Preview: Production images from A Midsummer Night’s Dream UK tour heading to Oxford

Pioneering theatre company Headlong has released production images for the UK tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream coming to Oxford Playhouse (a Headlong Associate Partner venue) from 24 to 28 March 2026..

A co-production with Shakespeare’s Globe, alongside Bristol Old Vic and Leeds Playhouse, the production is playing at Leeds Playhouse until 28 February and will continue its tour at Bristol Old Vic (4–21 March 2026) before heading to Oxford.

Directed by Headlong’s Artistic Director Holly Race Roughan and co-directed by Naeem Hayat, the new staging reimagines Shakespeare’s classic through the company’s signature approach of treating canonical works as if they were newly written, encouraging audiences to see familiar stories afresh.

The cast features Hedydd Dylan as Hippolyta / Titania (The Comedy of Errors – RSC, The Merry Wives of Windsor – Globe), Dannie Harris (A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Antic Disposition, Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of)) as Ensemble / Cover, Jack Humphrey in his professional debut as Quince / Egeus, Lou Jackson in his professional debut as Demetrius / Cobweb, Pria Kalsi (The Last Quiz Night on Earth, Oxford Girls) as Flute / Child, Danny Kirrane (Skins, Jerusalem) as Bottom,

The cast also includes Tiwa Lade (My Father’s Fable, Great Expectations) as Hermia / Mustardseed, Ben Lynn as Ensemble / Cover, Michael Marcus (The Invention of Love, Who Killed My Father) as Theseus / Oberon, David Olaniregun (Romeo and Juliet – Globe, Andor) as Lysander / Moth, Tara Tijani (The Merry Wives of Windsor, School for Scandal – RSC) as Helena / Peaseblossom, and Sergo Vares (The New Real – RSC/Headlong, People, Places & Things) as Puck.

Designed by Max Johns, with lighting by Joshie Harriette and composition and sound design by Nicola T Chang, the production unfolds in a wintry landscape where four young lovers flee a tyrannical society for a forest thrown into chaos by a battle between Oberon and Titania. As jealousy, magic and manipulation take hold, the line between dream and nightmare begins to blur.

The UK tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream follows on from a season of work marking 50 years of Headlong in 2024/25, including UK tours of Laura Lomas’s new work The House Party and the classic A Raisin in the Sun. Artistic Director Holly Race Roughan also directed the Royal Shakespeare Company’s world premiere of David Edgar’s (Nicholas Nickleby, Pentecost, Maydays) major new political play The New Real produced in association with Headlong at the RSC’s The Other Place. Headlong’s highly acclaimed co-production with the National Theatre, People, Places & Things also returned to the West End in 2024, starring Denise Gough.