Before the Coffee Gets Cold Brings Its Time Travel Mystery to London
Before the Coffee Gets Cold is returning to the stage in London in June 2027, bringing its unusual time-travel story to the Lyric Hammersmith.
Imagine being able to travel into the past and speak to someone again, knowing that nothing you say will alter what has already happened.
That is the unusual premise behind Before the Coffee Gets Cold, the bestselling Japanese story that is returning to the stage in a new London adaptation by playwright Conor McPherson.
The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre announced the production on 27 October 2026, confirming performances from 17 June to 17 July 2027.
How does time travel work in Before the Coffee Gets Cold?
The story takes place inside a small Japanese café called Funiculi Funicula, where customers can travel through time by sitting in a particular chair.
However, the opportunity comes with several strict rules that prevent visitors from using the experience to rewrite their lives. Customers cannot leave the chair while visiting the past, and their actions will not alter the present. They must also return before their coffee becomes cold, giving each visit a limited duration.
Those restrictions create a very different kind of time-travel story from the adventures commonly seen in science fiction.
Instead of attempting to prevent disasters or alter history, the characters revisit personal relationships and conversations that continue to affect them.
Why do people visit the past?
The café’s visitors are drawn by unfinished conversations, complicated relationships and the desire to see people they can no longer meet in ordinary circumstances.
Some hope to understand decisions made by loved ones, while others want an opportunity to express feelings that were left unspoken.
The fact that the present cannot be altered makes those encounters particularly significant. Visitors must decide whether hearing someone else’s words, or finally saying their own, can help them move forward even when the outcome remains unchanged.
That emotional focus has helped the story reach an international readership through Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s novels.
The story originally began on stage
Although Before the Coffee Gets Cold became internationally recognised through its English-language book publication, Kawaguchi originally developed the story as a play.
The new London production therefore brings the material back to the medium in which it began, with Conor McPherson adapting it for contemporary theatre audiences.
McPherson is known for plays including The Weir, which explores personal experiences and relationships through storytelling. His involvement makes the new adaptation particularly interesting because much of Before the Coffee Gets Cold takes place through conversations within a single location.
The production will run at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre from 17 June to 17 July 2027, with tickets available through the official theatre website.
