Tristan & Yseult

Tristan & Yseult comes to the Oxford Playhouse Main Stage from Tuesday 26 January to Saturday 30 January 2027. It's an Emma Rice Company production, adapted and directed by Emma Rice herself, with a script by Carl Grose and Anna Maria Murphy. The cast features Edward Rowe as King Mark, John Leader as Tristan, Nandi Bhebhe as Yseult, and Tom Fox playing both Morholt and Brangian, with music by Stu Barker.

If the title sounds familiar, it's because this is a return. First staged in 2003 as an original Kneehigh production, it started in the open air at Restormel Castle in Cornwall and Rufford Abbey in Nottinghamshire, played the Minack Theatre in Porthcurno in 2004, and was reimagined as an indoor show at the Cottesloe at the National Theatre in 2005. It's been described as one of the most influential theatre productions of the 21st century — a visceral, playful and heartbreakingly beautiful piece that blends myth, music, movement and storytelling around an epic ancient Cornish tale. It was last seen on stage in 2017, so this is its first UK return in ten years.

Oxford Playhouse Director of Programmes Katy Snelling has a personal connection to it: "I've watched this show on a clifftop in Cornwall and from the pit at The Globe and cannot wait to see it again here in Oxford." The reviews from its previous runs range from The Times' five stars, "The best piece of theatre I have ever seen", to The Guardian's four stars, "Utterly irresistible".

Evening performances run Tuesday through Saturday at 7:30pm, with matinees on Thursday 28 January and Saturday 30 January at 2:30pm. Tickets are £5 for 14-25s, and Friends get 50% off.