Katie Balmforth

Dido and Aeneas

Longborough Festival Opera | July 2025

A monumental work in Baroque opera, sometimes called the first English operatic masterpiece. Based on Virgil’s Aeneid, the opera tells of love and tragedy between Dido, Queen of Carthage, and the Trojan hero Aeneas, and will close our 2025 season. 

This new production features one of the world’s leading baroque ensembles, Barokksolistene, and offering fresh and vibrant arrangements of Purcell’s score.

This version of Dido and Aeneas will be expanded into a full evening of entertainment, restoration-extravaganza style. Barroksolistene and Erlend Samnøen will unpack the emotions of key characters, weaving in additional tunes from the wider Purcell canon, along with folk ballads and sea-shanties to enrich the storytelling. After Dido's death and the exquisite choral lament "With Drooping Wings" there will be a rousing wake for the Queen of Carthage.

The Lightning Thief - The Percy Jackson Musical

UK Tour | August 2025

When New York City teenager Percy Jackson discovers that he is the half-blood son of the Greek god, Poseidon, his life takes a dramatic turn as he is plunged into a world much bigger than he could possibly have imagined.

With newly discovered powers he is unable to control, an unwanted destiny and a whole textbook’s worth of mythical monsters on his trail, Percy must learn what it means to be a hero.

The future of the world hangs in the balance as Percy and his friends embark on an epic adventure that will have you on the edge of your seat.

The Gathered Leaves

Park Theatre | August 2025

The Pennington family have not been in the same room for 17 years, yet on the eve of William’s 75th birthday all three generations gather in the hope that the mistakes of the past can be resigned to history.

An errant daughter, an autistic son, and a second son that could never just grasp the nettle; his children have always proved a disappointment to his lofty ambitions. With long-held resentments rising back to the surface, and new problems unexpectedly presenting themselves, any plans of family reconciliation may give way to further turmoil. But William knows he is running out of time to accept his family on their own terms – even if they cannot overlook his own shortcomings in return.

Emma

UK Tour | September 2025

The beautiful, high-spirited Emma Woodhouse is determined that she will never marry but loves to meddle in her friends’ and neighbours’ relationships. When her confidante and former governess, Miss Taylor weds her fiancé Mr Weston, Emma, having introduced the couple, takes credit for the marriage and decides that a future in matchmaking lies ahead of her.

So begins a comic journey through the lives and loves of Emma’s friends and neighbours,  embracing the burgeoning Regency social scene of Bath and Weymouth. But as the romantic web she weaves amongst her friends becomes ever more entangled, will Emma herself get swept up in true love’s wake…?