Inspired new festivals, thrilling stage debuts, epic concerts and contemporary exhibitions galore – there’s another exciting cultural year ahead in South Bank! Here’s our guide to 2025's biggest highlights.
2025 marks the final season of the National Theatre’s director Rufus Norris who hands over the reigns to new head Indhu Rubasingham. For his final year at the iconic theatre Norris has brought together a superb programme of old and new favourites including the return of recent NT hits Dear England and Nye, plus a slew of exciting London debuts.
Bush Theatre Artistic Director Lynette Linton (Blues for an Alabama Sky, Shifters) directs the first revival in 40 years of Guyana-born British writer Michael Abbensetts’ era-defining comedy. Set over the course of 24 hours at a tailor shop in 1970s London, the play follows the ambitious Walker Holt who is battling tirelessly to complete his new client’s impossible needs. At the Lyttelton Theatre at National Theatre from 20 Feb–5 Apr.
The Olivier Award-winning smash hit is back in a newly updated version. Following the story of Gareth Southgate's leadership as manager of the England football team, writer James Graham's play follows the team's trials and triumphs with this updated version picking up England's ultimately unsuccessful but nevertheless thrilling run in the 2023 Euros. At the Olivier Theatre at National Theatre from 10 Mar - 24 May.
Spring starts at The Old Vic with a new play by the Olivier Award-winning writer and director Conor McPherson (The Weir, Girl from the North Country) making its world premiere. Described as “an entrancing tale of fate, family and unseen forces in 1980s Ireland” the play centres around brother and sister Stephen and Billie and life in their decaying farmhouse. The brilliant cast boasts some major names including Chris O’Dowd, Rosie Sheehy and Brian Gleeson. Showing at The Old Vic from 10 Apr–14 Jun.
The late Stephen Sondheim’s final musical debuted in New York in 2023 and now makes its European premiere at the National Theatre. Inspired by two iconic Luis Buñuel films, Here We Are is a witty comedy set over brunch that’s been described by the NY Times as "breathtakingly chic". At the Lyttelton Theatre at National Theatre from 23 Apr–28 Jun.
First staged at the National in 2011, this unique verbatim musical work is based on the story of how the London Road community in Ipswich grappled with the discovery and subsequent trial of a serial murderer on their street. Rufus Norris returns as director for this exciting return of a powerful, multi-award winning show. Showing at Olivier Theatre at National Theatre from 6–21 June.
Get in line to see this brand-new work from writer Suzie Miller and director Justin Martin, the same team behind the critically acclaimed Prima Facie. Rosamund Pike makes her National Theatre debut as an eminent High Court Judge forced to reckon her professional life and role as wife, mother, friend and feminist. Scheduled for the summer, tickets and dates are expected to be announced in early 2025.
Rounding out the year, and Rufus Norris's decade as director at the theatre, is the suitably titled play End by David Eldridge. Yet another world premiere, Eldridge's latest work is the concluding part of a trilogy explore the nature of love and relationships (the other plays in the series are Beginning and Middle) that was commissioned by Rufus Norris. Scheduled to play on the Dorman stage from November.
This year’s festival lineup sees some of the city’s most festivals such as the London Film Festival, London Literature Festival and the EFG London Jazz Festival returning to South Bank once again, while there are some exciting new festivals to look forward to too.
The epic new Multitudes festival at Southbank Centre is a cross-disciplinary festival powered by classical music. Multitudes brings together leading visual artists, poets and choreographers with some of the finest orchestras in the UK to create unique collaborations. Collaborators taking part include William Kentridge, Kiril Serebrinnikov, Circa, Mickalene Thomas, Huang Ruo and George the Poet. At Southbank Centre from Wed 23 Apr – Sat 3 May.
Also new for 2025 is the London Soundtrack Festival, a brand new festival celebrating the musical scores from iconic films, and the composers who created them. The festival lineup includes talks, performances and major film screenings with composers and directors including David Cronenberg, Howard Shore and Hildur Guðnadóttir. Takes place at Southbank Centre, BFI Southbank and the BFI IMAX from 19–26 Mar.
Southbank Centre’s Meltdown Festival is always one of the biggest highlights of the summer, much-loved and admired for its consistent star-power (recent artist-curators have included Chaka Khan, Christine and the Queens and Grace Jones) and eclectic musical line-up. Taking place across 11-days in mid-June, this year’s curator is expected to be announced in late January, while tickets are expected to go on sale in March with Southbank Centre members getting first dibs.
There’s a year full of dazzling colour and verve coming up at the Hayward with four major exhibitions on the way, including two major touring shows and a brand-new 21st Century retrospective.
Showing simultaneously with Mickalene Thomas’s All About Love (see below), this retrospective of the work of the pioneering feminist artist Linder Sterling (more commonly known as Linder), looks all the way back to the 1970s and up to the present day presenting the breadth of Linder’s artistic output across montage, photography, performance and sculpture. At the Hayward Gallery from 11 Feb–5 May.
Co-organized by the Hayward Gallery and The Broad, in partnership with the Barnes Foundation, this international touring exhibition comes to London fresh from showing in Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Featuring Thomas’s ravishing paintings, photographs, collages and installations, this glittering, rhinestone-encrusted exhibition transforms the concrete brutalism of the Hayward Gallery with brightly coloured bespoke wallpapers, textiles and furnishings nostalgically evoking the artist’s 1970s childhood. At the Hayward Gallery from 11 Feb–5 May.
An expanded version of the recent touring exhibition from the Guggenheim, Bilbao, and Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden. This is set to be the largest European retrospective of one of Japan’s most celebrated artists, featuring more than 150 works in drawing, printmaking, painting, sculpture, installation and ceramics. At the Hayward Gallery from 10 Jun–31 Aug.
Touted by many prominent art critics as one of 2025 biggest highlights, this epic exhibition showcases Gilbert & George’s artistic journey, highlighting new pictures created since the start of the millennium. Arch satirists and embracers of the taboo, the pair have taken aim at hope, fear, sex, religion and all things in between across the past 25 years making this a brave and bold exhibition that is guaranteed to be provocative. At the Hayward Gallery 7 Oct–4 Jan 2026.
The BFI Southbank's 2024 lineup of special screenings and themed seasons is as eclectic as ever. Among the year's highlights are seasons dedicated to the director Chantal Akerman (Feb-Mar), Bong Joon Ho (April), Michael Haneke (June) and Ridley Scott (Sep-Oct), while actors in the spotlight include Sidney Poitier (Jan) and Sophia Loren (Aug).
Fans of celluloid should save the date for the BFI Film on Film festival which returns from 12–15 June with a host of special 16mm, 35mm and 70mm film screenings.
Over at the BFI IMAX, 2025's biggest IMAX films include Mission Impossible 8, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Superman and Jurassic World: Rebirth.
