Croydonites Festival of New Theatre returns for its 12th year from Wednesday 4 to Saturday 21 November 2026, opening with Hannah Maxwell’s Fringe First winner Turn Your Fcking Phones Off. Founder Anna Arthur started the festival in 2015 after noticing how little theatre and performance was being presented in Croydon compared with the rest of London. Now almost 150 artists and 270 shows later, she says the festival’s loyal audiences “continue to show up for something a little bit different”.
Different is certainly the word for much of the programme. Primal Bog by Rosa Garland (Bestie Award winner) combines lesbian slime wrestling with live tattooing, while Frauke Requardt and Vivienne Franzmann’s Anatomy of Survival gathers 22 eyewitness accounts of a single everyday altercation. Katie Hurley and Sarah Hehir’s Man or Bear takes the viral question as its starting point, and Vincent Gambini’s Close-Up is a one-on-one participatory magic show. Comedy comes from James Rowland’s Team Viking, Ollie Horn’s The Most Toast and the return of the Dick’s Picks line-up nights.
TURN YOUR F*CKING PHONES OFF
Photo Credit: Alex Brenner
Primal Bog
Photo Credit: Corinne Cumming
Man or Bear
Photo credit: Arsalan Sattari-Hicks
Croydon itself gets a starring role in Richard DeDomenici’s Redux: Heads of State, a film commission in which local participants recreate scenes from the action movie in the original Croydon locations. It sits alongside a “Crollywood” walking tour of the borough’s screen appearances on Saturday 14 November. The festival also showcases work from its CroydonBites, CroydonBuilds and CroydonBeyond pathways, which support local artists from first idea to full-length show, with backing from Croydon Council and Arts Council England.
Booking details
Croydonites Festival of New Theatre
Dates: Wednesday 4 to Saturday 21 November 2026
Tickets: https://www.ticketsource.com/croydonites
Venues:
The Front Room, 37 to 39 St George’s Walk, Croydon CR0 1YL
Stanley Arts, 12 South Norwood Hill, London SE25 6AB
The Clocktower Cafe, 9 Katharine Street, Croydon CR9 1ET
David Lean Cinema, Croydon Clocktower, Katharine Street, Croydon CR9 1ET
(Redux: Heads of State and the Crollywood tour also use central Croydon locations)
Website: www.croydonites.com
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