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NATIONAL THEATRE PLANS FOR 2010  

Olivier Theatre

Travelex has renewed its sponsorship of the National Theatre’s £10 Ticket Season for a further three years from 2010.  The season opens on 27 April with Marianne Elliott’s production of Thomas Middleton’s Jacobean tragedy Women Beware Women , with Harriet Walter and Samuel Barnett leading the cast.  It will be followed by a new play by Moira Buffini, Welcome to Thebes, directed by Richard Eyre, opening on 22 June.

The season continues in July with Michael Grandage’s production of Danton's Death by Georg Buchner, in a new (2010) version by Howard Brenton;  Toby Stephens makes his NT debut in the title role. 

The final play in the 2010 Travelex £10 Season, opening in September, will be Nicholas Hytner’s production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, with Rory Kinnear in the title role and Clare Higgins as Gertrude.  Hamlet will tour in the UK and internationally in spring 2011 (see below).

Lyttelton Theatre

The 2010 Lyttelton season opens, as previously announced, with Mikhail Bulgakov’s The White Guard , in a new version by Andrew Upton, opening on 23 March.  It will be directed by Howard Davies, with a cast including Anthony Calf, Pip Carter, Paul Higgins, Conleth Hill and Justine Mitchell, and is supported by American Express.

Thea Sharrock directs After the Dance by Terence Rattigan, opening on 8 June, with a cast including Nancy Carroll, Benedict Cumberbatch, John Heffernan and Adrian Scarborough.

Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art will return to the repertoire in July with a new cast, ahead of a UK tour this autumn .

Howard Davies will direct a new play by JT Rogers, Blood and Gifts, opening in September 2010.

Cottesloe Theatre

Following Tamsin Oglesby’s new play Really Old, Like Forty Five which opened on 3 February directed by Anna Mackmin, the Cottesloe season continues with Beyond The Horizon by Eugene O’Neill and Spring Storm by Tennessee Williams, which transfer from Royal & Derngate, Northampton (where they opened to critical acclaim in October 2009);  opening on 7 April, the original cast is directed by Laurie Sansom.

A new play, Love the Sinner by Drew Pautz, will open on 11 May, directed by Matthew Dunster. 

Rupert Goold will direct a new play by Mike Bartlett, Earthquakes in London, in a co-production with Headlong Theatre, opening in August.

A new piece devised and written by Neil Bartlett and Handspring Puppet Company, to be performed by Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler of Handspring and directed by Neil Bartlett, will open in September.

Neptune Investment Management will become the National Theatre’s Cottesloe Partner for the next three years, sponsoring four productions a year in the Cottesloe Theatre.

Winter and beyond

Looking further ahead, Danny Boyle will make his National Theatre debut directing Frankenstein, a play by Nick Dear, based on the novel by Mary Shelley. The production will be sponsored by Coutts & Co.

Peter Hall will direct Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, with Rebecca Hall as Viola, in a production in the Cottesloe Theatre to celebrate his 80th birthday.

Also in development are plans for the National to take part in the 400th anniversary celebrations of the King James Bible in 2011.  Readings from the Gospels and the first five books of the Old Testament will be given by leading NT actors, past and present.

Beyond the National:  NT Live, on tour and in the West End

Following its sell-out run at the Lyttelton, Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art will embark on a 9-week UK tour this autumn, including visits to Birmingham, Salford, Milton Keynes, Belfast, Nottingham, Leeds, Newcastle and Glasgow. Details of the tour

Nicholas Hytner’s production of Hamlet, with the original cast, will tour the UK and internationally from February 2011.

Following the hugely successful screenings of Phedre , All’s Well That Ends Well and Nation , the pilot season of NT Live culminates with Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art on 22 April.  A new season of NT Live will begin in autumn 2010.

Lee Hall’s The Pitmen Painters will open in New York for a limited run from September at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, produced by Manhattan Theatre Club by special arrangement with Bob Boyett. 

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