Headlong

28/04/2026

Join the conversation… This July Headlong’s ROBOTA premieres at the Schwarzman Centre. 😎

Writer Ella Road and Director Roy Alexander Weise spent time with leading Oxford University academics talking about the challenges and opportunities AI presents. 🤖

This question came up in discussions with Dr Mona Simion who posed the thought… we ask a lot about what AI is, but not enough about what it should be. Why is AI made to use human traits? Does that reveal something about what it means to be human? What can theatre bring to this conversation? 🤔

Join the conversation.👇️ Drop a comment with your thoughts. Let’s discuss and think together about AI.

Image - Why is AI made like a human? (graphic by Studio Doug)

22/04/2026

In recognition of Earth Day we want to share a little about how we're reducing our environmental impact. Headlong and our co-producers work towards Theatre Green Book standard on all of our productions 📗.

Remember "A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction"? Co-produced with , that was a bold experiment in how to make theatre that doesn't cost the earth. We sourced set & props sustainably. We powered the show with bikes. Yes, bikes 🚲 . And - biggest challenge of all - we toured the show without anyone travelling. A new company and creatives picked up the template at each venue.

Today we're just as committed to making sustainable theatre. We’re now aiming for Advanced Theatre Green Book standard on our next show ROBOTA. 🦾

That's the highest standard available and is challenging our team in lots of ways! So, 75% of everything you see on stage in ROBOTA - that's all props, set and costumes - will have had a previous life. And 80% will have a future life. We're pushing our design and finding new ways of making a show using things that are reclaimed, recycled, reloved! 🌱

15/04/2026

We asked Naeem Hayat, the newest recruit to Team Headlong, 6 questions to get to know him better. 🥰

Naeem comes to us fresh from co-directing A Midsummer Night's Dream with Holly. He has a long list of directing credits to his name from his time at Shakespeare's Globe. Oh and as an actor he once toured Hamlet to every country in the world. 🌎️

Find out his favourite moment in the theatre, his advice for young Naeem and what got him started on his path (hint... it involved pink ladies and leather jackets!).

Find the full interview on our site. Link in bio. 🔗

07/04/2026

This month the creative team on ROBOTA 🤖 have been hard at work. It’s been a whirlwind of R&D weeks, script development and design proposals.

This is a show happening at speed. Responding creatively to the challenges and potential of AI, informed by collaboration with cutting-edge researchers at the University of Oxford.

It’s going to be a must-see. In Oxford for 2 weeks only this July at the new Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities.

📆 3 - 18 July 2026

📍 OX2 6GG

🔗 in bio, of course!

02/04/2026

Our Dream has now come to a close. We took some big swings with this production - snow in summer, cuts to the text, bananas 🍌- and we want to say an enormous thank you. 🙏

Thanks to our cast, our creative team, our partners and audiences for trusting our vision and letting us find exciting new questions in this timeless classic.

Over 101 shows more than 43000 of you joined the Dream. From Preston to Bristol, Oxford to Leeds, our story of chaos in nature, power games and illusion has resonated with audiences across the country.

Touring is what we’re all about. It’s where we meet our audiences, test our creative muscle and bring people together. Connecting through shared experiences and a great night out.

Speaking of… the show report for the final performance said: “we had a standing ovation, with flowers and chorizo thrown onstage during bows”. 💐 (sadly there’s no chorizo emoji).

A production by Headlong and Shakespeare’s Globe, with Bristol Old Vic and Leeds Playhouse. This production was generously supported by Charles Holloway OBE.

17/03/2026

What is Pyramus? A lover or a tyrant?

So asks Bottom () in Act 1, Scene 2 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where the mechanicals discuss their play within a play.

Don’t miss our “fascinating” (Financial Times) take on Shakespeare’s most popular play. Showing at now. Opening at on the 24th March.

A production by Headlong and Shakespeare’s Globe, with Bristol Old Vic and Leeds Playhouse.

10/03/2026

We're out on tour with A Midsummer Night's Dream and the reviews are rolling in!

Our thanks to Bristol 24/7, who say "It is rare to see a Shakespeare that feels like a piece of contemporary theatre... a vibrant and impressive adaptation". 🌟

This is music to our ears. We treat the classics like they are hot off the press, finding new questions and ideas to explore in plays audiences already know. Even in what is arguably Shakespeare's most beloved play.

It's Dream, but not as you know it. 🧚‍♀️

See for yourself at Bristol Old Vic until 21st March and in Oxford from 24th - 28th March.

10/03/2026

So why this play? Why now?

✨ At Headlong we stage classics as if they were brand new. We ask audiences to see stories they know with fresh eyes. Our reimagining of A Midsummer Night's Dream reveals a volatile world, unsettlingly close to our own.

To tell a relevant story to our contemporary audiences we dug into the history. We looked at what was really going on at the time Shakespeare was writing. The late 1590s was a time of significant population growth, war, food uncertainty and riots.

Want to know more about how this informed our production? Read the full article: https://www.headlong.co.uk/our-news/a-different-take-on-a-midsummer-nights-dream

📅 Currently playing at Bristol Old Vic, next stop, Oxford Playhouse

Find out more about how Headlong approach a classic text like A Midsummer Night's Dream and what makes this production so compelling.

19/02/2026

New production shots incoming! 🎉

A Midsummer Night's Dream is on tour now! We're excited to share these new photographs of our wonderful cast, taken by Rich Lakos at Leeds Playhouse

This is Dream turned upside down, where time slips and nothing is as it seems. Darkly comic, our version brings chaos, magic and power games to the fore.

Booking now:
✅ Leeds Playhouse : Open now til 28th Feb
✅ Bristol Old Vic : 4th - 21st March
✅ Playhouse : 24th - 28th March

https://www.headlong.co.uk/productions/a-midsummer-nights-dream

16/02/2026

We see the seasons alter. ❄️

See the magnificent Hedydd Dylan as Titania, revealing a volatile world that feels unsettlingly close to our own. Darkly comic, this is A Midsummer Night's Dream, but not as you know it.

🎟️ Showing at Playhouse til the 28th Feb, then touring to Old Vic (4 - 21 March) and Playhouse (24 - 28 March).

Act 2, scene 1 of A Midsummer Night's Dream. A production by Headlong and Shakespeare’s Globe, with Bristol Old Vic and Leeds Playhouse. This production is generously supported by Charles Holloway OBE.

https://www.headlong.co.uk/productions/a-midsummer-nights-dream

09/02/2026

Welcome to the 6th edition of Headlong Origins. It’s all about championing talented emerging theatre directors from across the UK. 👏

Joining us this year are:
⭐️ Amelia Michaels (Leicester)
⭐️ Ciaran Stewart (Manchester)
⭐️ Oisín Kearney (Belfast)
⭐️ Robert Furey (Bristol)
⭐️ Amy Hailwood (Wigan)

Origins directors spend a year diving deep into our programme of work. Industry mentoring, masterclasses and the chance to join our workshops, rehearsal rooms and R&Ds.

It’s hands-on, immersive and rooted in real practice. We can’t wait to get started and get to know our Origins 6.0 cohort.

Headlong Origins is generously supported by Backstage Trust.

Read about all things Origins on our website: https://www.headlong.co.uk/origins