is back with a new show with her brand of “exceptional, not to mention impressively original” (British Comedy Guide) jokes and sharp observations.

This is a show about breaking free from shame, and what ensues when you do. As seen on Live At The Apollo, the Off Menu podcast and Comedy Central Live.

Approximately 1 Hour 45 mins

Following a sold-out 2024 tour, acclaimed stand-up and online sensation Morgan Rees is back on the road with a hugely anticipated brand-new show.

After Morgan and his partner went on separate holidays – one to a Mathematics Forum in Coventry and the other to a Bear Party in Barcelona – a massive revelation forced Morgan to re-evaluate everything. Being banned from Great Western trains, being fired as a Naked Butler, and ghosting Paul McCartney… were they really his fault?

Has that got you hooked? Good, because that’s the only stuff appropriate enough to include in the blurb. A stand-up show about the trials and errors of falling in love and keeping the spark alive, the spiral-inducing limbo of awaiting a diagnosis, and the experience of being a white Welsh valley boy integrating into a proud Gujarati family. Oh, he’s got plenty to talk about.

As well as garnering millions of views online and rave-reviews for his live shows, Morgan has supported Joanne McNally, Rhys James, Lucy Beaumont and Jayde Adams on tour, appeared as a finalist in the BBC New Comedy Awards, and hosts hit podcasts My Bad and Chatting With Cherubs alongside Josh Jones and Gearóid Farrelly.

Approximately 1 Hour 45 mins

The greatest story never told of the first ever female president of a country in the history of the world…

During Isabel Perón’s time in power (before she was overthrown in a military coup), Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice were writing their blockbuster musical about her dead husband’s even deader ex-wife. And now, nobody remembers Isabel. Coincidence?

Sh!t Theatre are here to right that wrong.

EVITA TOO tells Isabel’s story – and the story of Becca and Louise, who travel across Argentina and Spain in search of the mysterious former president.

While Becca and Louise endeavour to write a musical to match Evita, their lives surprisingly and tragically intertwine with Isabel’s.

Truth! Justice! Songs! Wizards?! Yes, wizards. And if you play your cards right, naked roller-skating.

Approximately 1 Hour 30 mins

Lucy Beaumont has had quite the year. She lost a contestant £79,000 on The Wheel, forgot to revise for Mastermind, and generally confirmed she’s terrible at quiz shows. So she’s sticking with what she does best – this autumn, she’s back on the road with a brand new show.

Following the success of her sell-out debut UK tour, Lucy returns with Bad at Quiz Shows, Good with Weirdos – an evening packed with chaotic brilliance, mayhem, and beautifully surreal storytelling that's made her one of the UK's most beloved comedians.

Expect tales of going into hiding after Celebrity Traitors, creating cow udder couture on The Great British Sewing Bee, and navigating life as someone for whom "normal" has never made much of an appearance.

Whether you loved her on Taskmaster, know her from her award-winning sitcom, or just appreciate someone who turns everyday disasters into comedic gold, this is the night out you need. Come for the chaos. Stay for the weirdos.

Following a huge debut national tour and sold out runs across London and Edinburgh, Kiell Smith-Bynoe (Ghosts, Taskmaster & Stath Lets Flats) returns with his smash-hit improv show.

Every night features a celebrity guest, a cast of the UK's best improvisers, and stories from you, the audience, to inspire the comedy!

Previous special guests have included: Amelia Dimoldenberg, Lily Allen, Jamie Demitriou, Adam Buxton, Mo Gilligan, Loly Adefope and Nish Kumar.

Previous improvisers have included: Emma Sidi, Lola-Rose Maxwell, Graham Dickson, Lara Ricote, Janine Harouni, Nic Sampson, Brendan Murphy and Rhod Gilbert.

Sally Cookson and Adam Peck’s much-loved adaptation of Cinderella is back in Bristol, re-imagined for 2026.

After the death of her mother, the free-spirited Ella seeks solace in the woods surrounding her and her father’s home, enchanted by the birds that roost peacefully in the trees.

When her father remarries, Ella’s life is turned upside down by a host of new – and most unpleasant – relations. Ella’s feathered friends begin to feel like her only true family, until a mysterious boy (who shares her love of bird watching) stumbles upon her woodland hideout. And he has in his hand an invitation to the Royal Ball...

But Ella’s cruel and scheming Stepmother has other ideas. Will Ella ever make it to the ball? And is there more to her chirping chums than meets the eye?

Join Bristol Old Vic this festive season for an enchanting ensemble retelling of one of the best-loved fairy tales of all time. Inspired by the Brothers Grimm’s story, this dazzlingly original take will set your heart aflutter with live music, modern mischief and festive joy.

Approximately 2 Hours