The Uncrackable Case
By Grace Hatchell
Birmingham Rep has announced its Spring 2027 season and, goodness me, somebody has been busy.
There are world premieres, returning favourites, comedy, cabaret, family shows, adaptations and enough theatre to make my diary quietly request annual leave.
So rather than plucking out a couple of productions and pretending the rest aren’t there, I’ve gone through the new season one show at a time.
Get comfortable. We may be here a while.
NT Live: Golden Boy – 16 January
Josh O’Connor leads the cast in a revival of Clifford Odets’ American classic Golden Boy, directed by Sam Yates.
Set in Depression-era New York, the story follows Joe Bonaparte, a talented young violinist with a future in music until the prospect of fame and fortune draws him into professional boxing. Featuring a live string quartet, the production was filmed live at the Almeida Theatre for National Theatre Live.
Violinist becomes professional boxer. I have made some questionable career decisions myself
Fly, You Fools! – 20–23 January
Three actors and a Foley artist band together – in fellowship, naturally – to create a live, shot-for-shot parody of a particularly epic fantasy film.
Recent Cutbacks, the company behind Hold On To Your Butts, combines comedy, physical theatre and live Foley to prove that even a very small acting ensemble can tackle a very large adventure.
Four people recreating an epic fantasy film on stage. I admire their ambition and simultaneously fear for their props cupboard.
Chains – 4–20 February
The world premiere of Rem Conway’s Chains comes to The Door, directed by Birmingham Rep Deputy Artistic Director Madeleine Kludje.
Junior, a young man approaching fatherhood, wakes in a vast empty void chained to his estranged father, Norman. Father and son must confront painful memories and the conversations they have avoided as the chain binding them becomes a metaphor for something much deeper.
The production explores fatherhood, generational curses and the struggle to become your own man.
This sounds like powerful stuff, so I’m going to do something occasionally thought impossible and keep my cheeky remarks firmly inside the postbag.
The Littlest Yak – 17–18 February
The award-winning children’s book becomes a family musical featuring puppetry, catchy tunes and a story celebrating self-acceptance.
It’s suitable for all ages and promises a heart-warming reminder that you are pretty good just as you are.
A tiny yak with a positive message. Frankly, I’m already on its side.
An Evening Without Kate Bush – 19–20 February
First, some important information.
Kate Bush isn’t coming.
Thankfully that’s rather the point.
Sarah-Louise Young and Russell Lucas’s award-winning cult cabaret celebrates Kate’s music, fans and mythology, inviting audiences to howl with the Hounds of Love, dance on the moors with Wuthering Heights and release their inner Bush.
It takes considerable confidence to advertise somebody’s absence in the title.
Perhaps my next project should be An Evening Without Grace Hatchell. I wouldn’t even need to turn up.
Jack Dee – Jack’s Joke Show – 21 February
Jack Dee celebrates 40 years in stand-up comedy with a show about, well, jokes.
He’ll revisit favourite old stories, jokes and anecdotes that influenced him and helped shape his comedy career.
Best of all, Birmingham Rep makes an unusually magnificent promise: there will be no new material.
Finally, somebody has found a way of turning recycling into a selling point.
TAPE FACE: 20 – 19 March
TAPE FACE celebrates 20 years by returning to where the show’s worldwide journey began.
The Las Vegas headliner brings together physical comedy, mime and silent stand-up in the critically acclaimed show that started his international journey.
Twenty years of making people laugh without speaking.
As somebody who has met several people who could benefit enormously from trying this, I salute him.
The Elves and the Shoemaker – 2–4 April
In the nooks and crannies of an old shoemaker’s shop live some cheeky elves, surviving on the odds and ends left behind at the end of the day – shoelaces, scraps of leather and sandwich crumbs.
When sales start dwindling and the shop faces closure, the elves must join forces with the shoemaker to save their home.
The 50-minute family adventure features clowning, puppetry and a magical miniature world.
If you’re secretly living in somebody’s workplace and surviving on their sandwich crumbs, helping when the business gets into trouble seems only polite.
Crime and Punishment – 7–10 April
Northern Broadsides brings its bold and playful style to Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment.
A penniless student commits murder in cold blood before becoming trapped in a spiral of paranoia and delusion as a cunning detective closes in. Only the possibility of love appears to offer a way out.
Murder, paranoia and Dostoevsky.
Probably not the evening to bring somebody who keeps whispering, “Is this a comedy?”
Lost Voice Guy: The Cerebral Palsy Puppet – 8 April
Britain’s Got Talent winner Lost Voice Guy returns to the road after five years with a brand-new show.
Armed with his iPad and, according to the announcement, absolutely no filter, he turns his attention to talent shows, dating disasters, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Department for Work and Pensions’ hold music.
There is also mention of him suffering from being a Geordie.
Now, Theatre Village covers Newcastle.
Consequently I am declining to become involved in the Geordie allegation without legal representation.
The Uncrackable Case – 14–15 April
An egg is dead.
Was he pushed? Did he jump? Or was it simply a great fall?
Jill, a filmmaker with big dreams and a considerably bigger problem, is on trial for eggicide. B.B. Wolf is defending her, Little Red is out for blood and familiar fairy-tale faces collide with tabloid media and conspiracy theorists in a courtroom comedy, murder mystery and musical fever dream.
Hang on a minute.
I know this egg.
