Press room

• Images + video can be downloaded here: SPRING 2026 

 
The Barbican today announces Scene Change, a season of transformative performances and gatherings in unexpected places that brings its spring Theatre & Dance programme to new spaces across the Barbican and beyond.

Scene Change, a highlight of the Barbican’s Spring season, invites audiences to look a little closer at the world around us and our place within it, through interactions with artists from the UK, Belarus, the Republic of Ireland and North America. Whether dining, checking in to a hotel, browsing, or in an unexpected one-on-one encounter, these productions explore the relationship between artists and audience, and the moments of connection that performance can spark. 
 
Alongside the Barbican’s major Renewal project, to improve energy efficiency and accessibility Centre-wide, Scene Change engages in dialogue with its civic spaces, prompting questions about how we can embed the arts for everyone and the way architecture and arts institutions welcome visitors to participate. These events will take place in public areas of the Barbican and at partner venues across London, while the Barbican Theatre and The Pit undergo essential behind-the-scenes maintenance.  
 

• Dante or Die revisits its wildly joyful cult-hit, I Do; a promenade jigsaw puzzle through six hotel rooms in the final 10 minutes before a wedding. The site-specific company kicks off its 20th birthday celebrations with a three-week run in the heart of London’s Square Mile.  
  (20 Jan–8 Feb, Malmaison London) 
   
• Experimental cross-arts company Fevered Sleep will make its Barbican debut with public art intervention This Grief Thing. Entering a uniquely themed pop-up shop, visitors in the foyers will discover a space to connect, share loss and find hope while normalising conversations around grief 
  (12–22 Feb, Barbican Studio, Level G)
   
  
• Part peep-show, part confessional, Landmark Productions and Octopus Theatricals’ international sensation Theatre for One showcases miniature plays from six celebrated Irish playwrights, including Enda Walsh, Marina Carr and Mark O'Rowe, in a custom-built, travelling theatre space for one audience member at a time 
  (12–22 March, Barbican Hub, Level G)
   
  
• Belarus Free Theatre (BFT) returns to cook up a secret supper-club experience with a twist, taking inspiration from a real underground movement for democratic freedoms while honouring Belarusian food culture. Kitchen Revolution is hosted by BFT and guest provocateurs Carole Cadwalladr and Stephen Sackur 
  (31 March–1 April, Barbican Conservatory, Level 3)
   
  
• Following its world premiere at the Barbican Theatre in 2024 and subsequent international and UK tour, Barbican Artistic Associate Boy Blue will revive its 5-star show Cycles in 2026. Resolutely and unapologetically hip hop, Cycles (a Barbican co-commission) is performed by nine powerful dancers and is a joyful celebration of hip hop dance in all its forms 
   

Toni Racklin, Barbican Head of Theatre & Dance, says: “Live performance holds a tremendous power to combat isolation and division in modern society, by being curious we can look at the world anew. With our Scene Change programme this spring, we invite audience members to take a new journey through our Centre, and neighbouring venues in London, to experience intimate performances in unusual settings and to meet with fellow audience members in shared moments.”  

 
In line with its new Artistic Vision, developed by Director for Arts & Participation Devyani Saltzman, the Theatre & Dance department today also announces the restart of its leading artist development programme, Open Lab, in the spring. Supporting early to mid-career theatremakers and choreographers in the expanding, scaling up and deepening of their practice, artists are invited to apply to build an experimental new piece of work or collaboration. Open Lab has drawn admiration for empowering artists to develop new ways of working, where the emphasis is on the artists’ craft, rather than an expectation for delivering a final product. The year-long scheme supports its artists to push the limits of what live performance can be, underpinned by the trust, time and space that independent artists rely on to incubate ideas and take risks. Open Lab has championed visionary cross-disciplinary artists who have been traditionally under-represented on London stages, with alumni including Elizabeth Gunawan (Prayers for a Hungry Ghost), Bullyache (WHO HURT YOU?) and Olivier Award-nominated Rhiannon Faith Company. 

 
Devyani Saltzman, Director for Arts & Participation, says: “In a time when arts funding and opportunities to take creative risks are under threat, we have been determined to bring back Open Lab. It is more important than ever to build pathways that support artists to make creative leaps, to reflect the world around us and the futures that inspire us in challenging and exciting new ways.”