Piranesi: Step Inside the Mysterious World Coming to the RSC

Susanna Clarke's award-winning fantasy novel Piranesi is coming to the stage in a new Royal Shakespeare Company production that will turn its mysterious world of endless halls, statues and rising tides into an immersive theatrical experience.

The story follows Piranesi, a man who lives inside the House, an enormous and seemingly endless building filled with statues and vast halls. He spends his days exploring its corridors, documenting what he discovers and observing the tides that regularly flood its lower levels.

Piranesi believes he understands the House and the strange world in which he lives, but his certainty begins to disappear when mysterious messages start appearing on walls and pavements. As more secrets emerge, he begins to suspect that something unfamiliar and dangerous is approaching.

A mystery hidden inside the House

The central mystery of Piranesi comes from the gap between what its protagonist believes and what is actually happening around him. Every new discovery forces him to reconsider his understanding of the House, his relationship with the mysterious figure known as the Other and, eventually, his own past.

That makes the novel particularly suited to an imaginative stage adaptation. Rather than simply reproducing Clarke's descriptions, the RSC is promising an immersive theatrical world of shadow and illusion, with audiences invited to turn detective alongside Piranesi.

Sami Ibrahim has adapted the novel for the stage, while Ned Bennett directs. The production will use the physical theatre environment to recreate a world in which the boundaries between beauty, danger and reality are constantly shifting.

When is Piranesi on stage?

Piranesi will run at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon from 3 July to 21 August 2027, with the production described by the RSC as a world stage premiere.

The show is part of the company's 2027 programme and offers fans of Clarke's novel the chance to experience one of its strangest settings in a live theatrical environment.

Book tickets for Piranesi through the Royal Shakespeare Company.