Matthew Bourne's queer auto-erotic thriller The Car Man returns to Sadler's Wells

Matthew Bourne's queer auto-erotic thriller The Car Man returns to Sadler's Wells this summer

Matthew Bourne created The Car Man in 2000 and it has not lost its edge. A polysexual noir set in a 1950s Midwestern garage, with male desire at the centre and the New Adventures company at full throttle.

The Car Man began as a deliberate act of queering. Taking Bizet's Carmen and mashing it with the noir mechanics of The Postman Always Rings Twice, Bourne set the whole thing in a grubby Midwestern garage-diner called Harmony, populated by swaggering mechanics, restless wives and a mysterious drifter named Luca who disrupts everything the moment he walks in.

The queer engine at the heart of the piece is Angelo, the bullied hired hand who falls for Luca alongside Lara, the garage owner's frustrated wife. The polysexual energy of the work, its refusal to treat male desire as a subplot or a scandal, is what made it extraordinary in 2000 and what makes it still feel sharp now. Choreographed to Terry Davies's reworking of Rodion Shchedrin's Carmen Suite, the whole thing has a physical language built from film noir, American masculinity and something barely contained underneath.

New Adventures cast swap lead roles across the run. Post-show talks take place on 5 August and 12 August, both free to same-performance ticket holders and BSL interpreted. An audio described performance with touch tour runs on 8 August at 2:30pm.

Several early dates are already selling fast.

Sadler's Wells, Rosebery Avenue, EC1R 4TN. 28 July to 29 August 2026.

Evening performances at 7:30pm
Matinees at 2:30pm on Thursdays and Saturdays
Sunday matinees at 2pm

Tickets from £15 at sadlerswells.com.