Tickets are now on sale for Electra/Persona, one of the most anticipated productions of the year, starring two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss at the National Theatre.
The world-premiere production of Electra/Persona plays at the National Theatre’s Lyttelton theatre from 19 August to 10 October 2026. Tickets are now on sale.
View live availability for Electra/Persona tickets in London
An unmissable pairing
Directed and adapted by Benedict Andrews (A Streetcar Named Desire), Electra/Persona fuses Sophocles’ ancient Greek tragedy with Ingmar Bergman’s landmark 1966 film Persona. Although the two works are separated by more than two thousand years they’re united by the same obsessions: identity, grief, performance and the fragile line between who we are and who we play.
The show poses a single, unsettling question: which role undid you in the end?
In Electra, a daughter consumed by grief and rage clings to justice as her world disintegrates around her. In Persona, an actress falls silent mid-performance during a production of Electra, triggering an intense and increasingly disturbing encounter between two women, as speech breaks down and the boundary between self and role begins to dissolve.
An acclaimed cast
An all-star cast
The cast of Electra/Persona brings together some of the most celebrated screen and stage talent working today:
- Cate Blanchett makes her return to the National Theatre stage, where she last appeared in 2019 in Martin Crimp’s When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other. One of the most decorated actors of her generation, Blanchett has won two Academy Awards and recently starred in The Seagull at the Barbican Theatre. Her screen credits include Tár, Blue Jasmine, Notes on a Scandal, The Aviator and the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies.
- Nina Hoss joins Blanchett having previously starred alongside her in the Oscar-nominated film Tár, in which Hoss gave a widely acclaimed supporting performance. One of Germany’s most celebrated stage and screen actors, her other credits include the BBC series Patrick Melrose and Homeland.
- Ella Lily Hyland completes the principal cast as a rising talent to watch, recently seen in Netflix thriller Black Doves.
Created by Benedict Andrews
Electra/Persona is directed and adapted by Benedict Andrews, best known in London for his production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Young Vic, which transferred to the West End and Brooklyn Academy of Music to widespread critical acclaim.
Andrews has woven together two of the most psychologically complex works in the Western canon: Sophocles’ Electra and Bergman’s Persona, into a single world-premiere production that promises to be formally bold and deeply unsettling.
Joining Andrews in the creative team are set designer Magda Willi, costume designer Merle Hensel, composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (who previously won an Oscar for Joker), lighting designer Jon Clark, video designer Ash J Woodward, with casting by Alastair Coomer CDG, associate director Danica Selem, music associate Deanna H. Choi and staff director Oliver Hurst.
A world premiere at the National Theatre
Electra/Persona marks Blanchett’s return to the National for the first time in seven years and her first appearance at the Lyttelton. With Andrews at the helm, a creative team of exceptional calibre and the combined presence of Blanchett and Hoss, two of the most compelling performers working anywhere in the world, this world premiere is set to be one of the theatrical events of 2026.
Book tickets to Electra/Persona at the National Theatre in London
More shows on sale at the National Theatre
A number of other new shows have gone on sale today at the National Theatre, including:
- Cloud 9: Caryl Churchill’s landmark satire returns in a bold new production.
- Some Woman: BAFTA-winning actor Anne-Marie Duff (Bad Sisters, Sex Education) stars in a powerful new play by acclaimed writer Helen Edmundson.
- The Rise and Fall of Little Voice: Jim Cartwright’s modern classic returns to the National Theatre starring Francesca Mills (Hamlet)
Plan your visit
- Show: Electra/Persona
- Venue: Lyttelton Theatre, National Theatre, Southbank, London
- Dates: 19 August – 10 October 2026
- Stars: Cate Blanchett, Nina Hoss, Ella Lily Hyland
- Tickets: On sale now
National Theatre - Lyttelton Theatre, London
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