Theatre Re_s The Nature of Forgetting Credit:- Johan Persson
By Grace Hatchell
Theatre Re will celebrate 10 years of The Nature of Forgetting with a major UK and international anniversary tour from October 2026 to March 2027, opening at Hackney Empire before visiting venues including Jersey Opera House, Curve Leicester, BEAM Hertford, Leeds Playhouse and Storyhouse Chester.
There are some shows that don’t simply return to the stage. They seem to come back carrying the weight of every audience they have touched along the way.
Theatre Re’s The Nature of Forgetting is one of those productions. Ten years after it first began its journey, the award-winning piece is preparing for a major UK and international anniversary tour, running from Thursday 8 October 2026 to Thursday 4 March 2027. The tour will open with a special London performance at Hackney Empire, which will also serve as the press night, before travelling across the UK and continuing the company’s wider international story.
It is a significant moment not only for the production, but for Theatre Re itself. The tour also coincides with the company’s 15th anniversary, marking a decade and a half of work rooted in visual theatre, original live music and non-verbal storytelling. Theatre Re has become known for creating work that reaches beyond language, finding ways to speak directly to shared human experience.
At the centre of The Nature of Forgetting is Tom, a man living with early-onset dementia. As he prepares for his 55th birthday party, memories begin to rise around him: school days, first love, his wedding, and the fragments of a life that still burn brightly even as memory itself begins to falter.
The production asks a question that feels both simple and deeply unsettling: what remains when memory begins to disappear?
It is not a question treated lightly. The Nature of Forgetting was developed in collaboration with neuroscience professor Kate Jeffery and the Alzheimer’s Society, grounding its emotional force in research as well as theatrical imagination. For audiences, it offers a portrait of memory loss that is not defined only by absence, but by movement, feeling, connection and the traces of a life still present beneath the surface.
Since its premiere in 2017, the production has travelled widely, with more than 200 performances in 17 countries. It has been seen in New York, Edinburgh, São Paulo, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Seoul, playing to sold-out theatres and receiving five-star praise along the way.
For this anniversary tour, Theatre Re will also work in collaboration with Dementia UK. Admiral Nurses will join post-show discussions at venues across the tour, offering audiences further insight into early-onset dementia and the realities of living with memory loss. Selected conversations will also include local neuroscientists, while the National Institute for Health and Care Research and Join Dementia Research will help raise awareness through hospitals, researchers and dementia groups.
That feels important. Theatre can move us in the moment, but sometimes its real power is in what happens afterwards: the conversation in the foyer, the quiet walk home, the sudden urge to understand something more fully.
Guillaume Pigé, Theatre Re’s founder and artistic director, has described the company’s original impulse as a desire to reveal something essential about being human. He explained that the “Re” in Theatre Re came from verbs such as rediscover, reinvent, reveal and remind — words that feel especially fitting for a show about memory, identity, care and human connection.
The UK tour begins at Hackney Empire on 8 October 2026, before visiting Jersey Opera House from 13 to 15 October, Curve Leicester on 9 and 10 November, and BEAM Hertford on 11 and 12 November. In spring 2027, the production will continue to Leeds Playhouse on 24 and 25 February, followed by Storyhouse Chester on 3 and 4 March.
Alongside the UK dates, Theatre Re will present the Korean production of The Nature of Forgetting in Seoul, with further US touring planned for 2027 and 2028. The company will also share its devising practice through open workshops and intensives across the UK, offering participants a closer look at the process behind its internationally acclaimed work.
The Nature of Forgetting runs at 75 minutes and is recommended for ages 8+. It is conceived and directed by Guillaume Pigé, with composition by Alex Judd, scientific collaboration from Professor Kate Jeffery, and a cast including Luna Tosin, Claudia Marciano, Calum Littley and Guillaume Pigé.
A decade on, this does not feel like a simple anniversary tour. It feels like the return of a piece that has already lived many lives in many places, and is still asking audiences to look closely at what makes us who we are.
Memory may fade. But theatre, at its best, has a way of helping something remain
Autumn Tour Dates
8th October 2026
Hackney Empire, 291 Mare Street, London E8 1EJ
13th–15th October 2026
Jersey Opera House, Gloucester Street, St Helier, Jersey JE2 3QR
9th–10th November 2026
Curve Leicester, Rutland Street, Leicester, LE1 1SB
11th–12th November 2026
BEAM Hertford, The Wash, Hertford, SG14 1PS
Training Intensive
19th–23rd October 2026
Shoreditch Town Hall, 380 Old Street, London EC1V 9LT
Spring Tour Dates
24th–25th February 2027
Leeds Playhouse, Playhouse Square, Quarry Hill, Leeds, LS2 7UP
On sale soon
3rd & 4th March 2027
Storyhouse, Hunter Street, Chester CH1 2AR
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