What’s In Grace’s Satchel? A Heroic Jog Around Drury Lane…
Morning villagers,
Now you know our little corner of the internet isn’t just a noticeboard nailed to a post. Theatre Village is a proper village. We’ve got the busy high street (that’s the homepage), the cosy pub (the comment section), the mysterious back alley where rumours live (my satchel), and right in the middle… the village square. And whenever something unusual happens in theatreland, it tends to arrive there first, usually carried by a slightly out-of-breath postwoman.
Well this week, I nearly dropped the satchel entirely because a scroll came in stamped with lightning bolts and sandal prints.
Disney’s Hercules is hosting a Toga Run.
Yes. A run. In a toga.
I checked twice in case it was addressed to Ancient Greece.
On Sunday 22 March 2026 at 9am, heroes of all athletic abilities are invited to gather at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, warm up like proper demigods, and then set off on a 5km run starting and finishing at the theatre. You bring your trainers, you fashion a DIY toga over them, and you attempt dignity while jogging past confused Londoners.
I’m imagining commuters trying to work out why Covent Garden suddenly looks like a PE lesson run by Zeus.
The whole event is in support of Make-A-Wish Foundation® UK, Disney’s long-standing charity partner, helping grant life-changing wishes for children living with critical illness. So while it is gloriously daft in appearance, it’s actually a very kind-hearted piece of theatre silliness. Theatre, after all, has always loved a costume. Now the audience gets one too.
Participants will begin with a warm-up at the theatre, then go the distance around the route before returning to Drury Lane, where runners will receive surprise giveaways, Hercules merchandise, and an exclusive finisher’s medallion. I do not run unless chased by a loose goose, but even I am tempted by a medallion. I collect theatre things like a dragon collects treasure, except mine smells faintly of programmes and ice cream.
The registration fee is £10 and is donated to the charity, and runners will be given a fundraising page to support their own efforts.
If you do attend, I ask only one thing. Please run heroically. No light jogging. You must look like you’re escaping from Hades.
About the show itself
Hercules opened at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in June 2025 and is currently booking until 5 September 2026. The musical features music by Alan Menken, lyrics by David Zippel and a book by Robert Horn and Kwame Kwei-Armah, directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw. Inspired by the 1997 animated film, it has already been nominated for three WhatsOnStage Awards including Best New Musical.
Performances run Monday to Saturday at 7:30pm, with Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2:30pm. Tickets start from £29.50, with group and education rates available.
Grace’s Village Thoughts
This is the sort of thing I love telling you about. Theatre isn’t only what happens on a stage. Sometimes it spills outside the building, into the streets, into the morning air, and occasionally into a pack of adults wearing bedsheets before breakfast.
And that is very Theatre Village.
Because our village isn’t only made of critics or PR people or audiences. It’s made of companies celebrating being noticed, readers discovering shows they’d never heard of, and occasionally someone jogging past a taxi driver dressed as a Greek hero while raising money for a good cause. Theatre connects strangers quicker than small talk ever could.
I suspect if you stand near Drury Lane that morning you’ll see the truest thing about theatre: it’s not just watched. It’s shared.
If any of you villagers go, write to me. I want reports. I especially want to know whether anyone attempts a heroic sprint up the final stretch or whether dignity collapses at kilometre three.
I’ll be the one cheering from a safe distance, holding a cup of tea, providing emotional support to the runners and practical support to the nearest bakery.
Yours in sandals (emotionally, not physically),
Participants can register for the Toga Run online via: https://events.hakuapp.com/d10c5884986eec9ec73a
Grace Hatchell
2nd Act Couriers
Keeper of the Satchel
About the Author
