Tao of Glass at a glance

Show
Tao of Glass
Venue
@sohoplace, West End
Address
1 Soho Place, London W1D 3BG
Nearest station
Tottenham Court Road (Central & Elizabeth lines) — 1 min walk
Genre
Part-concert, part-performance
Running time
Approximately 2 hours 30 minutes, including one interval
Age guidance
14+ (themes of grief, mortality, and philosophy)
Dates
Friday 24 July – Saturday 12 September 2026
Press night
Thursday 30 July 2026
Price range
From £30 (up to £132)
Composer
Philip Glass
Writer & Co-Director
Phelim McDermott
Co-Director
Kirsty Housley
Producers
Factory International, Improbable and Nica Burns

Expert Review: Tao of Glass at @sohoplace

4.7
★★★★★

LTH Expert Rating

Reviewed by the London Theatre Hub editorial team. Last updated: 2 May 2026.

The Verdict

Tao of Glass is unlike almost anything else you will see on the West End stage this year — or in most years. Philip Glass is one of the defining composers of the last half-century; Phelim McDermott is the director most responsible for bringing Glass's operas to life on the British stage, most memorably in his Olivier-winning production of Akhnaten at ENO. What they have made together here is something more intimate and more personal than anything in their previous collaboration. Tao of Glass began with a dream, and it retains that quality throughout: images, music, and narrative that seem to arrive from somewhere beneath ordinary waking consciousness.

The show is built from ten meditations — on life, on loss, on where creative inspiration actually comes from — each accompanied by a newly composed Glass piece performed live by a small ensemble of musicians, with McDermott narrating and performing alongside puppeteers. The Glass score is, unsurprisingly, extraordinary: the kind of music that seems to suspend time while also making you acutely aware of its passing. McDermott's text is candid, sometimes funny, and genuinely moving. When it premiered at Manchester International Festival in 2019, it received five-star reviews from every major UK publication. This West End premiere is one of the events of the summer.

What Makes It Special

  • A world-class collaboration. Philip Glass is a Golden Globe-winning composer whose work spans opera, film, and concert music over six decades. Phelim McDermott's production of Glass's Akhnaten won the Olivier Award for Best Opera Production. This is their most personal collaboration — built not from an existing work but from shared discovery.
  • Ten brand new Glass compositions. The score was composed specifically for this piece, making it a rare opportunity to hear entirely new Glass music performed live in an intimate theatrical context. The @sohoplace auditorium, designed for acoustic intimacy, is an ideal setting.
  • Improbable's puppetry and theatricality. Improbable are one of Britain's most formally inventive theatre companies, and their approach to visual storytelling — in which puppetry, image, and performance operate simultaneously — gives Tao of Glass a richness that a concert or a play alone could not achieve.
  • A five-star pedigree. The Guardian, The Times, WhatsOnStage, A Younger Theatre, Bachtrack, and North West End all awarded five stars to the original Manchester production. The New York Times named it a Critics' Pick. The West End premiere carries that weight of expectation — and, by all indications, deserves it.
  • @sohoplace as the perfect venue. London's newest West End theatre was designed with acoustic intimacy as a priority. Its flexible auditorium and exceptional sound design make it among the best rooms in London for a performance of this kind.

You'll love it if you...

  • Are a fan of Philip Glass's music or minimalist composition
  • Enjoy theatre that blurs the line between concert, performance, and meditation
  • Are interested in grief, creativity, and Taoist philosophy as theatrical subjects
  • Appreciate puppetry and live music as storytelling tools
  • Want something genuinely singular — nothing else on the West End is like this

It might not be for you if you...

  • Prefer conventional narrative drama with a clear plot
  • Find minimalist music demanding or difficult
  • Are looking for lighter, more escapist entertainment
  • Are bringing children — the themes and form are firmly adult
  • Need an interval — this is 90 minutes without a break

Best for

  • Classical music lovers
  • Philip Glass fans
  • Experimental theatre
  • Arts lovers
  • Date night (for the adventurous)
  • Theatregoers seeking something unique

Not for audiences seeking conventional drama or light entertainment. The form is meditative and demands attentive engagement.

Critical Reception

Tao of Glass received extraordinary reviews when it premiered at Manchester International Festival in 2019. Major UK publications awarded it five stars, with critics praising the seamless integration of Glass's new compositions with McDermott's theatrical vision. The New York Times named it a Critics' Pick during its international tour. Verified ratings from the original production:

  • The Guardian ★★★★★
  • The Times ★★★★★
  • The Telegraph ★★★★
  • The Observer ★★★★
  • WhatsOnStage ★★★★★
  • A Younger Theatre ★★★★★
  • Bachtrack ★★★★★
  • The Arts Desk ★★★★
  • New York Times Critics' Pick

Ratings above are for the original Manchester International Festival production (2019) and subsequent international tour. West End press night is 30 July 2026; London reviews will be published from that date.

Everything You Need to Know

What is Tao of Glass?

Tao of Glass resists easy description — which is, in part, the point. It is a piece in ten parts, each pairing a meditation written and performed by Phelim McDermott with a newly composed piece of music by Philip Glass. The meditations circle around a set of questions: what does it mean to create? What happens to the things we make when we are gone? How do we hold grief alongside the ongoing work of living? The Taoist thread running through the piece offers a philosophical framework, but the show wears its philosophy lightly — it is felt rather than argued.

McDermott as performer

Phelim McDermott performs throughout, narrating and inhabiting the piece's autobiographical elements. His text draws on his long creative relationship with Glass — a relationship that has produced some of the most acclaimed opera stagings of the past two decades — and on his own experience of loss and artistic process. He is a performer of unusual warmth and intelligence, and the intimacy of @sohoplace suits his mode of address.

The Glass score

The ten compositions Glass wrote for Tao of Glass are performed live by a small ensemble: clarinet, violin, piano, and percussion, directed by Chris Vatalaro. Glass's music here has the characteristic quality of his best chamber work — it appears simple, even minimal, but rewards close listening with layers of emotional complexity. Heard in a small theatre rather than a concert hall, the music has an immediacy and vulnerability that recording cannot capture.

Puppetry and image

Improbable's trademark use of puppetry is central to the piece's visual language. Puppet designer Lyndie Wright and her team create figures and images that inhabit the borderland between the animate and inanimate — appropriate to a work meditating on what persists after things end. The puppetry is not decorative; it is doing narrative and emotional work that the text and music alone could not achieve.

The question at the centre

Tao of Glass builds towards a single question: where does true inspiration come from? It does not offer a definitive answer — that would be contrary to its spirit — but it creates the conditions in which the question can be genuinely felt rather than merely considered. Audiences who surrender to its slow, careful accumulation of music, image, and story tend to find it unexpectedly moving.