Lyn Gardner's Weekly Picks
Published on 2 November 2026
Joe Hill-Gibbins certainly knows how to spice up a classic play and make it seem newly minted, so Julius Caesar in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe should be worth your time. Not only is it being performed in a candle-lit space which drips atmosphere and intrigue, but it is being performed with a cast of just four actors – Kate Duchene, Caoilfhionn Dunne Dunne, Adam Gillen and **Natey Jones **– all highly distinctive performers, which makes this all the more appealing. Add to that a fast-moving thriller-like play whose political machinations seem very modern, and this should be a sharply instructive evening about political leadership and the manipulation of the people.
Lyndsey Turner is a name to conjure with in theatre circles, most recently directing Ava Pickett’s 1536 in the West End. Want to see what she does next with Greek tragedy? Yep, me too. The fact it is an opera shouldn’t put you off. Some of the UK’s most fabulous directors do their best work in opera. So head to the Coliseum for Iphigenie en Tauride, Gluck’s rarely performed opera about the doomed offspring of a blood-soaked family.
A number of shows close this month before a slew of more festive fare starts to open up. Pick of the bunch is the groundbreaking Ceilidh at Shoreditch Town Hall, a show inspired by Scottish country dancing which invites the audience to take to the floor. Head to the Donmar for Ilford Boy, Danny Lee Wynter’s semi-autobiographical story of growing up Black in 1990s Ilford. Biography also informs The Pianist at the Park, a new musical inspired by the story and music of Polish Jewish composer Władysław Szpilman, who evaded the Nazis during WWII. Also finishing this month is Franz and Marie at Charing Cross, a musical inspired by Georg Buchner’s influential play, Woyzeck.
It’s brilliant news that Jocelyn Bioh's giddily enjoyable comedy Jaja’s African Hair Braiding returns to the Lyric Hammersmith next January. Telling the story of a group of women who work in and frequent a Harlem hair braiding salon is like a female version of that hit, The Barber Shop Chronicles. But here it is women’s lives which are given centre stage as the action unfolds over 12 hours on a hot summer’s day in 2019 as Trump nears the end of his first term as president. The show runs at a tight 90 minutes, and it is a joy as we eavesdrop on the women, hear their stories, watch rivalries unfold and bear witness to their rumbling fears about immigration statuses and the place of the immigrant in modern America.
By Lyn Gardner
Lyn Gardner is an acclaimed theatre journalist and former critic with decades of experience covering British theatre, from off-West End and fringe theatre to major West End productions.