Company Theatre presents The Lady in the Van

Written by Alan Bennett
Directed by Sian Davis

Alan Bennett’s The Lady in the Van is a poignant, witty exploration of an unlikely real life relationship between the playwright and a dishevelled, eccentric homeless woman who lives in a dilapidated custard yellow van on his driveway for fifteen years.

Set in London’s Camden Town during the 1970s and 1980s, the play dramatizes the true story of Miss Mary Shepherd, who stays far longer than the three months anyone could have anticipated.

A strong cast including Susan Hargraves as Miss Shepherd and Reg Williams as Alan Bennett brings this heart-warming and funny story to life on the Rose Centre stage; the original 1999 production earned Maggie Smith a Best Actress nomination at the 2000 Olivier awards and was followed in 2015 by the well-known and much loved film. 

‘A beautiful, funny and deeply moving play’ – The Telegraph

‘A wonderfully bittersweet comic diary of the years in which a lethally dotty and very smelly old bat parked her unroadworthy vehicle in Bennett’s Camden garden, thereby providing him with roughly equal amounts of good journalistic copy and guilty landlord irritation’ – The Spectator

‘Bennett’s writing is nimble, ironical, cruel and humane…Gives the West End one of its saddest, funniest and most distinguished offerings for years.’ – The London Times

WHEN: 14 November - 28 November, 2026
WHERE: Rose Centre, Belmont
TICKETS: https://www.iticket.co.nz/events/2026/nov/the-lady-in-the-van