Breaking the Code is set to bring Alan Turing’s story to life at the Liverpool Playhouse

Hugh Whitemore’s Breaking the Code, a play about the life of mathematician and Second World War codebreaker Alan Turing, comes to the Liverpool Playhouse from Tuesday 21 to Saturday 25 October in a new production directed by Jesse Jones. 

Based on Andrew Hodges’ book Alan Turing: The Enigma, the play follows his extraordinary career and explores how society’s prejudice towards his sexuality, and the brutal treatment he received from a homophobic and ungrateful state, changed the course of his life. 

Jesse Jones, the director of Breaking the Code, said: 

“The more time I’ve spent with Alan Turing through this play, the more extraordinary he becomes to me. We think of him as the man who cracked the Enigma code, but his story is so much bigger than that. Breaking the Code gives us the chance to see him in all his complexity – his genius, his humour, his contradictions, his bravery, and his pain. It breaks the code of him a little bit, and makes him human.”

Alan Turing is played by Mark Edel-Hunt (Leopoldstadt, West End) alongside Niall Costigan (The Railway Children, Hull Truck Theatre) as Mick Ross; Peter Hamilton Dyer (The Promise, Chichester Festival Theatre) as Dillwyn Knox, Carla Harrison-Hodge (Cyrano de Bergerac, Jamie Lloyd Company) as Pat Green, Susie Trayling (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, West End) as Sara Turing/Smith, and Joe Usher (Falkland Sound, RSC) as Ron Miller/Nikos. 

Young Everyman Playhouse graduate Joseph Edwards, recently nominated for Best Performer in a Play at The Stage Debut Awards 2025 for his role in The Red Shoes at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, joins the cast of Breaking the Code as Christopher Morcom/Sixth-Former. 

Co-produced by Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse, A Royal & Derngate Northampton, Landmark Theatres and Oxford Playhouse, in association with HOME, this revival features new material that speaks to Turing’s enduring legacy in modern Britain and the development of Turing’s Law. It includes a new epilogue by Neil Bartlett, written in response to Turing’s Royal pardon in 2013. 

Nathan Powell, the creative director of Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse said:  

“Alan Turing’s story is one that continues to inspire and challenge us. This revival of Breaking the Code not only celebrates his brilliance but also reflects on the prejudice he faced and the legacy he leaves for us today. We’re thrilled to be telling this story at the Playhouse, and to be doing so alongside such fantastic co-producing partners.”

The production features set and costume design by Jonathan Fensom, lighting by Johanna Town, sound and music by Robin Colyer, movement direction by Gerrard Martin, casting by Hannah Miller, and voice and dialect coaching by Gemma Boaden. 

From triumph to tragedy, discover the story of a man who loved, lost and never stopped asking questions in his quest for truth and understanding. This new production of Breaking the Code runs at the Playhouse from Tuesday 21 to Saturday 25 October, with tickets priced from £11 to £36.

Tickets and more information about Breaking the Code can be found here.

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