Stratford East announces new season including The Harder They Come musical

Stratford East has announced its 140th anniversary season, which will be the final season under artistic director Nadia Fall.

The season begins with a new version of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, adapted by Tatty Hennessy and directed by Amy Leach. The production, co-produced with Leeds Playhouse in association with Nottingham Playhouse, runs from 7 February to 8 March 2025.

Following this, Stratford East will present Azuka Oforka’s debut play, The Women of Llanrumney, directed by Patricia Logue and starring Suzanne Packer. Set in 18th century colonial Jamaica, the play explores the experiences of women during slavery. This co-production with Sherman Theatre will run from 19 March to 12 April 2025.

Dave Harris’ Tambo and Bones returns to Stratford East, directed by Matthew Xia. This co-production with Actors Touring Company, Royal and Derngate, Northampton, in association with Belgrade Theatre, Leeds Playhouse and Liverpool Everyman, is set to run from 29 April to 10 May 2025.

The season will also feature the new British musical Lovestuck, conceived and written by James Cooper, with music by Bryn Christopher and Martin Batchelar, and directed by Jamie Morton. The show runs from 6 June to 12 July 2025. Cooper and Morton are probably best known as the co-creators of hit podcast My Dad Wrote A Porno. 

In the summer, Stratford East will host a community production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, co-produced with Sadler’s Wells, and adapted by Kwame Owusu. The production will involve young artists and the local Newham community alongside a professional cast.

The season concludes in autumn 2025 with a new production of the reggae musical The Harder They Come, based on the cult film by Perry Henzell and co-written by Trevor Rhone. The show will feature songs by Jimmy Cliff and a new book by Suzan-Lori Parks, with direction by Xia. It runs from Saturday 13 September to Saturday 25 October 2025.  The musical was seen at the Public Theater in New York in 2023, where it garnered critical praise, after first being performed at Stratford East in 2006. It ran again there in 2007 before transferring to the Barbican in spring 2008.

Fall said today: “I am excited to announce our 140^th anniversary season, which is also my final season as artistic director of Stratford East. Though I’m already teary about leaving at the end of the year, this programme is very much my love letter to the theatre, staff, artists and audiences. And we certainly intend for it to be a brilliant celebration of our big birthday!”