Royal Court announces 2027 season with Jessie Buckley, Tobias Menzies and Juliet Stevenson

Centre · 1The Royal Court Theatre in London announced the first part of its 2027 slate and teased its 2028 plans, with Jessie Buckley and Tobias Menzies among the performers. 1 Mixed · 2The programme includes a Broadway transfer of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's play Purpose, along with six world premieres. 1 2 Mixed · 2Oscar-winning actress Buckley will star in Nina Segal's Afterbirth, described as a "funny, furious and unflinching" portrayal of life after birth and parenthood, directed by Maria Aberg, running from 15 January to 26 February 2028. 1 2

Mixed · 2Menzies, best known for playing Prince Philip in The Crown, will star with V (formerly Eve Ensler) in the world premiere of The Apology, in which V summons her dead father to confront the abuse he inflicted on her as a child; it runs from 19 March to 24 April next year. 1 2 Centre · 1Purpose, which won a Tony Award for best play and the Pulitzer Prize for drama, receives its European premiere from 16 January to 27 February next year, following a prominent African-American political family whose secrets emerge. 1 Centre · 1Olivier Award-winning Juliet Stevenson stars in The Briar Patch, a domestic thriller by Ciara Elizabeth Smyth directed by artistic director David Byrne, running 14 May to 26 June. 1

Mixed · 2Other 2027 productions are War Face by Georgie Dettmer, made with serving and retired soldiers and the Chelsea Pensioners (22 April to 1 May); Working Men by Benjamin Kuffour (4 June to 10 July); and Alex Medland's professional debut We're Gonna Kill Billy, directed by Aneesha Srinivasan (18 February to 27 March). 1 2 Mixed · 2The season also includes the fourth week-long open submission festival, drawing on more than 3,000 new plays read each year, and the third Young Playwrights Award festival (8 to 10 July) for writers aged 13 to 18. 1 2 Mixed · 2Byrne, three years into the job and after the theatre's 70th anniversary year, called it "the most thrilling season we could imagine bringing together" and said of the "knotty, original, adventurous new plays" that "I almost can't believe it's ours". 2 1

Right · 1The Daily Mail reported that Buckley, 36, will be paid the same union-agreed West End 'company rate' as other cast members, which Byrne confirmed, and that she will receive £971 a week for eight performances, according to The Times; the headline puts this at £140 a day and contrasts it with film fees of up to £4.5m. 2 Right · 1The Mail adds that, since Byrne's appointment in 2024, John Lithgow, Tilda Swinton and Gary Oldman have received the same pay, and quotes Byrne calling the 400-seat theatre a "tantalising proposition" with "real momentum"; the Mail contrasts this with rumoured payments of more than £20,000 a week for Hollywood names at other West End theatres. 2