Croydonites Festival of New Theatre will return for its 12th year this November with what organisers describe as its most ambitious programme to date, bringing together acclaimed productions from across the UK alongside homegrown creative talent from Croydon.
Running from 4 to 21 November 2026 across multiple venues in the borough, the festival continues its mission to champion bold new work with roots in Croydon while showcasing some of the most talked-about shows from the national theatre and comedy scene.
The 2026 programme opens with Hannah Maxwell’s Fringe First Award-winning Turn Your Fcking Phones Off*, a timely exploration of human connection in the information age.
Theatre highlights include Man or Bear by Katie Hurley and Sarah Hehir, inspired by the viral online question and examining female survival in an increasingly dangerous world.
Fringe favourite Victoria Melody makes her Croydonites debut with Trouble, Struggle, Bubble and Squeak, a show tackling food poverty, while James Rowland returns with Edinburgh Fringe success Team Viking.
Also featured are Frauke Requardt and Vivienne Franzmann’s Anatomy of Survival, which pieces together 22 eyewitness accounts of a single everyday altercation, and Simone French’s solo show A Suffocating Choking Feeling, an exploration of influencer culture.
Among the festival’s more unconventional offerings is Rosa Garland’s Bestie Award-winning Primal Bog, which combines lesbian slime wrestling and live tattooing in a journey through hidden desires.
Magician Vincent Gambini will present Close-Up, an intimate one-to-one participatory magic experience for audiences.
Comedy fans can enjoy Ollie Horn’s cult hit The Most Toast and the return of popular line-up show Dick’s Picks, featuring established comedians alongside cult comedy characters.
Croydon itself will take centre stage in a new film commission created especially for the festival. Richard DeDomenici’s Redux: Heads of State sees local participants recreate scenes from the action film Heads of State in the original Croydon locations used during filming.
The project will be accompanied by a special ‘Crollywood’ walking tour celebrating Croydon’s screen appearances in productions including Batman, The Da Vinci Code, Criminal, Black Mirror and Taylor Swift’s Opalite.
Alongside the headline programme, the festival will showcase work developed through its artist development pathways, including CroydonBites, CroydonBuilds and CroydonBeyond, which support local creatives from early-stage ideas through to full-scale productions.
Anna Arthur, founder and director of The Croydonites Festival, said: “We are grateful that we can continue to nurture local artists and bring high-quality performance work from around the UK to Croydon. This is our 12th year and our loyal audiences continue to show up for something a little bit different! Our thanks to Croydon Council and Arts Council England for their support.”
Founded in 2015, the festival has presented almost 150 artists and 270 performances to date, establishing itself as a key platform for adventurous new work and emerging creative voices in the borough.
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
