The shows include a new musical for little ones, an online resource for schools and a large-scale circus featuring a range of Dahl’s most beloved characters.

The Roald Dahl Stoy Company has announced a string of new theatre productions have been developed.

The Enormous Crocodile, The Magic Finger and a circus inspired by some of the author’s most treasured stories and characters are the latest projects to be created and developed by the in-house theatre division.

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A co-production with Leeds Playhouse and Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, picture book The Enormous Crocodile has become a musical for young children, using contemporary music and puppetry to tell the tale of a crocodile hungry for kids.

A theatrical reading of The Magic Finger will be presented online for schools and families. A co-production with the Unicorn Theatre, the UK’s leading theatre for young people based in Southwark, it will be available from spring 2024.

Currently in development, the theatre division is also conceiving a large-scale circus spectacle that brings together beloved characters from the most popular Roald Dahl stories for the first time. 

This brand-new show is being cooked up by a stellar creative team including Olivier Award-winning director Polly Findlay, masters of circus spectacle Cirque Bijou and Stephen Long and Iain Sharkey - the minds behind many of Derren Brown’s TV and stage illusions.

Led by Artistic Director Jenny Worton and Executive Producer Anna Schmitz, the theatre division was set up in 2018 to create and produce innovative productions inspired by Roald Dahl stories in collaboration with world-class artists and leading theatre producers.

These productions join a major new musical of The Witches, co-produced with the National Theatre and due to open November 7, and a further four shows are in development.

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Executive Producer Anna Schmitz and Artistic Director Jenny Worton said:

“We couldn’t be more excited to be able to reveal these new productions, which demonstrate our ambitions in making new work. Far beyond simply ‘putting the book on stage’, we want to create original pieces of theatre, which both capture the timeless appeal, characters and spirit of Roald Dahl stories and speak powerfully to today’s audiences.

“From puppetry to musicals, free digital productions to large-scale events we’re working across theatrical forms and collaborating with extraordinary artists and producers to create shows that will illuminate the original stories in a new way, inspiring the next generation of theatregoers.”