The Marlowe's panto is The All-New Adventures of Peter Pan, 27 November to 10 January. Prices move with demand and the cheapest dates are not the obvious ones.
Canterbury’s pantomime is The All-New Adventures of Peter Pan at the Marlowe Theatre, running in the Main House from Friday 27 November 2026 to Sunday 10 January 2027. It is on sale now: priority booking for members opened on 24 November 2025 and general booking opened at 10am on 8 December 2025, so this has been bookable for nine months.
Running time is 2 hours 30 minutes. Tickets start at £19 and the top seat on the busiest performance is £84.
The prices move, and that is the whole game
The Marlowe prices this show by demand. Its own brochure says so twice: “Our prices change with demand” and “Book your tickets early for the best price”. There are 82 performances, and the range on each one is different. The practical effect is that the date you pick matters more than the seat you pick.
The cheapest performances on the booking page, by top price:
| Performance | Price range |
|---|---|
| Tuesday 1 December, 1pm | £19 to £32 |
| Wednesday 9 December, 1pm | £30 to £47 |
| Friday 4 December, 1pm | £28 to £50 |
| Tuesday 5 to Thursday 7 January, all six shows | £19 to £52 |
| Tuesday 8, Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 December, matinees | £19 to £52 |
| Tuesday 15 December, 1pm | £19 to £55 |
Note that these are all matinees except the January ones. The same dates cost more in the evening: Tuesday 1 December is £19 to £32 at 1pm and £19 to £54 at 7pm.
The dearest:
| Performance | Price range |
|---|---|
| Christmas Eve, 2.30pm | £44 to £84 |
| Christmas Eve, 10.30am | £44 to £82 |
| Saturday 26 December, 7pm | £44 to £80 |
| Sunday 27 December, 2.30pm | £44 to £80 |
| Sunday 20 December, 5pm | £40 to £79 |
| Wednesday 23 December, 2.30pm | £38 to £79 |
| Saturday 5 December, 2.30pm | £19 to £79 |
That last row is the odd one. Saturday 5 December at 2.30pm has one of the highest top prices in the run and still has £19 seats in it, so it is worth a look even if you assumed a first-weekend Saturday matinee was out of reach.
The gap between an early December weekday and Christmas Eve is more than £50 a seat at the top end, and the £19 band exists on plenty of the cheap dates. If you are flexible on the day, the January week after the schools go back is the bargain: every performance from Tuesday 5 to Thursday 7 January runs £19 to £52, and the Friday 8 January matinee does too. The one to watch in that week is the Friday 8 January evening show, which tops out at £55 rather than £52.
What is already going
The booking page carries a live seat count for every performance, and six weeks before the run opens the pattern is clear enough to plan around.
- One performance has sold out: Friday 11 December, 11am. It is a weekday morning, which is when schools book.
- Sixteen more are down to their last few seats. Almost all are weekday matinees, plus the whole of the third weekend: Saturday 28 November 2.30pm; Tuesday 1, Friday 4, Tuesday 8 and Wednesday 9 December at 1pm; Thursday 10 December 11am; Saturday 12 December 2.30pm; Sunday 13 December 1pm; Tuesday 15 and Thursday 17 December at 1pm; Wednesday 16 December 11am; Saturday 19 December at both 2.30pm and 7pm; Sunday 20 December 1pm; Christmas Eve 2.30pm; and Sunday 27 December 2.30pm.
- The theatre flags its own best availability in early January: Tuesday 5 January 7pm, Wednesday 6 January 11am and 7pm, and Thursday 7 January 7pm. Those are also in the cheapest price band.
If you want a December weekend, the two mid-run Saturdays are the ones already thinning out. If you want the cheapest seats, January is where they are, and there are hundreds of them.
Times, and the Mondays
Every evening performance is at 7pm. Matinees vary: 10.30am, 11am, 1pm, 2.30pm, 3pm or 5pm depending on the day.
- Saturdays run three shows, at 10.30am, 2.30pm and 7pm, from 5 December onwards. The opening Saturday, 28 November, has only two, at 2.30pm and 7pm.
- Sundays are 1pm and 5pm.
- Christmas Eve is 10.30am and 2.30pm only. There is nothing on Christmas Day or on New Year’s Day.
- The Marlowe is dark on Mondays for the whole run, with one exception: Monday 28 December, which has both a 2.30pm and a 7pm show. Monday 30 November and Mondays 7, 14 and 21 December and 4 January have no performance at all.
Discounts worth knowing about
- Discovery Tickets: £15 if you are 16 to 26. Bands A to C, selected performances, and you have to be logged in to see them.
- Under 16s, bands Premier to C, selected performances.
- Schools from £14, selected performances, bookable only by phone or in person.
- Groups, selected performances.
- Multi-buy: 15% off when you book three or more shows together, or 20% for Marlowe members. It applies to the top four prices only and needs equal numbers of tickets for each show.
- Marlowe members save on bands Premier to C and book first.
Box office is 01227 787787.
Accessible performances, with times
These are fixed and published in the theatre’s autumn brochure:
| Type | Date and time |
|---|---|
| Chilled | Friday 4 December, 1pm |
| Audio described | Sunday 6 December, 1pm |
| British Sign Language interpreted | Saturday 12 December, 2.30pm |
| Captioned | Sunday 13 December, 1pm and 5pm |
| Audio described | Sunday 3 January, 1pm |
| Relaxed | Wednesday 6 January, 11am |
There is a free touch tour before each audio described performance, for blind and partially sighted customers, taking in parts of the set, props and costumes. It has to be booked through the box office; it is not something you can add online.
Who is in it
Janette Manrara (Strictly Come Dancing), Phil Gallagher (Mister Maker), and Ben Roddy, who won Best Dame at the 2024 Pantomime Awards and is a fixture of the Marlowe panto. Joining them: David Bedella, a three-time Olivier winner; Sario Solomon, Best Principal Lead at the 2026 UK Pantomime Awards; Millie Spiker; and Anna-Jane Casey.
Worth noting if you booked early: when the autumn brochure went out in July it named only Gallagher and Roddy and said the rest of the cast was “to be announced”. The full line-up has been added since. It is written and directed by Paul Hendy and co-produced by the Marlowe and Evolution Productions, the team behind the theatre’s Snow White and Beauty and the Beast.
The Marlowe does not publish an age guidance for this show, which is unusual enough to mention. If you have a child under about four, the run time of two and a half hours is the thing to weigh.
The alternative for younger children
The Marlowe’s Studio is running The Reluctant Dragon from Saturday 5 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027, a new family musical, at a flat £18. Smaller room, shorter show, one price. It has captioned, audio described, relaxed and BSL performances of its own.
Getting there
The Marlowe is on The Friars, CT1 2AS, a short walk from both Canterbury West and Canterbury East stations. The theatre’s own getting-here page recommends the train and does not name a car park for the Main House. If you are driving, the tariffs and locations are on our Canterbury parking page, and it is worth checking the roadworks and travel page first, because December closures around the city walls are routine and the Christmas market is running in the same streets for most of the panto’s run.
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