Glitter, beats and banging tunes – this Irish wake is the ultimate celebration of life  

Experience WAKE, the electrifying Irish variety phenomenon that remixes traditions in a high-octane, heart-thumping celebration of life and connection.

Immerse yourself in our wild wake, where customs collide with club anthems, creating a euphoric soundtrack for a night filled with aerial artistry, Irish tap, cabaret, slam poetry, pole-dancing and more.

Best known as an ancient funeral rite, the Irish wake is also a celebration of transformation, of moving from one realm to another. Ushering in fabulous change – caterpillar to butterfly – WAKE is a timeless reminder to live fully.

Acclaimed Irish theatre company THISISPOPBABY returns to the West End and invites you to witness an anthemic spectacle with the spirit of an epic trad session and the ecstatic energy of a stadium concert. After sold-out, award-winning runs in Dublin, London, Manchester and Sydney, theatrical juggernaut WAKE is going global.

WAKE uses the structural backbone of an all-night Irish wake to honour and subvert the “Irish cultural toolbox” (trad, tap, storytelling, party pieces) as a mechanism for transformation, celebration, grief and collective catharsis.

This is a large-scale piece of ‘event theatre’ with a live band mixing trad with club classics to create the soundtrack to a wild night of aerial, cabaret, tap, poetry and pole dancing.

Expect joy, connection, release…and glitter.

Header image Ruth Medjber

Header image description: A male dancer is performing a dance step on a stage. He is wearing black jig shoes and white socks, gold hot pants and a cropped black mesh top. The stage is lit with beams of purple and green light. A disco ball is hanging from the ceiling behind him. The dancer is moving his right leg forward and his left leg is stretched back – he looks down at his feet as he performs the step. A full audience is blurred in the background watching the dancer.