Christmas season announced by Newtownabbey’s Theatre at the Mill

Published: 30 March 2025
Reporter: Michael Quinn

Poster image for Belfast Actually 2 at Theatre at the Mill Credit: Theatre at the Mill
Poster image for Robin Hood: The Panto at Theatre at the Mill Credit: Theatre at the Mill
Theatre at the Mill, Newtownabbey Credit: Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council
Poster image for The Adventures of Pinocchio at the Grand Opera House, Belfast Credit: Grand Opera House, Belfast

Newtownabbey’s Theatre at the Mill has announced two new productions that will play in the County Antrim venue during this year’s Christmas season.

Aimed at young audiences, Yellow Jumper Productions will present Robin Hood: The Panto, which promises a “fully interactive experience, bursting with humour, magic, and a soundtrack that’ll have adults singing with nostalgia and kids dancing with delight”.

Written and directed by Sarah Lyle, it marks the company’s return to the venue after last year’s well-received Cinderella: The Panto.

With adult audiences in mind, Belfast Actually 2 sees another return to Newtownabbey following 2024’s first punning take on Richard Curtis’s hit film Love Actually.

Writer Leesa Harker and director Andrea Montgomery reunite for a “funny and heart-warming comedy” about three new, and unlikely, couples navigating their way through the search for love in the midst of seasonal jollity.

Already announced is the Grand Opera House, Belfast's Christmas offering for 2025, The Adventures of Pinocchio, which will see John Linehan's alter ego, May McFettridge, return for her 35th appearance as panto Dame.

Belfast Actually 2 opens on November 25 and runs to January 3, 2026.

Robin Hood: The Panto has a run of school shows from December 6–19, and opens to the public on December 6, running until January 3, 2026.

The Adventures of Pinocchio runs at the Grand Opera House, Belfast from November 29 to January 11, 2026.

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