Dear Octopus
by Dodie Smith
Booking and details
Tue and Thu selected performances at 6.30pm
The family, from whose tentacles we can never quite escape
When a golden wedding anniversary reunites the Randolph family on the eve of WWII, Dora and Charles must reckon with the adults their children have become. Their children, meanwhile, are haunted by the memory of the family they once were.
As the weekend’s celebrations unfold, the family walks a tightrope between intimacy and estrangement, camaraderie and rivalry, love and hate.
Heartbreaking and joyful, this captivating revival of Dodie Smith’s (I Capture the Castle) play is a moving dissection of family and what it means to grow up and return home.
Lindsay Duncan (Hansard) plays Dora in this beautiful, contemporary production, directed by Emily Burns (Jack Absolute Flies Again).
Cast includes
Lindsay Duncan
Dora
Lindsay Duncan
Malcolm Sinclair
Charles
Malcolm Sinclair
Production team
Director
Emily Burns
Emily Burns
Set and Costume Designer
Frankie Bradshaw
Frankie Bradshaw
For the National: Blues for an Alabama Sky and Shakespeare for young audiences: Hamlet
Lighting Designer
Oliver Fenwick
Oliver Fenwick
For the National: The Father and the Assassin, Kerry Jackson, Tartuffe, The Great Wave, Ugly Lies the Bone, The Motherf*cker with the Hat, The Holy Rosenbergs and Happy Now
Sound Designer
Tingying Dong
Tingying Dong
Tingying Dong grew up in Beijing and studied in the Netherlands before moving to the UK. She trained at LAMDA and is a sound designer, composer and theatre-maker.
Composer
Nico Muhly
Nico Muhly
Casting Director
Bryony Jarvis-Taylor
Bryony Jarvis-Taylor
Company Voice Work
Company Voice Work
Liz Flint
Liz Flint
Staff Director
Júlia Levai
Júlia Levai
Ticket prices
Monday – Thursday evenings and all matinees:
£20, £36, £46, £66, £86, £96
Friday & Saturday evenings:
£20, £39, £49, £69, £89, £99
Previews 7 – 12 February:
£20, £30, £36, £46, £56, £76
For concessions and discounts, see Ways to save
Please note the 6.30pm start time on the following performances: Tue 20 Feb, Thu 29 Feb, Tue 5 Mar and Thu 14 Mar.
Visit our Ticketing FAQs for information on how to book, ticket exchanges and more.
Prices may change according to demand
What's on Guide
Assisted performances
Captioned
BSL Interpreted
Audio described
Chilled performance
No Dementia-friendly performances available.
No Sensory adapted performances available.
The signer for the BSL performance will be announced closer to the performance date.
Audio-described performances are preceded by a Touch Tour, 90 minutes before the performance start time. Call the Access line on 020 7452 3961 to book Touch Tours.
We have an allocation of tickets held for members of our Access scheme and if any of the Access performances above are shown as “Sold Out”, tickets may still be available: Please log in to your account to access them, or call Box Office on 020 7452 3961
Smart caption glasses
Are planned to be available for performances of Dear Octopus from 7.30pm, Wednesday 21 February.
Photography (Lindsay Duncan) by Kelvin Murray.