{"id":318451,"date":"2025-08-05T00:24:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T00:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/318451\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T00:24:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T00:24:20","slug":"national-tour-of-james-grahams-dear-england-to-play-leeds-grand-theatre-sheffield-lyceum-and-bradford-alhambra-charleshutchpress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/318451\/","title":{"rendered":"National tour of James Graham\u2019s Dear England to play Leeds Grand Theatre, Sheffield Lyceum and Bradford Alhambra \u2013 charleshutchpress"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The cast on the first day of rehearsals for the 2025-2026 tour of James Graham\u2019s Dear England, visiting Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford. Picture: Justine Matthew <\/p>\n

THE National Theatre\u2019s 2025-2026 tour of James Graham\u2019s Dear England \u2013 \u201cthe Gareth Southgate play\u201d \u2013 will visit Leeds Grand Theatre from November 4 to 8.<\/p>\n

Further Yorkshire runs are booked into Sheffield Lyceum Theatre from October 21 to 25 and Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, for February 17 to 21 2026.<\/p>\n

Heading the cast will be\u00a0David Sturzaker\u00a0<\/strong>as England manager \u2013 and knighted Harrogate resident \u2013 Gareth Southgate, alongside EastEnders\u00a0and\u00a0Mount Pleasant\u00a0actress\u00a0Samantha Womack\u00a0in the role of team psychologist Pippa Grange.<\/p>\n

Directed by Almeida Theatre artistic director\u00a0Rupert Goold, the cast also features returnees Jass Beki\u00a0as Bukayo Saka;\u00a0Courtney George\u00a0as Alex Scott;\u00a0Tom Lane\u00a0as Eric Dier and Miles Henderson\u00a0in Ensemble roles.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

David Sturzaker: Playing Gareth Southgate in Dear England, on tour in 2025-2026. Picture: Michael Shelford <\/p>\n

Joining them will be company newcomers Jake Ashton-Nelson\u00a0as Jordan Henderson;\u00a0Luke Azille as Jadon Sancho;\u00a0Ian Bartholomew\u00a0as Greg Dyke;\u00a0Ashley Byam\u00a0as Raheem Sterling; Steven Dykes\u00a0as Sam Allardyce; Oscar Gough\u00a0as Harry Kane; Jayden Hanley\u00a0as Marcus Rashford;\u00a0Connor Hawker\u00a0as Harry Maguire;\u00a0Ian Kirkby\u00a0as Gary Lineker;\u00a0Jack Maddison\u00a0as Jordan Pickford; Liam Prince-Donnelly\u00a0as Dele Alli and\u00a0George Rainsford\u00a0as Mike Webster. In the squad too are Stuart Ash,\u00a0Natalie Boakye,\u00a0Sam Craig and Jonathan Markwood.<\/p>\n

Premiered in June 2023, Graham\u2019s inspiring, at times heartbreaking and ultimately uplifting story of Gareth Southgate\u2019s revolutionary tenure as England football manager won the 2024 Olivier Award for Best New Play, en route to breaking box-office records in its West End run.<\/p>\n

Dear England charts Southgate\u2019s impact when taking over from Sam Allardyce in 2016. As the play\u2019s synopsis puts it: \u201cIt\u2019s time to change the game. The country that gave the world football has since delivered a painful pattern of loss. The England men\u2019s team has the worst track record for penalties in the world, and manager Gareth Southgate knows he needs to open his mind and face up to the years of hurt to take team and country back to the promised land\u201d.<\/p>\n

The tour will visit 16 venues from <\/strong>September 15 2025 to March 14 2026\u00a0<\/strong>in a co-production with Josh Andrews and Stuart Galbraith for JAS Theatricals. Goold is joined in the production team by set designer Es Devlin, whose credits include Beyonce\u2019s Renaissance world tour and The Lehman Trilogy at the National Theatre, along with costume designer Evie Gurney; lighting designer Jon Clark; co-movement directors\u00a0Ellen Kane\u00a0and\u00a0Hannes Langolf; video designer \u00a0Ash J Woodward, and co-sound designers\u00a0Dan Balfour\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Tom Gibbons.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Samantha Womack: Playing team psychologist Pippa Grange in Dear England. Picture: Michelle George <\/p>\n

