Theatre News

Olivia Colman to feature in National Theatre 2017 season

There will also be new works by Lucy Kirkwood and Carol Ann Duffy

Olivia Colman
Olivia Colman
© Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage

The National Theatre season has announced its 2017 season.

Philip Quast will join the previously announced Imelda Staunton and Janie Dee in Stephen Sondheim's Follies when it opens on the Olivier stage next year. Quast has previously appeared in Sondheim's Pulitzer Prize winning musical Sunday in the Park with George.

Director Yaёl Farber will return to the National with a retelling of Salomé, which will receive its European premiere in May. Farber first appeared at the Olivier earlier this year when she directed Lorraine Hansberry's Les Blancs.

Headlong artistic director Jeremy Herrin will bring the world premiere of Common, DC Moore's play about the early days of the Industrial Revolution. Earlier this year, he directed Denise Gough in People, Places and Things.

It was also annoucned that Daniel Rigby, Tamara Lawrence, Doon Mackichan and Daniel Ezra would be joining Tamsin Greig in Twelfth Night when it opens in February.

In the Lyttleton, Lindsey Ferrentino's Ugly Lies the Bone will get its European premiere in March. Directed by Indhu Rubasingham, Ugly Lies the Bone tells the story of an injured US soldier who uses virtual reality to build a new home.

The cast for Marianne Elliott's Angels in America will feature the previously announced Andrew Garfield, joined by Susan Brown, Nathan Lane, James McArdle, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Denise Gough and Russell Tovey when it opens in May.

National Theatre
National Theatre

In the Dorfman, My Country: a work in progress is a collaboration between Rufus Norris and Carol Ann Duffy. It is based on conversations around the UK after the public voted for Brexit. It will begin performances in June.

The world premiere of Lucy Kirkwood's Mosquitoes will star Olivia Colman when it opens in July. It will reunite Colman with director Norris after the pair worked together on the 2015 film London Road.

Nina Raine's Consent will receive its world premiere in May. It will be directed by Roger Michell.

March will see performance company Improbable present Lost Without Words in association with the NT. The piece will be improvised by actors in their 70s and 80s.

Inua Ellams' Barber Shop Chronicles will get its world premiere in June. The co-production between Fuel Theatre and West Yorkshire Playhouse will move to Leeds in July. The piece is set in barber shops in Africa and the UK, and will be directed by Bijan Sheibani.

Dublin Oldschool, a play about two brothers in Ireland and their relationship with dance music, will have a cast made up of Emmet Kirwan and Ian Lloyd Anderson. Phillip McMahon directs.

Following a run at Edinburgh Fringe, Brussels-based company BRONKS will bring their production of Us/Them to the theatre in January.