Following sold-out runs in Canada and international tours in Japan, South Africa, and Brazil, Mike Bartlett’s razor-sharp modern classic Cock returns to London this spring. This is a bold and intimate new staging from Talk Is Free Theatre. The play will run from Wednesday, 22 April to Saturday, 2 May, 2026, at COLAB.
Originally written by Mike Bartlett, Cock follows John, a man in a long-term relationship with his boyfriend for 7 years and who has only ever been attracted to men. Then he unexpectedly falls in love with a woman! What unfolds is a fast-paced, unsentimental, and darkly funny emotional standoff about the pressure to define oneself in a world that demands certainty.
A complex triangle occurs as he struggles to choose between them both and feels pressured to define his sexuality and identity in the process.
This reimagined production strips the play back to its essentials, staged in an immersive, arena-like configuration with just 34 seats per performance, placing the audience inches from the action.
“Despite what its title may suggest, Cock is a play about the human heart. It is about love’s capacity to make us feel euphoric joy, brutal pain, desperate fear and overwhelming confusion.”
Director Dylan Trowbridge
The London run reunites the team behind the company’s previous sold-out staging of the show. Directed by Dylan Trowbridge (Dirty Dancing, Aldwych Theatre; La Bête, Talk Is Free Theatre), the cast features Dora Mavor Moore Awards nominees Aidan deSalaiz (Macbeth, The Stratford Festival; Company, Talk Is Free Theatre ) and Michael Torontow (Every Brilliant Thing, Royal Manitoba Theatre; Titanique, Mirvish Productions), as well as META nominee Tess Benger (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre; Top Girls, Shaw Festival) and Kevin Bundy (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Toronto Ed Mirvish Theatre; As You Like It, Stratford Festival).
Cock runs from 22 April to 2 May, 2026, at COLAB Theatre, 22 Southwark Bridge Road, London SE1 9HB, United Kingdom.
