Just Booked My Traitors Stage Play Ticket, But Will I Go 4 More Times?

Posted in: BBC, Pop Culture, TV | Tagged: John Finnemore, Operation Mincemeat, Robert Hastie, traitors

Just Booked My Traitors Stage Play Ticket, But Will I Go 4 More Times?

I Have Just Booked My Traitors Stage Play Ticket For Opening Night Because Of John Finnemore... But Will I Go Four More Times? Probably

Published Tue, 16 Jun 2026 04:41:10 -0500
by Rich Johnston
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Article Summary

• Booked a ticket for The Traitors stage play opening night, with John Finnemore’s writing making it unmissable.
• The Traitors: Acts of Betrayal is a five-play cycle, with different versions across the week and votes on weekends.
• John Finnemore says the ambitious Traitors play expands characters, letting early exits become leads in other versions.
• With five distinct Traitors plays planned in the West End, one ticket may not be enough to see the full story.

I have just booked my ticket to see The Traitors, a stage play based on the BBC reality TV series, in London's West End next year. Typing those words would have seemed an impossibility, if not for the words "written by John Finnemore". He is possibly Britain's finest living comedy writer working right now, responsible for the perfect gems that are the BBC sitcom Cabin Pressure, the sketch show John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme, and the John Finnemore's Double Acts radio plays. I have been known to go on about him a lot. Sorry everyone.

But it also turns out that I might have to go five times. Previously, John Finnemore said, "I am extremely not allowed to say anything more about it than you can read here, such as that I am writing it, and the brilliant Rob Hastie, who directed Operation Mincemeat (have you seen Operation Mincemeat? It's glorious, do see it), is directing. Well, and perhaps also this: I would not blame you if you felt a little dubious about the idea of a stage show of a reality TV show; and/or a little surprised that it will take two years of my time to write it. Well… all I can say is that I'm enormously excited by it, and it's easily the most ambitious thing I've ever attempted to write. If you liked series 9 of JFSP, or The Researcher's First Murder, I think you'll like this."

Yes, I really, really, really liked Series 9 of JFSP. You know I did, John. And oh boy. Because it turns out it's not one play but five. The Traitors: Acts of Betrayal will be a five-play cycle, a different version for every day of the week, with weekend crowds voting on which version they get. And this came down to John Finnemore saying he watched the show's second series and wished Aubrey Emerson, the first murdered faithful, had lasted longer. "I wanted to see more of Aubrey. I wanted to see how he would have got on. In this version, if you go out first in one play, you might be a protagonist in the second play and then you might be a secondary traitor in the third and so on." Each play is self contained priducer Steven Lambert says "but if you come and see a second one or a third, obviously more, then your involvement in the world, your investment in the characters, will only grow exponentially."

Oh no, they're going to get me, aren't they? It's going to be like Doctor Who Time Fracture all over again. Okay, okay, I'll get a £45 ticket in the stalls for opening and then maybe justify £25 tickets up in the Gods for subsequent shows. The show will open on the 11th May at the Gillian Lynne Theatre. I have my ticket for opening night… let's see how many more I end up buying.

The BBC TV series places secret saboteurs among a group of faithful contestants in a grand castle in Scotland, all fighting it out to win a cash prize. It also ran a Celebrity version of the show last year, won by Alan Carr, which was the most-watched TV series of the year… then beaten by the standard version of Traitors this year. Might any of the real-life Traitors or Faithfuls, celebrity or otherwise, have a role in the stage version?

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