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Stratford East – formerly known as Theatre Royal Stratford East – comes with one of the weightiest legacies in all of London theatre. It was formerly run by Joan Littlewood, the hugely influential mid-20th century iconoclast who gave British theatre an almighty kick up the backside and probably stands as the second most famous London artistic director of all time after Olivier.
Many of her successors have tried to grapple with this legacy – reviving some of her greatest hits, building a big statue of her – and maybe that’s something newcomer Lisa Spirling (formerly of the small but influential Theatre 503) will get into in the future. But for now she’s dropped a slick three-part season that’s full of early promise.
Kicking off in the new year, the first show will be the much-anticipated US playwright Moisés Kaufman's Pulitzer-nominated docudrama Here There are Blueberries (Jan 31-Feb 28 2026), which dramatises the 2007 discovery of a shocking album of photograph of the Nazi staff at Auschwitz at leisure. As in the US, Kaufman himself will direct.
That’ll be followed by a revival for Choir Boy (Mar 26-Apr 25 2026) by playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney (probably best known for his hit film Moonlight). Telling the story of gifted Black queer singer and soloist who encounters friction with a peer, the Nancy Medina-directed production won great notices at the Bristol Old Vic a couple of years back and now heads over here.
Finally Spirling herself will make her directorial debut at the theatre helming Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy (dates TBC), the latest play from woman of the moment Ava Pickett, whose first two plays 1536 and Emma have been some of the best new UK writing of the year. It follows Helen of Troy’s return home after the massive war fought in her name – expect amusingly iconoclastic feminist irreverence.
Public booking for Here There are Blueberries and Choir Boy opens October 3.