Opening the year is Love Letters (3–13 March), A.R. Gurney's Pulitzer Prize finalist. Every performance, two different actors read the correspondence of Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner across fifty years, from a childhood birthday party to old age. It's a love story told entirely in what gets written down, and everything left unsaid between the lines.
July brings The Weekend (1–10 July), Michael Palin's first stage play and proof he's got range well beyond Monty Python. Retired and comfortable, Stephen Febble's quiet life gets upended when his family descends for a visit, daughter, hapless son-in-law, teenage granddaughter and an incontinent dog included. What follows is domestic warfare fought over Scrabble tiles and cheese straws, with a dinner party that spirals magnificently out of control. Sharp, funny and surprisingly moving.
Closing the year is a world premiere: Shaving Ewe (4–13 November), from James Carrick, the writer behind Phoenix's smash hit Call Girls. Set in the rural pub town of Chipton Valley, it follows two local shearers who shear their way into the World Championship final, and somehow talk the town into hosting it. Add a gambling-addicted federation boss, a cocky Australian rival, and a barmaid desperate to leave town, and you've got a true Kiwi comedy with sheep, rivalry and language you'll only hear in the woolshed.
Phoenix Theatre chair Helen Topliss says the season reflects promising growth:
"Off the back of our brilliant productions over the last few years, due to demand, we're thrilled to now be staging three productions in 2027 that cover the beautifully rich Pulitzer nominated script of A.R. Gurney, the brilliantly English comedy of Michael Palin and a true Kiwi classic from our own James Carrick."
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