A planned UK tour of Let the Right One In, the stage adaptation written by Jack Thorne, has been cancelled ahead of its October 2025 launch. Producers confirmed the news this weekend, attributing the cancellation to “unforeseen circumstances.”
The production was scheduled to begin at Northampton’s Royal and Derngate and conclude in Liverpool by April 2026. The tour was set to visit multiple cities, including Bromley, Bristol, Salford, Fareham, Cardiff, Southend, Eastbourne, Glasgow, and Birmingham.
Ticket holders are expected to be contacted by their original point of purchase. Details about potential rescheduling or revised plans have not been provided.
The play is based on the bestselling Swedish novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, which became internationally recognized following the 2008 Swedish-language film adaptation. The narrative, which explores isolation, connection, and violence through the story of a reclusive boy and a vampire girl, was later remade as a U.S. feature in 2010 starring Chloë Grace Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee.
Thorne first adapted the novel for the stage in 2013 in collaboration with director John Tiffany. Their creative partnership would go on to reach international stages with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in 2016. The original staging of Let the Right One In received acclaim for its atmospheric approach and emotional depth.
The upcoming production had been directed by Bryony Shanahan and followed a sold-out run at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre. Expectations were high for its nationwide presentation, with marketing efforts already in place for stops across England, Scotland, and Wales.
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Thorne, age 46, has been involved in several prominent television projects in recent years. He co-created Adolescence, a four-part Netflix drama focused on a family’s collapse after their teenage son is charged in a school stabbing case. The series was structured with each episode shot in a single take and featured actor Stephen Graham, who also served as co-creator.
Following Adolescence, Thorne wrote Toxic Town, also for Netflix, which dramatized events surrounding the Corby toxic waste case. The series revisits the consequences of waste dumping in Northamptonshire during the 1980s and 1990s, when a cluster of birth defects emerged among children born near the contaminated site. The case led to one of the largest environmental legal battles in UK history.
Thorne’s stage and screen work often centers on characters caught in personal or systemic crisis, reflecting a consistent focus on social and emotional realism. His adaptation of Let the Right One In introduced a genre-driven story to theatrical audiences with an emphasis on vulnerability, violence, and the need for human connection.
The cancellation of the tour follows a period of renewed attention to Thorne’s body of work, particularly through streaming releases that have brought his stories to wider audiences. While the producers have not released further information on the future of the stage production, the decision brings a halt to what had been planned as an extensive run across major regional theatres.
