Emma Rice's campy stage version of the 1959 Hitchcock-directed film North by Northwest will make its North American premiere at San Diego's Old Globe in 2026, running July 3-August 2. Opening night will be July 9.
The production comes from the U.K.'s Wise Children (headed by Rice), which mounted the world premiere earlier this year at York's Theatre Royal, HOME Manchester, and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse. The project takes a cue from Patrick Barlow's campy take on The 39 Steps, another Hitchcock thriller that became a 2005 West End and Broadway play that features a small cast taking on a myriad of roles to comedic effect.
The original film, which stars Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, is regarded as one of Hitchcock's finest, following an innocent man as he's pursued cross-country in a case of mistaken identity that threatens to become deadly at any moment. The film is perhaps most famous for its Bernard Hermann score, and for scenes of Grant being chased by a small airplane in a cornfield and a climax that has the characters scurrying down the faces of Mount Rushmore, both of which have proved to be some of the most iconic visuals in cinematic history. The Old Globe run is a co-production with Emma Rice Company, Kay & McLean Productions, and Jonathan Church Theatre Productions, and produced by special arrangement with Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures and Kay & McLean Productions.
Also in the newly announced 2026 season for the company's Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage are a revival of August Wilson's Fences, to be directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg and run April 4-May 3, 2026, opening April 9; the San Diego premiere of Ins Choi's Kim's Convenience, directed by Weyni Mengesha and running May 15-June 14, 2026, opening May 21; and a new musical, to be announced and perform September 6-October 11, 2026, opening September 17.
In the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, the company will give a world premiere to one of its commissions, Bartleby from Fiasco Theater Company. Performances will run February 20-March 15, 2026, opening February 26. Noah Brody and Paul L. Coffey have adapted Melville's Bartleby, the Scrivener for the stage, bringing the spirit of TV's The Office and the absurdism of Samuel Beckett to the darkly comic tale of what happens when a mild-mannered employee refuses to go along with his work's wishes. Emily Young will direct.
Amy Berryman's Alien Girls will make its own world premiere in the same venue April 18-May 10, 2026, opening April 23 and directed by Jaki Bradley. The new work focuses on two women whose friendship is threatened when one's essay about her true feelings about the other's pregnancy goes viral.
The White Theatre season also includes the San Diego premiere of Tony Meneses' The Hombres, running May 30-June 21, 2026, and opening June 4, directed by James Vázquez; Jason O'Connell and Brenda Withers' version of Cyrano, running July 18-August 9, 2026, and opening July 23; and Suzan-Lori Parks' Topdog/Underdog, directed by Steve H. Broadnax III and performing September 25-October 18, 2026, and opening October 1.
The company's summer Shakespeare offerings in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre will include Measure for Measure, directed by Vivienne Benesch and performing June 14-July 12, 2026, opening June 20; and Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Barry Edelstein and performing August 2-30, 2026, opening August 8.
Season subscriptions are available at TheOldGlobe.org.
