John Partridge Silence of the Lambs UK tour 2026

John Partridge Is Playing Hannibal Lecter and the UK Tour Starts This August

The EastEnders and Everybody's Talking About Jamie star will don the iconic mask when The Silence of the Lambs makes its world stage premiere at Leicester's Curve Theatre.

John Partridge has been cast as Dr Hannibal Lecter in the first ever stage adaptation of The Silence of the Lambs, opening at Curve Theatre in Leicester on 1 August 2026. Partridge, whose theatre work ranges from the original UK tour of CATS to La Cage Aux Folles and Everybody's Talking About Jamie, spoke to Flicker last year during his run in The Code at Southwark Playhouse Elephant about queer visibility, Billy Haines, and what it still costs to live openly in the entertainment industry.

Lecter is a different kind of challenge entirely.

The production comes from Indigo Productions and Crossroads Live in association with Curve, produced by James Lane and Ed McGovern. The adaptation is written by Gina Gionfriddo, who wrote for Law and Order and House of Cards, and is directed by Nikolai Foster, Artistic Director of Curve. Gionfriddo's version stays close to the psychological tension of Thomas Harris's novel: FBI trainee Clarice Starling, sent to interview the imprisoned psychiatrist Lecter, hoping his mind will help catch a killer still at large.

Producers have been upfront about what audiences are walking into. Content warnings cover psychological intensity, threat, violence, strong language, and onstage prosthetic human remains. Age guidance is 15 and above.

Foster has already spoken about working with Partridge on the role, calling his instincts sharp and his appetite for the material exactly right. Partridge has said that taking on a character whose name alone makes people stop is the kind of thing an actor does not turn down. Full creative team and remaining cast are still to be announced.

The tour opens at Curve, Leicester from 1 to 15 August, then moves through Newcastle, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Milton Keynes, Salford, Bradford, Oxford, Peterborough, Hull, Belfast, Dublin, Birmingham, Blackpool, Eastbourne, Malvern, Swansea, Chester, Brighton, Tunbridge Wells, York, Coventry, Cheltenham, Bournemouth, Wolverhampton, Cardiff, Buxton, Woking, Liverpool and Sunderland. Further venues still to be confirmed.

London audiences will have to wait a little longer. Richmond Theatre dates run 5 to 10 April 2027.

Tickets and full listings at silenceofthelambsplay.com.