All the latest news from Trafalgar Productions.

DOUBLE INDEMNITY

Trafalgar Theatre Productions has announced that Hollywood star Mischa Barton (The O.C.) will make her long-awaited UK stage debut as the ultimate femme fatale in Double Indemnity, a darkly compelling new stage adaptation of one of the greatest crime novels of the 20th century, written by James M. Cain.

The story that inspired Billy Wilder’s legendary film noir masterpiece opens at Eastbourne’s Devonshire Park Theatre on 5 February 2026 and then travels to cities and towns in the UK and Ireland until May.

Mischa Barton said: “I am absolutely thrilled to be returning to the stage and making my UK theatre debut in ‘Double Indemnity’. This classic film noir favourite is a gripping tale of deceit, tension, and suspense and I cannot wait to step into the role of Phyllis and share her with audiences across the UK and Ireland for the first time.”

Set in Los Angeles during the 1930s, amidst the wreckage of the Great Depression, Double Indemnity follows Walter Huff, a sharp-eyed insurance salesman who has built his career spotting scams. But when he meets the dangerously seductive Phyllis Nirdlinger (Barton) to discuss her husband’s life insurance policy, he is drawn into a web of lust, greed, and betrayal.

Together, they plot the perfect crime: murder the husband, cash in the policy, and vanish into the Californian sunset. But passion clouds judgment and guilt corrodes even the most perfect of plans. As their conspiracy unravels and mistrust festers, Walter and Phyllis find themselves battling not only the law, but each other.

SHADOWLANDS

BAFTA, Primetime Emmy, and Golden Globe Award-nominated actor Hugh Bonneville stars as C.S. Lewis (author of The Chronicles of Narnia) whose orderly academic life as an Oxford Don is upended by the arrival of the spirited American poet, Joy Davidman. What begins as a meeting of minds becomes an uplifting and powerful journey of love and the fragile beauty of life. 

Based on a true story, Shadowlands is written by William Nicholson and was adapted from his own original BAFTA Award-winning TV movie. It soon became a West End smash-hit winning the Evening Standard Award for Best Play, followed by a triumphant Tony Award-winning Broadway transfer. In 1993 the play was adapted into a major feature film directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger, which subsequently won the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film.

Originally a sell-out production at Chichester Festival Theatre, Rachel Kavanaugh directs this strictly limited engagement at London’s Aldwych Theatre from 5 February 2026.

Shadowlands is produced by Jonathan Church Theatre Productions and Trafalgar Theatre Productions.

BEGINNERS PLEASE PRESENTS: ROMEO AND JULIET

Trafalgar Entertainment Trust is proud to present its first London based community theatre project ‘Beginners Please’ – staging a production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet on Sunday 16 November at Trafalgar Theatre.  

The programme focuses on social issues that may affect people’s opportunities emerging in the theatre industry. For our pilot season, we have also partnered with charities 2020 Levels and Act On It to offer our cohort an Extended Project Qualification.  

OH, MARY!

Oh, Mary! is an uproariously dark comedy about a miserable, suffocated Mary Todd Lincoln in the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Unrequited yearning, alcoholism, and suppressed desires abound in this 80-minute one-act play that finally examines the forgotten life and dreams of Mrs. Lincoln, through the lens of an idiot (playwright Cole Escola).

Declared “one of the best comedies in years” by The New York Times, Oh, Mary! received Tony Awards for Best Leading Actor in a Play (Cole Escola) and Best Direction of a Play (Sam Pinkleton).

The show arrives at Trafalgar Theatre in London on 3 December.