WHAT'S ON at WHITE BEAR THEATRE
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1st - 2nd February 2026
“The play emerges fresh and clear and alive. The uniformly excellent cast perfectly match truth with style. One of the best pieces of theatre I’ve seen in years”- Mark Ravenhill, playwright
“This production of An Ideal husband is a miracle. Endlessly truthful. Rigorously inventive. It's a production born out of ferocious curiosity. It resonates as deeply now as it ever did and in this startling staging the play lives with more vitality and urgency than I have seen in Wilde.” - Simon Stephens, British playwright
“A groundbreaking theatrical event that reveals Oscar Wilde’s compassionate, mischievous spirit through a contemporary lens. The international cast is uniformly excellent, portraying fully realised human beings liberated from the Victorian trappings that often obscure Wilde’s plays. The result is a production that feels utterly of the moment — as if the play had been written today.” - Dominic Cooke, Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre
Oscar Wilde’s sharpest comedy of love and politics comes to the White Bear in a contemporary reimagining by Ramin Gray, director of 15 world premieres at the Royal Court. His production of Suppliant Women at the Young Vic received 5 stars from the Guardian, Telegraph, and others.
This is Wilde for the Succession era. Hilarious, wildly theatrical, with tour-de-force performances from an international cast.
Potato/Tomato
4th – 7th February 2026
A new comedy/drama from Room One Theatre Company, the team behind the Off-Com winning production The Retreat (OFFIES COMMENDATION FOR SHOWS WITH A LIMITED RUN)
Best friends Mike and Josh attend a wedding. Josh discovers that his recently divorced ex-wife is there with her new boyfriend, whilst Mike attempts to chat-up the wedding singer…with hilarious results.
A romantic comedy about finding things…the value of friendship, the strength to move on from an ex, the courage to meet new people, and most of all…the right words.
Damn Cheek Productions Presents
Learning How To Dive
Three People, one uncertain future. A Play about Love, Lies, Loss and what comes next.
10th - 21st February 2026
What do you say when you answer the door to a man you’ve never met before?
Especially when you’ve known him for 30 years?
Where do you start? Where does it end?
And how about discovering your husband of fifty years is not who you thought he was? What then?
By turns tense and tender, Learning How to Dive tells the story of three people and the shared loss they find themselves facing
Directed by Willie Elliott
featuring Damn Cheek Co-Artistic Directors Darren Cheek and Karen Spicer
and award-winning playwright Brendan Murray
“one of the country’s most compassionate dramatists”
- The Guardian
LAMBCO Productions
by Claudio Macor
25th February - 15th March 2026
Gay conversion therapy remains legal in 170 countries around the world — including Britain.
COPENHAGEN 1940. With the Nazi occupation of Denmark, life did not change much. Zack and Nikolai enjoy the hedonism of the cabaret, see friends and are happy in love. Their world is shattered when Doctor Carl Vaernet discovers a cure for homosexuality. Nikolai is arrested, interrogated and experimented on in front of General Von Ascelmen, who is so impressed with the Doctor’s results that he appoints him to “cure” homosexuals in Buchenwald concentration camp. After several attempts the cure fails, the Nazis lose interest and send Doctor Vaernet back to Copenhagen. Upon the liberation of Denmark by British forces, Doctor Vaernet is arrested and interrogated — but when the British authorities learn of his work, they are keen to bring him to Britain. Feigning a heart condition, he is sent to Sweden for treatment on a British stipend and flees to South America. He remains in Argentina until his death, never prosecuted. After liberation, Zack and Nikolai try to rebuild their lives and rekindle their love. This important play exposes a heartbreaking love story amidst the brutal and savage true story of an obsessed and forgotten Nazi war criminal.
'South London's New Writing Powerhouse' - The Stage
MBA Productions Presents
17th - 28th March 2026
Two women. A deserted hotel lounge at the dead of night.
A seemingly random reunion.
The Dawn of Reckoning is a powerful new play about friendship, betrayal and the possibility of a second chance. It asks the question: Just how do we move on from tragedy when the hardest person to forgive is ourselves?
PREVIOUS WORK
To Have and To Hold (Writer)
***** ‘A theatrical masterpiece’ Fairy Powered Productions
***** ‘The rickety old backbone of society’s expectations is laid bare in this beautiful story’ London Pub Theatres
**** ‘Gripping’ London Theatre1
**** ‘A raw, honest and touching play. Mark Bastin's script is bright, witty and thought-provoking ... a 'must see' when it returns’ Playhouse Pickings
Written & performed by Robert Bailey
Directed by Billy Siegenfeld
Sound Design by Philip Saguil
31st March - 4th April 2026
An acclaimed performance from America makes its international debut at the White Bear Theatre.
“IN SOME DARK VALLEY: The Testimony of Reverend Brand,” has been called “memorable theatre… certainly of our time, and every other time as well” (Deborah Klugman, StageRaw Los Angeles) and “delightfully dark… a powerful and highly entertaining show” (Dan Ruth, LA Hidden Gems).
One moonlit night, Reverend Brand, a fiery post Civil War circuit preacher, emerges from the shadowy mountains of Appalachia to weave a tale of religious fervor set against a landscape scarred by war, poverty, and disease – a story born from a collective history that shines a light on rare moments of tender and resilient redemption.
Robert Bailey’s solo performance grapples with the inevitable clash between an unyielding vision of moral rectitude and the tragic personal destruction it leaves in its wake. Bailey embodies multiple characters and sings captivating traditional songs handed down through generations of Southerners.
The 65-minute solo show, written and performed by Robert Bailey and directed by Billy Siegenfeld, pulls the audience into an experience that is both haunting and illuminating in its relevance to today.
“One simply must be consciously living in this moment in history to see the parallels of extremism and its effect on a people…What a simple yet profound thing to see when the world is in chaos, and what we really need most is to gather the tribe and sit around the old black box telling stories.” Luis Alfaro, award winning playwright and Macarthur Genius Fellow https://www.insomedarkvalley.org/
