National Theatre

The Habit of Art

a new play by Alan Bennett

The Habit of Art is sold out for all performances in the current booking period up to 6 April 2010 (except for Day Seats and the possibility of returns).

Booking for performances from 19 April opens as follows:
Supporting Cast and above from 28 January
Priority Members from 29 January
Advance Members from 5 February
General Public from 17 February

NT Members are able to book for these performances ahead of the general public - click here for more information on membership and to join online.

The Habit of Art on Tour

Cast to be announced, tour dates available.

NT Live

The Habit of Art will be broadcast live to cinema screens aorund the world on 22 April 2010. Visit the website to learn more and to find your nearest venue.

About the show

5 STARS 'Another absolute cracker, often wonderfully and sometimes filthily funny, but also deeply and unexpectedly moving.' Daily Telegraph

5 STARS 'Bennett the maestro returns with a multi-layered masterpiece.' Independent

Auden often said that metre and rhyme led him down unexpected paths to thoughts he wouldn’t otherwise have had, and in this respect versification and fornication are not so different.

Benjamin Britten, sailing uncomfortably close to the wind with his new opera, Death in Venice, seeks advice from his former collaborator and friend, W H Auden. During this imagined meeting, their first for twenty-five years, they are observed and interrupted by, amongst others, their future biographer and a young man from the local bus station.

You are a rent boy. I am a poet. Over the wall lives the Dean of Christ Church. We all have our parts to play.

Alan Bennett’s new play is as much about the theatre as it is about poetry or music. It looks at the unsettling desires of two difficult men, and at the ethics of biography. It reflects on growing old, on creativity and inspiration, and on persisting when all passion’s spent: ultimately, on the habit of art.

‘In the end,’ said Auden, ‘art is small beer. The really serious things in life are earning one’s living and loving one’s neighbour.’

World Premiere

Richard Griffiths created the role of Hector in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys at the National Theatre, on international tour, on Broadway and on film, winning the Evening Standard, Critics’ Circle, Laurence Olivier and Tony Awards for Best Actor.

Please note, the seating plan that applies to performances of The Habit of Art until 6 April is below: