Almost exactly a year after London's hippest theatre, the Yard, closed its doors and moved into an unknown future, it is set to reopen with a thrilling comeback season. The punky powerhouse, built from scavenged materials with a limited lifespan, secured funding for a completely new theatre on the site of the original one. Catching up with Yard boss Jay Miller, he laughs about the theatre's recent Olivier Award win for its final show The Glass Menagerie. 'We're all super chuffed that we won the Olivier,' he says. 'I'm hoping it'll be the first one of a few.'
A Staggering Coup: Sir Ian McKellen
The jewel in the crown of the inaugural season is Sir Ian McKellen. The almost-87-year-old actor has remained an energetic presence deep into his eighties, starring in numerous plays over the last five years. Following his widely publicised fall from a West End stage in 2024, there was no stage work last year, and rumours suggested he was done with it. But this winter, he will appear in Avengers: Doomsday and on the east London stage in a one-man show entitled LEAR, adapted from Shakespeare's King Lear by top playwright Simon Stephens and Miller himself. 'Ian basically said yes,' shrugs Miller. 'He's been to see my work, and then I was pitching him a few ideas and he went boring, boring, boring. And then this one came and he went: "now we're talking, Jay."' Exactly what LEAR will involve is slightly opaque, but it seems likely to be a mix of Shakespeare's play and more personal reflections from McKellen. 'I think it's gonna be a really beautiful show about both Lear and about Ian,' says Miller.
The Inaugural Season Lineup
The Yard will reopen in July with Philosophy of the World (Jul 14-25), a feral performance by In Bed with My Brother, the trio grappling with the bizarre story of reluctant '60s/'70s girl group The Shaggs. It will be followed by The World Is Full of Unmarried Men (Jul 20-Aug 1), an adaptation of Jackie Collins' 1968 debut novel performed by actors holding Barbie dolls, a cult hit in Europe. Then there will be a big revival: a 50th anniversary production of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf (Sep 2-Oct 3) by Ntozake Shange, a landmark work of Black theatre that hasn't had a London revival in decades. That is followed by LEAR (dates TBC) and then There's Something About Adam Black (Jan 13-Feb 20 2027), a comedy about two gay Black men by Sex Education writer Troy Hunter. The season will be rounded off with Mrs Dalloway (Mar 10-Apr 10 2027), a new adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel by Holly Robinson and directed by Anna Himali Howard.
A New Chapter for the Yard
The new Yard season will go on sale May 28, except for LEAR, which will go on sale at a later date. With bigger names and a bigger space, the Yard Theatre is back, but with the same spirit of supporting newer writers and directors.
