PARTY SEASON - a new play by The Wardrobe Ensemble

PARTY SEASON – a new play by The Wardrobe Ensemble

Peter Anderson
April 1, 2026

Royal & Derngate, Northampton, The Wardrobe Ensemble and Lowry present

The Wardrobe Ensemble’s newest play. Party Season is a razor-sharp new comedy about privilege, party rings and the pressures of being a parent. It is a sugar-fuelled, bobbin-winding fever dream where class identities collide, social niceties unravel, and under-slept parents do their best to hold it all together when three children’s parties take place across one weekend.

Party Season will have its World Premiere in Northampton as part of the theatre’s Made in Northampton season ahead of a UK tour. It will run from Thursday 2nd to Saturday 11th April before touring to Oxford, Worthing, Salford and Bristol. The run in Northampton will include a relaxed performance, offering a welcoming environment for parents and carers with babes-in-arms and anyone who would benefit from a more informal theatre setting.

Party Season is co-directed by Royal & Derngate’s Artistic Director (and Wardrobe Ensemble founding member) Jesse Jones (Top Gs Like Me, Breaking the Code) and The Wardrobe Ensemble’s Helena Middleton (Mog’s Christmas, Royal & Derngate). The cast includes Wardrobe Ensemble members Tom England, Jesse Meadows and Ben Vardy (all seen most recently in Mog’s Christmas), James Newton (Moby Dick, Simple8 in association with Royal & Derngate), and Kerry Lovell (The Last of the Pelican Daughters, Royal & Derngate). Other cast members are Jacade Simpson (Get Up, Stand Up, West End) and Fowzia Madar (Henry V, Insane Root Theatre at Temple Church).

The Set and Costume Designer is Bronia Housman (The Wizard of Oz, Salisbury Playhouse), the Lighting Designer is Chris Swain (Kin, Gecko Theatre Company), the Sound Designer is Beth Duke (The Jolly Christmas Postman, Royal & Derngate), and Tom Brennan, another founding member of The Wardrobe Ensemble, is Dramaturg for the production.

Long-term collaborators with Royal & Derngate, the multi-award-winning creators of The Last of the Pelican Daughters and most recently, Mog’s Christmas are also celebrating their 15th anniversary this year. Founded in 2011 The Wardrobe Ensemble’s first production, RIOT at the National Theatre’s Shed was heralded as the dawn of a new age for British theatremaking.

Closely followed by 1972: The Future of Sex and Education, Education, Education which subsequently transferred to the West End, the collective of nine who devise all their work as a group quickly gained a name for their energetic and irreverent plays that dissect the twenty-first century experience. For tickets and further information about this run, please go to The Wardrobe Ensemble website.