Linnea Berthelsen, known for her role in Stranger Things, will make her UK theatre debut starring in the world premiere of Darkling by Titas Halder. The solo play by Actors Touring Company and Bush Theatre casts light on the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster and will tour across the UK this autumn.

Linnea Berthelsen will headline Darkling, a new solo play written by Titas Halder and directed by Matthew Xia, opening at the Bush Theatre on 5 September before touring Birmingham Rep, Oxford’s The North Wall Arts Centre, and HOME Manchester until 14 November 2026.

The production is a co-production between Actors Touring Company (ATC), where Xia is the artistic director, and the Bush Theatre. It explores the devastating human consequences of the Bhopal chemical leak, which remains one of the worst industrial disasters in history.

Halder described the play as “a human story about how an ecological disaster rips through one family,” praising the creative team and Berthelsen in particular for bringing “special and profound emotional depth” to the work.

Berthelsen said the script is “incredibly nuanced, human and very alive,” and expressed excitement at collaborating with the production’s creative team.

Director Matthew Xia, emphasising ATC’s commitment to “globally minded contemporary theatre,” called Darkling “extraordinarily beautiful and poetic” and highlighted Berthelsen’s “magnetic intensity” as central to delivering an “epic, intimate and unmistakably theatrical” experience.

The production is supported by Arts Council England along with several philanthropic foundations including Cockayne Grants for the Arts and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. ATC remains part of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisation.

Darkling situates itself within a growing strand of theatre addressing ecological and social crises through intimate storytelling, aiming to bring vital global narratives to UK audiences through touring.