Grimeborn 2025: The first staging of John Joubert's Jane Eyre alongside Tristan, Lucia, Don Giovanni & more

The Grimeborn Festival returns to Arcola Theatre from 16 July to 13 September 2025 for a season which includes fresh versions of classics such as Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Mozart's Don Giovanni as well as a the first full staging of John Joubert's late masterwork, Jane Eyre.

Arcola Theatre and Green Opera are collaborating on the first complete staging of John Joubert's Jane Eyre. John Joubert (1927-2019) worked on Jane Eyre from 1987 to 1997 but the work never had a proper professional performance and remained one of those tantalising possibilities. Kenneth Woods and the English Symphony Orchestra gave the work its professional premiere in October 2016 in Birmingham, and the resulting live recording was released on the SOMM label in March 2017 [see my review] to coincide with Joubert’s 90th birthday. Now Eleanor Burke directs the work's first full staging, with Laura Mekhail as Jane and Hector Bloggs as Rochester.

Regents Opera, fresh from their triumphant Ring Cycle earlier this year, present an intimate take on Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in a new chamber arrangement of the score, created by musical director Michael Thrift. Guido Martin-Brandis directs with Brian Smith Walters as Tristan, Elizabeth Findon and Becca Marriott sharing Isolde. Brandis directed Regents Opera's predecessor, Fulham Opera's impressive staging of Strauss' Die ägyptische Helena in 2021 also with Brian Smith Walters, see my review. 

Ensemble OrQuesta and Marcio da Silva return to Mozart with a stripped down version of Don Giovanni with the orchestral accompaniment by the Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra Ensemble, plus Oshri Segev, Flávio Lauria, Helen May, Rosemary Carlton-Willis, Anna-Luise Wagner, and John Twitchen. See my review of their production of Le nozze di Figaro at last year's Grimeborn Festival

Another returning company is Barefoot Opera who bring Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor in a production blending storytelling and physical theatre, directed by Rosie Kat with Beren Fidan as Lucia. Other productions include Green Opera in Testament, a journey through four centuries of vocal music explores humanity’s evolving relationship with nature. Baseless Fabric reinvent Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore for today's social media savvy world, whilst Prologue Opera present Becoming Tosca an evening that explores Puccini's opera and its background, setting the story in context, combining newly commissioned music with an abridged version of Puccini’s score. And Neal Hampton's musical version of Sense & Sensibility returns after last year's sold-out run.

Full details from Arcola Theatre's website.