Aberdeen Performing Arts is bringing back its ground-breaking International Season for 2026, with performers from around the globe descending on the Granite City throughout July, August and September offering a range of circus, acrobatics, comedy and family events at the Lemon Tree.
Artists from New Zealand, Australia, Denmark and Sweden all feature in the 2026 season, with many of them visiting Aberdeen for the first time.
Aberdeen Performing Arts Chief Executive, Sharon Burgess, said: “The International Season is building a reputation for bringing world-class, unique acts to Aberdeen, often for the first time and it’s a fantastic opportunity to take a step in to the unknown and try something a little bit different.
“In choosing the acts for this year, inclusivity was a key consideration so we have ensured that there are performances suitable for all different ages, making it a perfect choice for families looking to introduce their children to the arts as well as for seasoned theatre-goers seeking something new.”
Soft Spot is a meticulously composed contemporary circus duet for a juggler, a handstand artist, wooden planks and 300 wine glasses, coming to the Lemon Tree on Saturday, September 5.
Everyone has held a wine glass. Everyone has broken one. Since childhood, we have formed an instinctive relationship with this fragile everyday object. On stage, two artists carefully manipulate, stack and balance a delicate landscape of glass, testing its physical limits under the audience’s gaze. The glass becomes partner, obstacle and shared risk-demanding precision, timing and trust between the performers.
Each action carries tension; each near-collapse invites possibility. Through humour, concentration and mutual reliance, Soft Spot offers a playful yet exacting exploration of fragility-in objects, in bodies and in relationships.
On Thursday, July 30, award-winning comedian Conk visits the Lemon Tree with Man Sings the Same Song Over and Over Again for an Hour. Winner of the Spirit of the Fringe Award 2025 at the Melbourne Fringe, Conk takes to the stage and sings the same song over and over again on repeat for an entire hour.
FoRT by Asking for Trouble
That’s it. That’s the show. Which song? You’ll have to come and find out.
Equal parts comedy and live art experiment, what begins as a simple musical premise of singing the same hit song over and over again spirals into a hilarious feat of absurdity.
Cult hit comedy thriller Werewolf comes to the Lemon Tree on Friday, July 24 and Saturday, July 25.
Three ill-equipped wardens keep watch over a makeshift community who must learn to work together. But as the threat outside takes shape, the atmosphere inside begins to turn.
Inspired by the classic game of deception, Werewolf is a gripping blend of thriller and comedy that pulls you into an immersive world of suspicion, survival, and uneasy laughter.
With heart-pounding sound design, razor-sharp performances, and a daring, darkly funny style, this international cult hit asks: When night falls—who do you trust?
Spectacular family theatre show FoRT visits from Tuesday, July 28 to Wednesday, July 29. FoRT invites you to dive into a magical world of play and creation, where everyday objects become a universe of fun and adventure. Two curious characters are hunting for whispers of possibility when they discover a pile of seemingly ordinary objects. Watch and be amazed as sheets, broomsticks, chairs and couches transform into fantastical places to play and explore using ridiculous clowning, spectacular acrobatics and beautiful visual imagery.
‘FoRT‘ celebrates the kind of creative genius that has been known to turn lounge rooms into volcanoes, trees into castles and cardboard boxes into racing cars. If you’ve ever made a
cubby in your lounge room, or helped a little one create their own, this is an inspiring and delightful new theatrical experience that you and the whole family will enjoy.
On Friday July 31 and Saturday, August 1 is Suitcase Show. A traveller arrives at a border with a stack of battered cases. From within them, whole worlds will emerge.
Suitcase Show is an eclectic box set of short stories, each one told out of a suitcase. Dark, spiky, and comic, it touches on climate change, love and death, travel, and secrets that we carry with us – an overthrown autocrat finds themselves on the run from their own shadow, an astronaut turns their telescope back on earth and back in time. The staging is inventive, from lo-fi shadowplay to wireless projection, from dancing disembodied hands to narratives that crackle from a 70s stereo suitcase.
A favourite with 2024 International Season audiences, The Bookbinder returns for 2026 on Saturday, August 1 to Sunday, August 2.
They say you can get lost in a good book. But it’s worse getting lost in a bad one.
An old man sits down to read the tale of an erstwhile bookbinding apprentice. As he speaks the story spills from the pages and into the bindery. The Bookbinder weaves shadowplay, paper art, puppetry, and music into an original dark fairytale in the vein of Coraline and Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell.
FoRT by AskingForTrouble (Credit- Cheeky Monkey Photography)
First performed in the back room of a second-hand bookshop, it has gone on tour across Australia, South Africa, UK, Canada, China, and USA – from the attic of Aotearoa / New Zealand’s oldest bookbindery to the Lincoln Center, NYC.
Laughing Out Lonely is a thrilling new solo opera created using English lyrics that are based on posts from young people on social media, and staged as a theatrical echo chamber, coming to the Lemon Tree on Wednesday, September 2.
Created by award-winning composing team Matilde Böcher and Asger Kudahl and with a tour de tour performance from acclaimed countertenor Morten Grove Frandsen, this modern opera is a thought-provoking mirror of our digital age. LOL takes the audience into the darkest corners of the internet, where misogynists, self-harmers, racists, and other marginalized existences have found an absurd community.
On Thursday, September 3 musical comedy will be on offer with Aidan Jones – Chopin’s Nocturne. Aidan Jones grew up playing classical piano, but failed his conservatory audition at 18. After some time focusing on MDMA, he started stand-up in 2011. During the pandemic he came back to the piano and now he’s combined them. It’s his favourite piece, Chopin’s Nocturne in Eb Major, presented with jokes by a bald Australian with a beard.
The critically acclaimed Macbeth: Blood & Bluegrass visits the city centre venue on Friday, September 4. This unforgettable theatrical experience is a reimagining of Shakespeare’s dark tale of ambition and betrayal, set to a soundtrack of Americana and bluegrass music. With humour, heart and live music, the award-winning Barden Party transform the Bard’s tale into an unforgettable theatrical experience.
The multi-award-winning New Zealand troupe blend classic literature with a modern twist alongside original arrangements of Mumford and Sons, Dolly Parton and The SteelDrivers, creating an emotional, accessible, toe-tapping theatrical experience.
Tickets are on sale now, available from www.aberdeenperformingarts.com, phone (01224) 641122 or visit the box office at His Majesty’s Theatre or the Music Hall.