'Inspiring and necessary' new play at Glasgow theatre to tell story of Kenmure Street raids

The new season for the theatre, which reopened to the public last September after a £30 million refurbishment and seven year closure, will also include a 30th anniversary production of Ayub Khan Din’s play East is East, which became a hit film.

The Singer, which features songs and lyrics by Grammy Award-nominated Ms Tunstall and a book by Cora Bissett, follows Joe, a deaf artist who “sings” with his hands, and Andy, a washed-up musician hungry for a comeback.

Meanwhile, Company of Wolves and Bijli, one of the Citizens Theatre’s Associate Companies, team up with Rupture Productions to present These Are Our Neighbours. Fusing documentary theatre with celebratory dance, the play revisits the 2021 Kenmure Street Home Office raid, when an entire community came together in an eight-hour act of resistance to protect two people from deportation.

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Rupture Productions, which received a Creative Scotland grant for the project, described These are Our Neighbours as an “inspiring and necessary” new play.

The play follows the success of film Everybody to Kenmure Street, which opened the Glasgow Film Festival and was also shown at the Sundance festival.

National Theatre of Scotland play The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and a new adaptation of George Orwell’s masterpiece 1984, which have already been announced, will also make up the new season’s programming. Othello, meanwhile, continues the Citizens Theatre’s commitment to presenting large ensemble, classic works with a contemporary edge.

East is East will be directed by Arshad Kash, who first set foot on a professional stage at the Citizens after studying in Glasgow.

The start of the autumn season will mark one year since the theatre’s landmark reopening in August 2025 following the theatre’s major redevelopment. The Gorbals playhouse has already welcomed over 70,000 visitors in its first eight months of operation. It has also taken its work on the road across the UK, with Dominic Hill’s production of Waiting for Godot currently being performed at the Octagon Theatre in Bolton, following a transfer to Liverpool Everyman after its Glasgow premiere.

Mr Hill, artistic director of the Citizens Theatre, said: “Marking a year since we reopened our doors, the Autumn Season feels both like a celebration and a clear statement of intent for the Citizens Theatre. We’ve brought together work that speaks to the world as it is now - complex and questioning - alongside stories audiences may know and love, reimagined in fresh and surprising ways.

"It’s been joyous to welcome audiences back and rediscover that shared experience of live theatre in our much-loved main auditorium as well as our exciting new studio theatre. This season builds on that momentum - opening our stages to a wide range of voices, championing artists, and creating space for stories that spark conversation, challenge perspectives and bring people together.”

Tickets for the new season will go on sale on 29 April.