Our pick of theatre to see this August 2026

August is the busiest time of the year for one particular Scottish city.

But if you can’t make it up to Edinburgh, fear not! Not only are we keeping you up to date daily with our dedicated guide collating all of our coverage, but there is a whole host of shows to enjoy up and down the country – including Disney revivals, new plays and hit tours.

A History of Paper

After its premiere at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe two years ago, the new Scottish musical arrives in Pitlochry, reuniting the venue’s artistic director Alan Cumming with Shirley Henderson. Oliver Emanuel and Gareth Williams’s piece is about joy, grief, a man, a woman and the little bits of paper that make up a life. It is directed by Andrew Panton.

Plays at Pitlochry Festival Theatre from 9 to 12 August

Mrs Doubtfire

Help is on the way, dears! Musical comedy Mrs Doubtfire is setting off on its first UK tour with Olivier Award nominee Gabriel Vick reprising his West End role as everybody’s favourite Scottish nanny.

Plays at Birmingham Hippodrome from 13 August to 19 September before touring

As You Like It

Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy makes a comeback, this time co-directed by Globe associate artistic director Sean Holmes and playwright, actor and director Charlie Josephine, who reunite following their acclaimed collaboration on that WhatsOnStage Award nominated Cowbois at the RSC and Royal Court.

Plays at the Globe Theatre from 14 August to 25 October

Who Killed Marilyn?

Pixie Lott returns to the stage in this new play investigating the mysterious circumstances surrounding Marilyn Monroe’s death, which will receive its world premiere in London this month. The team behind it includes writer Sharleen Cooper Cohen and director Philip WM McKinley.

Plays at the Emerald Theatre from 15 August to 29 October

Electra/Persona

In the National’s Lyttelton Theatre, Cate Blanchett will star in a new adaptation by Benedict Andrews, who also directs, drawing on Sophocles’ story of Electra from Greek mythology and Ingmar Bergman’s 1966 film Persona, bringing the two works together in a single piece. Music is by composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (Joker) and the show also features Nina Hoss and Ella Lily Hyland.

Plays in the Lyttleton Theatre from 19 August to 10 October

a small and quiet light

Based on the life of the courageous Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan, Stephanie Street’s world premiere play is set in 1943 in Paris, where a Gestapo interrogator is questioning a young woman who has been known by many different names. As one of the secret agents of Britain’s Special Operations Executive – and the first female radio operator to be sent undercover into France – she has now been betreayed and captured. It stars Olivier Award nominee Priyanga Burford.

Plays at Chichester Festival Theatre from 21 August to 12 September before transferring to Orange Tree Theatre

A Month in the Country

Award winning performer Sophie Okonedo will lead Brian Friel’s adaptation of Ivan Turgenev’s famed play, directed by Lyndsey Turner. For those unfamiliar, it centres on Natalya Petrovna, who, to the outside world looks like she has it all, until the arrival of a penniless young tutor stirs a restless heart.

Plays at the Donmar Warehouse from 22 August to 3 October

High School Musical

Get your head in the game and get down to the Lowry or Troubadour Wembley for the UK’s first ever non-replica revival of Disney’s High School Musical, which sees the venues transformed into an immersive basketball court! We revealed the leads live on stage earlier this year at the WhatsOnStage Awards and since then the cast has grown to include one of the film’s original iconic stars, a McFly band member and more.

Plays at the Lowry in Salford from 22 August to 19 September before transferring to London

Dirty Dancing

Have the time of your life at the new tour of Dirty Dancing! Written by Eleanor Bergstein, who penned the original 1987 screenplay, the classic romance charting a relationship between a holidaying teen and the resort’s dance instructor returns to the stage.

Tour opens at Milton Keynes Theatre from 25 to 29 August

Holy Fool

Benjamin O’Mahony will star as Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich in the world premiere of Holy Fool. The new play by Rosalind Adler and Lea Sellers is inspired by the true story of Shostakovich and his efforts to preserve his artistic voice under Joseph Stalin’s regime.

Plays at the Park Theatre from 27 August to 10 October

The Story

Tracey Scott Wilson’s newsroom drama receives its UK premiere with Letitia Wright playing ambitious reporter Yvonne, competing to break a major story after a white teacher is killed in a Black neighbourhood. Clint Dyer directs a cast which also includes Aliyah Odoffin as Latisha, Ashley Thomas as Neil, Lorraine Toussaint as Pat and Wilf Scolding as Jeff.

Plays at National Theatre’s Olivier Theatre from 27 August to 24 October

Jane Eyre

30 years after its first bow, Jane Eyre, a musical by John Caird and Paul Gordon based on the seminal novel by Charlotte Brontë, will receive its UK premiere! It stars Charlie Burn as Jane and Ashley Gilmour as Rochester.

Plays at Southwark Playhouse Elephant from 28 August to 24 October

Kimberly Akimbo

The Tony Award-winning new musical comedy continues its great adventure to London, with a cast led by Maria Friedman as 16-year-old Kim, who lives with a rare genetic condition that causes her to age at four times the normal rate. Join her as she navigates adolescence while aware of her limited time.

Plays at Hampstead Theatre from 28 August to 7 November

1984

George Orwell’s landmark dystopian novel returns to the stage! This new production stars Jack Tarlton as Winston Smith and Jessica Hardwick as Julia, in this well-known tale of a forbidden relationship that becomes an act of resistance in a totalitarian society built on surveillance, fear and the manipulation of truth.

Plays at Citizens Theatre in Glasgow from 29 August to 26 September before touring Scotland