Sir Ian McKellen is to return to the London stage later this year in Lear, a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear.
Lear is part of The Yard Theatre’s first season in London in its new building, and will play at The Yard from November 2026 to January 2027, with exact dates to be confirmed.
Lear is reimagined by playwright Simon Stephens (Vanya, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) and The Yard’s Artistic Director Jay Miller. Miller’s The Yard production of The Glass Menagerie won an Olivier Award this year.
Joining Stephens and Miller in the creative team are Set and Costume Designer Stewart Laing, Sound Designer Josh Anio Grigg, Lighting Designer Zerlina Hughes, Choreography by Malik Nashad Sharpe, Video Designer Sarah Readman, Casting Director Heather Bastian CDG, and Assistant Director Sophia Golan.
Starring Ian McKellen
McKellen last appeared as King Lear in 2017, in the Chichester Festival Theatre production, which also transferred to the Duke of York’s Theatre in the West End.
Ian McKellen was last on stage in London in 2024, in Robert Icke’s Player Kings at the Noel Coward Theatre. An accident where Ian McKellen fell off the stage forced him to leave the production.
Ian McKellen recently worked with playwright Simon Stephens in New York, on mixed reality show An Ark at The Shed.
Ian McKellen’s other recent acting projects have included the movie The Critic, playing a West End theatre critic in 1930s London; and new film The Christophers, directed by Steven Soderbergh and co-starring Michaela Coel.
His forthcoming projects include starring in a movie adaptation of hit stage play Frank & Percy, alongside Roger Allam.
The Yard’s new season
Lear is part of The Yard Theatre’s first season in London in its new building, and features six new productions running from July 2026 to April 2027.
Other highlights of the season include the 50th-anniversary revival of Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, directed by Diane Page; the London premiere of the stage adaptation of Jackie Collins’ bestselling debut novel The World Is Full of Married Men; Holly Robinson’s adaptation of Mrs Dalloway; Troy Hunter’s There’s Something About Adam Black; and Philosophy of the World by In Bed With My Brother.
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