They are joined by tour revival director\u00a0Connie Treves; revival movement director\u00a0Tom Herron; <\/strong>casting director\u00a0Bryony Jarvis-Taylor; <\/strong>associate set designer\u00a0Alice Hallifax; associate lighting designer\u00a0Ben Jacobs; associate video designer\u00a0Libby Ward; associate sound designer\u00a0Johnny Edwards; casting associate\u00a0Lilly Mackie\u00a0and resident director\u00a0Dan Hutton.<\/p>\n

The National Theatre will run a year-long schools engagement programme inspired by Gareth Southgate\u2019s \u201cDear England\u201d open letter that he wrote to England fans in 2021.<\/p>\n

This programme, designed to prompt young people to reflect on their own place in history, just as the footballers in Southgate\u2019s squad were encouraged to do, comes in response to 2025 being the 80th\u00a0anniversary of the end of the Second World War.<\/p>\n

It will be delivered to 10,000 pupils in schools across England at assemblies and workshops, using spoken word and sound design to support students to share the hopes and aspirations they have for themselves, and other young people, 80 years from now.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The cast of Dear England at the National Theatre this spring. Picture: Marc Brenner <\/p>\n

The resulting sound archive will form a 2025\u20132026 time capsule. In addition, students will be invited to attend performances of\u00a0Dear England\u00a0during the tour.<\/p>\n

Dear England\u00a0<\/strong>was commissioned by the National Theatre and developed with the theatre\u2019s New Work department for its world premiere on June 20 2023 in the Olivier theatre.\u00a0 A sold-out run was followed by a transfer to the Prince Edward Theatre, London, from October 9 2023 to January 13 2024, where box-office records were broken.<\/p>\n

Dear England\u00a0was released to cinemas through National Theatre Live on January 24 2024 and has been screened almost 2,500 times across the UK.<\/p>\n

In February 2024, the BBC announced its commission of a four-part drama of\u00a0Dear England, based on the stage production, for BBC One and BBC iPlayer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tane Siah\u2019s Bukayo Saka and Gwilym Lee\u2019s Gareth Southgate in Dear England at the National Theatre this spring. Picture: Marc Brennen<\/p>\n

Graham\u2019s play returned to the National Theatre in Spring 2025, updated to reflect the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament, Southgate\u2019s final chapter as England manager that ended, spoiler alert, with defeat to Spain in the final. The regional premiere was staged in a four-week run at The Lowry, Salford, that opened on May 29.<\/p>\n

The 2025\/2026 national tour is supported by Incentivising Touring: Repayable Grants for Theatre and Dance, a pilot scheme developed by Arts Council England to support larger-scale productions to tour to regional venues.<\/p>\n

Dear England\u00a0was among the first to receive a share of more than \u00a32million as part of the first round of the scheme, designed to create the opportunity for more people to see high-quality shows close to where they live.<\/p>\n

Tickets for Leeds are on sale on 0113 243 0808 or at leedsheritagetheatres.com<\/a>; Sheffield, sheffieldtheatres.co.uk\/lyceum<\/a>; Bradford, bradford-theatres.co.uk\/alhambra-theatre<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Did you know?<\/strong><\/p>\n

JAMES Graham\u2019s last play to visit Leeds Grand Theatre was his stage adaptation of Alan Bleasdale\u2019s Boys From The Black Stuff from May 13 to 17 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The cast on the first day of rehearsals for the 2025-2026 tour of James Graham\u2019s Dear England, visiting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,1860,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-318451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-leeds","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114973315483023287","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}