After multiple delays and the construction of a completely new theatre, a stage adaptation of The Hunger Games is finally making its way to London’s boards.
If you’ve been waiting on tenterhooks to watch a bunch of teenagers murder each other onstage, you’re (alarmingly) in luck – Lionsgate, Runaway Entertainment and BOS Productions are teaming up to bring The Hunger Games to London’s theatre scene, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The adaptation, based on Suzanne Collins’ first book and the Lionsgate film, was originally set to open in 2016, before being shifted back to autumn 2024. Directed by Matthew Dunster (Ghost Story, The Pillowman) from a script by Conor McPherson (The Weir, Shining City), the show is now set to begin performances on the 20th October 2025 at the 1,200-seat Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre, which was specially built for the production. Tickets go on sale from 27th March.
A behind-the-scenes video released alongside the news includes actors fighting on the ground, up the walls and – even more improbably – in the sky, hence the inclusion of “flying director” John Maddox (nothing to do with a Flying Nun spinoff, unfortunately).
“Conor McPherson lifts the detail and power from the book and film and has provided us with the kind of taut and dangerous [we presume not literally] play he is renowned for,” Dunster said. “We’ve been workshopping the play for over a year with our world class creative team… We want our Hunger Games to be uniquely, thrillingly theatrical.”
This is far from the first blockbuster theatre production to take its inspiration from film and TV. The Phoenix Theatre’s rendition of Stranger Things: The First Shadow opened to rave reviews in 2023, while stage versions of Harry Potter, The Lion King, Back To The Future, Mrs Doubtfire, Clueless and The Devil Wears Prada are all currently taking bookings in the UK capital.
It’s also hardly the first time a blockbuster theatre event has made hefty use of wirework. In 2014, a production of Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark ended its two-and-a-half-year run as the biggest flop in Broadway history after six people were injured working on the production. So far, the Hunger Games production seems to be going a little more smoothly…
Suzanne Collins is set to publish a new Hunger Games book, Sunrise On The Reaping, on 18th March, with a film adaptation from Lionsgate following on 20th November 2026.
More on all of the above when we have it.
