Championing bold new work with roots in Croydon, Croydonites Festival of New Theatrereturns for its 12th year in November with its most ambitious programme to date. Hot off the heels of the highly successful Croydonites Fringe Festival in July 2026 and bringing together award winning Edinburgh hits, theatre, comedy, new writing and film alongside homegrown talent from across the borough, the festival continues its mission to nurture local artists while bringing some of the most exciting new performances from across the UK to Croydon audiences.
The festival will open with Hannah Maxwell’s 2026 Fringe First award-winning Turn Your F*cking Phones Off,a timely exploration of human connection in the information age. Other theatre highlights include the critically acclaimed Man or Bear,inspired by the viral question to shine a light on female survival in an increasingly dangerous world. Fringe legend Victoria Melody will join the festival for the first time with her crucial show about food poverty, Trouble Struggle Bubble and Squeakwhile Edinburgh stalwart James Rowland returns with Fringe hit Team Viking.
Frauke Requardt and Vivienne Franzmann’s offbeat Anatomy of Survivalbrings together 22 very different eyewitness accounts of a single everyday altercation, while Simone French’s celebrated solo show A Suffocating Choking Feelingdives into the toxic world of fake influencers.
Among the festival’s more unusual offerings is Bestie Award-winning Rosa Garland’s gorgeously gross Primal Bog,which uses lesbian slime wrestling and live tattooing in a journey into the desires we hide away. Vincent Gambini’s Close-Upoffers audiences an altogether different experience: a unique one-on-one participatory magic show.
Comedy highlights include Ollie Horn’s absurd cult hit The Most Toastand the return of comedy line-up show Dick’s Picks,showcasing big-name comedians alongside cult characters including Sam Eley as Basil Crumbwick and Katie Norris.
Croydon itself takes centrre stage in a major new film project premiering at this year’s festival. Richard DeDomenici’s Redux: Heads of Stateis an exclusive film commission from Croydonites which will see local participants recreate scenes from the high-octane action movie Heads of State, in the original Croydon locations used for filming. This will sit alongside a ‘Crollywood’ walking tour of famous Croydon film locations featured in Batman, The Da Vinci Code, Criminal, Black Mirrorand Taylor Swift’s Opalite.
The programme also includes showcases from the Croydonites’ commissioning pathways, designed to give local creatives the opportunity to develop an idea from its earliest stages. CroydonBites offers small commissions for local artists to test new ideas; selected projects can then receive further development through CroydonBuilds, before progressing to CroydonBeyond, which supports full-length work ready to reach audiences beyond the borough.
Anna Arthur, founder and director of The Croydonites Festival comments, 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 12thyear 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.
The festival was founded by Anna Arthur in 2015 after she recognised the lack of theatre and performance being presented in Croydon in comparison to London as a whole. She was joined by theatre maker Katie Hurley in 2021 and performance producer Sophie Eustace in 2023, making the team complete. Twelve years later, the Croydonites Festival has grown significantly in scale, presenting almost 150 artists and 270 shows to date while continuing to champion adventurous new work and creative talent from the borough.
Main image courtesy of Camilla Greenwell