‘I dreamt that I went to the doctors, and she gave me eight minutes to live. I’d been sitting in the fucking waiting room for half an hour’

‘All of human history? It’s basically people taking things from each other’ A 1000-year-old statue of the Boddhisattva Guan Yin lives in The British Museum. When it emerges that the statue was stolen from its original home, the museum attempts to deflect both the public response and controversial repatriation claims from the Chinese government. As statesmen scheme and grease their palms, beneath the statue witches dance, a cleaner prays, and spirits weep. Guan Yin’s gaze falls over the broken shards of human life from empires old and new. Joel Tan’s shape-shifting play unfolds the statue’s journey from China to Britain and back again, stirring up centuries of ghosts. Directed by experimental theatre-makers emma + pj (Ghosts of the Near Future, Barbican), Scenes from a Repatriation questions who can claim cultural artefacts – and why.

Wind in tall trees. White sky. Rain soon. Hooves on earth. Twigs. Snap. Wait. Listen. A new experiment in performance from Katie Mitchell, Nina Segal and Melanie Wilson. Using only sound and no words, a quartet of performers and foley artists evoke the lives of two animals – a cow and a deer. Cow | Deer is an invitation to enter the more-than-human world.

‘You can’t fight it anymore. So, you give in to your temptation.’ Ani is a dazzling young academic with a secret addiction to violent pornography. As her career and relationships unravel in between lectures on Paradise Lost, can she confront her uncontrollable desires? Funny, unsettling and honest, Porn Play marks the Royal Court debut of writer Sophia Chetin-Leuner (This Might Not Be It), in a world premiere directed by Josie Rourke (former Artistic Director of both the Donmar Warehouse and Bush Theatre) and starring Ambika Mod (One Day, This Is Going to Hurt).

‘I love my son. My son is alive.’ A teenager disappears. Time fractures. His mother will never give up hope. The Unbelievers is a new play about the moments that shatter our world, and the ones that help us piece it back together.

A different performer takes to the stage for each show – with no rehearsal and no idea what’s going to happen next. Adventuring across time and space, guided by Nassim from his flat in Berlin, performer and audience embark on a global journey of belonging, connection, and the meaning of home.

A gunshot in occupied territory. A deaf boy is killed for disobeying orders he couldn’t hear. The next day, the whole town wakes up deaf. Adapted from the poems of Ukrainian-American author Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic is an epic modern fable of war, humanity and collective resistance. World-renowned theatre company Dead Centre make their Royal Court debut, collaborating with Sign Language Poet Zoë McWhinney. Told through a mix of spoken English, sign language, creative captioning and silence, Deaf Republic brings together an ensemble of deaf and hearing actors, aerial performers, puppetry, live cinema and poetry.

Abseiling lesbians! Queers in the classroom! Moral panic in the streets! And an act of oppression that inspired a generational riot. In 1988, a law banned the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in schools. Now, this electrifying new musical tells the story of Section 28 – and the teachers, pupils and activists who lived through it.

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Join us for a special evening honouring the life and legacy of Athol Fugard (11 June 1932 – 8 March 2025), South Africa’s Lifetime Achievement Tony Award-winning playwright and a towering figure in world theatre. The Royal Court’s relationship with Fugard began over half a century ago, in 1973, when the theatre proudly presented the international premieres of his groundbreaking anti-apartheid plays — Sizwe Banzi is Dead, The Island, and Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act. Sizwe Banzi and The Island later transferred to Broadway, where co-creators and performers John Kani OBE and Zakes Mokae were awarded Best Actor Tony Awards. Hosted by David Byrne, Artistic Director of the Royal Court, and curated by Greg Karvellas, former Artistic Director of The Fugard Theatre in Cape Town (2010–2021), this celebration will feature John Kani OBE, Dame Janet Suzman, and others on stage, with reflections, live performance extracts, and recorded excerpts from Athol Fugard himself. Tickets are £5 and available through the Royal Court website, including a post-show toast with a glass of South African wine and — for meat eaters — biltong, two of Athol’s favourites. Supported by the Common Humanity Arts Trust (CHAT)