Tickets for Sir Ian McKellen’s new production Lear at the rebuilt Yard Theatre in Hackney Wick have sold out in less than 30 minutes, weeks before opening night.
The production is part of the opening season at the new venue, which reopened in July after a £6.7 million redevelopment. It is a new play created from Shakespeare’s classic tragedy and drawn from recorded conversations between the 87-year-old actor and the theatre’s founder and director, Jay Miller, who has co-written it with playwright Simon Stephens.
Film star Taylor Russell, announced last week, co-stars as Cordelia, King Lear’s youngest and favourite daughter. The play’s tag line is: “Ian McKellen has performed in King Lear 708 times — Never like this”. The work will riff on McKellen’s life and 65-year career, taking in “Endings. Refusing to stop. And what’s left when you do.”
Miller said the theatre is working with one of the greatest actors of an older generation and one of the most exciting of a newer one, calling Russell “intuitive, sensitive and completely compelling to watch on stage”. Stephens added that sitting in a church hall in east London while McKellen finds “the rage and beauty and humanity of Lear” has been an experience he will always treasure, asking: “How many artists ever made their boldest experiments in their 80s?”
The Yard itself is not new. It originally opened in 2011 in a temporary DIY warehouse space in Hackney Wick built from packing crates for around £9,000, before closing in May 2025 for the major redevelopment. The new permanent venue on the same site is part of a year-long opening-season programme, and the theatre’s Collections fund supports commissions and public events across Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, including work with V&A East and Sadler’s Wells East. Artist Antony Gormley has a permanent sculpture, Domain, on the roof of the new building.
The production runs from 17 November until 2 January 2027. The theatre is also prioritising educational access, with two school matinee performances on 9 and 16 December, with tickets starting from free, priority given to schools in Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest. Future productions include There’s Something About Adam Black by Troy Hunter and a new adaptation of Mrs Dalloway adapted by Holly Robinson.
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