Ian McKellen’s new show at The Yard Theatre in Hackney Wick sold out its first run in less than 30 minutes, the theatre says, and seven extra performances have been added over Christmas and New Year. General sale for the new dates opened at noon on Thursday 5 November, after two days of presales for Yard members.
Lear runs from Tuesday 17 November 2026 to Saturday 2 January 2027, with previews to 30 November and a press night on Tuesday 1 December. It is a new play by Simon Stephens and Jay Miller, the Yard’s founder and artistic director, who also directs. The Yard says it is built from Shakespeare’s text and from conversations McKellen and Miller recorded while making it. The theatre’s line on the show is that McKellen has performed in King Lear 708 times, “None of them like this.”
Taylor Russell, who made her London stage debut in The Effect at the National Theatre, joined the cast as Cordelia on 29 October. “We are working with one of the greatest actors of an older generation, and we have the privilege of also working with one of the most exciting of a newer one,” Miller said, the Hackney Gazette reported.
McKellen’s return to the stage
McKellen, 87, last played Lear at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2017, in a production that later moved to the West End. In 2024 he fell off the stage of the Noël Coward Theatre during Player Kings, and Time Out describes Lear as his first time on stage since.
The Yard lists the running time as about 1 hour 10 minutes with no interval, subject to change because the show is still being made, and recommends it for ages 16 and over.
The added dates
- Saturday 12 December, 2.30pm
- Thursday 24 December (Christmas Eve), 12.30pm and 4.30pm
- Saturday 26 December (Boxing Day), 2.30pm and 7.30pm
- Thursday 31 December (New Year’s Eve), 7.30pm
- Friday 1 January, 7.30pm
Time Out put the new allocation at around 1,500 tickets. A captioned performance is on Thursday 10 December at 7.30pm and a BSL-interpreted performance on Wednesday 16 December at 7.30pm.
Tickets and how to get in
Tickets cost £12.50 to £92.50, including a £2.50 booking fee, and are limited to two per customer. Four “Legend” seats from £150 are held for every performance. The Yard says it is the only place a Lear ticket can be bought or resold, and tickets bought elsewhere will not be valid.
Returns are released in batches to the theatre’s newsletter and come back into the system up to the day of a show. People aged 27 and under can buy £5 tickets on the door, through the No Empty Seats scheme, for any performance that has not sold out; they need to arrive 45 minutes before the start with ID.
Two schools matinees, on 9 and 16 December, give priority to secondary schools in Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest, with tickets from free.
The new Yard
The Yard opened in 2011 in a warehouse in Hackney Wick, fitted out with packing crates for around £9,000, according to the Hackney Gazette. It closed in May 2025 and reopened on the same site in July in a £6.7m building designed by Takero Shimazaki Architects, with a 220-seat auditorium, more than double the size of the old theatre, WhatsOnStage reported. A sculpture by Antony Gormley, Domain, sits on the roof.
The essentials
- What: Lear, with Ian McKellen and Taylor Russell
- Where: The Yard Theatre, Queen’s Yard, White Post Lane, Hackney Wick, London E9 5EN; nearest station Hackney Wick
- When: 17 November 2026 to 2 January 2027; press night 1 December
- Price: £12.50 to £92.50 including booking fee; £5 on the door for under-27s when seats are left
- Box office: 020 3606 0164, Monday to Friday, 10am to 5.30pm