The Uncrackable Case isn’t entirely new territory for Theatre Village. We reviewed the show back at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2025, and now our old egg-based acquaintance has cracked its way into Birmingham Rep’s Spring 2027 season.
It’s always rather lovely seeing a production we encountered at the Fringe continuing its journey elsewhere.
Although in this particular case, “lovely” involves a dead egg, an eggicide trial and B.B. Wolf acting for the defence.
Welcome back. I’ve missed the madness. Find our previous review here
Codebreakers – The Story of Enigma – 17 April
Dr Mark Baldwin tells the fascinating story of the Allied codebreakers who deciphered the German Enigma machine during the Second World War.
Using a collection of slides, he’ll explore Bletchley Park’s codebreaking work, U-boats and major wartime developments. The two-part show is followed by questions and, particularly intriguingly, a hands-on demonstration involving one of the very few surviving Enigma machines.
An actual Enigma machine.
I wouldn’t be allowed within six feet of it.
Quite correctly.
What Wood Victoria Do? – 23–24 April
How have we survived modern life without Victoria Wood around to comment upon it?
What Wood Victoria Do? sees Paulus The Cabaret Geek considering what Victoria might have made of such modern phenomena as air fryers, The Repair Shop and K-Pop Demon Hunters.
There will also be friendship, loss, tea towels, village halls and mutual disapproval of next door’s extension.
What would Victoria Wood make of the air fryer?
Now that is the sort of serious cultural question our country needs answering.
Pulman and Stilgoe – Hooray for Hollywood – 24 April
Pulman and Stilgoe celebrate 100 years of movie musicals in one evening.
With two voices and one piano, the duo travels through songs associated with films including The Wizard of Oz, Singin’ in the Rain, West Side Story and Wicked, mixing comedy, romance and nostalgia along the way.
Two people, one piano and a century of movie musicals.
That poor piano is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Pip and Posy – 25 April
Based on the picture books by The Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler, Pip and Posy brings the best friends and their pals Mo and Jamila to the stage.
Their adventure takes them through tangled jungles, slimy swamps and eventually high above the clouds in a big red balloon, accompanied by songs, puppetry and interactive play.
There is also a Troll after the treasure.
Honestly, you cannot take a balloon anywhere these days.
Send In The Clowns: Nancies! – 28 April–1 May
And suddenly my article requires an 18+ certificate.
Send In The Clowns returns to Birmingham Rep with another filthy, outrageous and joyful drag revue celebrating musical theatre.
Fatt Butcher hosts a line-up including Dahliah Rivers, Blü Romantic and Alanna Boden, promising live vocals, comedy, cabaret, singalongs and some rather unofficial interpretations of famous musicals.
The announcement itself offers My Fair Theydy, Saddington, Bully Elliott and Sh*tty Sh*tty Bang Bang as examples of what’s coming.
I was going to add a joke here.
Then I read Sh*tty Sh*tty Bang Bang and realised my work had already been done for me.
Are You Even Indian? – 7–8 May
A British-born Indian woman and an Indian-born man fall in love.
Initially there are wedding dances, Bollywood jokes and plans for the future, but as their relationship develops, questions emerge about identity, language and belonging.
Which country is home? What language would their child speak? And who gets to decide what makes somebody truly Indian?
The production explores a relationship in which both characters find themselves having to prove their identities, not only to one another but within their community.
There are some big questions sitting underneath this love story.
I’ll leave the play to answer them.
Grimeboy – 8–22 May
Casey Bailey’s hit play returns to Birmingham Rep, directed by the venue’s Deputy Artistic Director Madeleine Kludje.
Its central character has a straightforward ambition that’s considerably harder to achieve: he wants to become the biggest Grime MC in the country.
But alongside raves, rivals and opportunities to shine come friendship and battles that can’t necessarily be settled with a microphone and some decks.
I briefly considered demonstrating my own grime abilities at this point.
Theatre Village’s editorial department has strongly advised against it.
Team Viking – 15 May
Ten years ago, James Rowland’s best friend Tom was diagnosed with heart cancer and given three months to live.
Tom had one final wish.
He wanted a full Viking burial.
So James gave him one.
Team Viking tells the remarkable story of how he actually managed to give his best friend the send-off he wanted, combining storytelling, music and comedy in an exploration of death, friendship and the beautiful absurdity of life.
Every so often you encounter a sentence in a theatre announcement that immediately makes you want to know the entire story.
“So James gave him a Viking burial” is definitely one of them.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar – 30 May
Finally, somebody’s hungry.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar has been appearing on stages around the world for more than 12 years, bringing Eric Carle’s much-loved stories to life.
The production features more than 75 puppets – including, naturally, one particularly peckish caterpillar – and combines four Eric Carle stories with storytellers and original music.
Seventy-five puppets.
I sincerely hope somebody at Birmingham Rep has a very comprehensive labelling system.
And breathe.
Those newly announced productions join an already substantial programme at Birmingham Rep, including the world premiere of a new production of The Snowman, Peter Pan and The Ugly Duckling over the winter, followed by the return of A Thousand Splendid Suns and James Graham’s Olivier Award-winning Punch in early 2027.
By my reckoning, I’ve travelled from Depression-era New York to a shoe shop inhabited by elves, investigated the suspicious death of an egg, encountered an Enigma machine, contemplated Victoria Wood’s opinion of air fryers and attended a Viking funeral.
And I haven’t even left Birmingham.
I’m going to need a larger satchel
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