What's closing in London theatres this month (October 2024)

We’ve officially entered spooky season, but forget the cobwebs and creatures, every theatre kid knows that there’s nothing scarier than missing out on a hot new show! FOMO can’t be battled with or bested by cloves of garlic, wooden stakes or silver bullets. The only way to defeat the fear of missing out is not missing out (simple really). So make sure you catch these productions in the West End before they leave us for the other side (read: UK tours and well earned rests).

Shifters (12 October)

This ‘gorgeous piece of storytelling’ (The Stage) has been wowing theatregoers throughout its West End run. Debuting at the Bush Theatre to critical acclaim, this terrific transfer’s fluid, dreamlike structure has been transporting audiences to a world slightly away from our own. A world richer, tender, more intimate, and deeply moving.

Weaving personal and political narratives seamlessly, and blending elements of science fiction and drama, Shifters follows a couple who crash back into eachothers lives after eight years apart. 

An unapologetic exploration of race, power, and belonging. Dre and Des are young, gifted and Black. They’ve only just been reunited but the clock is already counting down until Des must leave again. Memories of their teen years collide with their present and they’re forced to question if destiny has brought them back together for a reason, it’s “the perfect bittersweet rom-com” (Evening Standard) 

The Real Thing (26 October)

‘Tom Stoppard's gem still shines’ (The Guardian) at the Old Vic! The Tony Award-winning play takes a dark and honest look at human relationships and the nature of fidelity and love, balancing brilliance with a beating heart. 

Henry, a successful playwright, has a complicated relationship with two actresses: one is his wife, Charlotte, and the other is his lover, Annie. Diving through layers of play and performance, reality and deceit, the characters wrestle with the blurred lines between reality and fiction. 

Stoppard's kaleidoscopic comedy is made even more intriguing by the semi-autobiographical elements. There are a number of parallels between Stoppard and his main character: both are middle-aged playwrights known for their exact use of language; both express doubts about Marxism and the politics of the left, and both undertake work outside the theatre to keep up their comfortable lifestyles and pay alimony to their ex-wives. Stoppard even went out with Felicity Kendal, the actress who played Annie (Max, the main character's wife) in the West End premiere of the show over 40 years ago!