Matthew Bourne's award-winning dance thriller, loosely based on Bizet's opera Carmen, makes its debut at the Mayflower Theatre.
Matthew Bourne's The Car Man comes to the Mayflower Theatre from 16 to 19 September 2026, its first time playing in Southampton. It's a dance thriller loosely based on Bizet's opera Carmen, though the setting is a far cry from the original: a greasy 1950s garage-diner in the American Mid-West. The story kicks off when a handsome, enigmatic stranger arrives and shatters the dreams and passions of the small town, driving the locals into a spiral of greed, lust, betrayal and revenge.
Bourne directed and choreographed the production, and he's drawn on vintage film noir classics for the look and feel of it. It's also billed as possibly the first ballet to feature a bisexual anti-hero, so it's not just a retread of the Carmen story. The score is by Terry Davies and features Rodion Shchedrin's Carmen Suite, which New Adventures describes as one of the most thrilling and instantly recognisable in their repertoire.
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It's not a new piece, though. The Car Man first opened in 2000 and picked up the Evening Standard Award for Musical Event of the Year and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Best Choreography. This is its first run at the Mayflower, so it's the first time it's been staged in the city. Tickets start from £29.50, and it runs for four days from 16 September.
