York to Mull: The Last Picture UK Tour 2026. A Story of Empathy Across Time

Grace Hatchell’s Delivery: The Last Picture – A New Play Touring the UK

Well loves, I’ve just slipped another exciting package into my satchel – and this one’s marked fragile: handle with care. It’s called The Last Picture, a brand-new play by Catherine Dyson, and it’s heading out on tour in 2026 with English Touring Theatre, York Theatre Royal and An Tobar and Mull Theatre.

The Last Picture is set to open at York Theatre Royal on 6 February 2026 (with previews from the 5th) and runs until Valentine’s Day – perfect timing if you fancy swapping roses for riveting theatre. After York, the tour heads off across the country, calling at HOME Manchester, Bristol Old Vic, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, and finally reaching An Tobar and Mull Theatre – with extra stops in village halls on Mull and Iona. That’s what I call delivering straight to the community.

So what’s in the envelope? The Last Picture is a moving, imaginative piece about empathy, memory, and what ties us together across time. We follow a group of Year 9s (plus Sam, their emotional support dog – paws up for that casting!) on a school trip in 2026, but soon the line between present and past blurs and we’re whisked into Europe in 1939. It’s history, humanity, and heartache, all framed through Catherine Dyson’s poetic pen.

Dyson herself puts it simply: this play asks us to come together – to listen, to witness, to care. Director John R. Wilkinson (fresh from his award-winning Mugabe, My Dad and Me) describes it as “precise, poetic, and deeply resonant,” guiding us through classrooms, museums, and the big moments when history takes a turn.

And my word, the theatres are buzzing: Richard Twyman and Sophie Scull at ETT call it “moving and innovative,” York Theatre Royal’s Paul Crewes says it “challenges us to think differently,” and An Tobar and Mull’s Rebecca Atkinson-Lord calls it “generous, haunting, and full of hope.”

So there you are – one for the diary, stamped and sealed.

The Last Picture by Catherine Dyson
Directed by John R. Wilkinson
Touring UK – February to March 2026

• York Theatre Royal: 5–14 Feb
• HOME Manchester: 18–21 Feb
• Bristol Old Vic: 24–28 Feb
• Yvonne Arnaud Theatre: 5–7 Mar
• Mull Theatre: 11–12 Mar
• Bunessan Village Hall: 13 Mar
• Iona Village Hall: 14 Mar

Keep your eyes peeled and your tickets booked – because when a play promises empathy, imagination and even a dog called Sam, you know it’s first-class theatre mail.

LISTINGS       THE LAST PICTURE
York Theatre Royal

5 February – 14 February
Press performance: Friday 6 February 2026 at 7:45pm
Box Office: https://www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk / 01904 623568 

HOME, Manchester
18 – 21 February 2026

Box Office: www.homemcr.org / 0161 200 1500

Bristol Old Vic, Bristol
24 – 28 February 2026
Box Office:www.bristololdvic.org.uk / 0117 987 7877

Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford
5 – 7 March 2026

Box Office: www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk / 01483 440000

An Tobar and Mull Theatre

Mull Theatre – 11 and 12 March 2026

Bunessan Village Hall – 13 March 2026

Iona Village Hall, Isle of Iona – 14 March 2026
Box Office: www.antobarandmulltheatre.co.uk / 01688 302211

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Who Is Andrew “The Guvnor” of Theatre Village? (As delivered by Grace Hatchell, 2nd Act Couriers, First Class & Slightly Nosy Service) Now then… if you’ve spent any time wandering through Theatre Village, you’ll have felt it. That hum. That buzz. That sense that somewhere, behind the curtain, someone’s pulling the strings, brewing the tea, and making sure the spotlight actually turns on. That, my lovely lot, would be Andrew. Or as I’ve taken to calling him… The Guvnor. I

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