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London Extends, NT Opens Backstage to Double

The National Theatre will open up its backstage “Paintframe” scenic studio to public performance for the first time ever this summer to house the Double Feature season of double bills by emerging playwrights. The season, as just announced last week, had been scheduled for the NT Cottesloe, which it will now leave clear for an extended run of London Road, Alecky Blythe’s acclaimed documentary musical about the affect of the 2006 series of prostitute murders on the Suffolk town of Ipswich.

London Road, with music by Adam Cork and direction by directed by Rufus Norris, premiered on 14 April 2011 (previews from 7 April) at the Cottesloe, where it finishes its original sell-out dates – running in rep with Ryan Craig’s play The Holy Rosenbergs - on 18 June. After four performances of the annual NT Connections festival, from 30 June to 2 July, the musical will resume for a straight eight weeks from 5 July to 27 August 2011.

In the temporary Paintframe space, dates have been postponed by a fortnight for Double Feature, which will now preview from the week commencing 18 July 2011, opening on 3 and 4 August and continuing until 10 September.

The season comprises double bills - Sam Holcroft's Edgar and Annabel with DC Moore's The Swan and Prasanna Puwanarajah's Nightwatchman with There Is a War by Tom Basden - directed by Polly Findlay and Lyndsey Turner and performed by an ensemble including Pippa Bennett-Warner, Karina Fernandez, Trystan Gravelle, Nitin Kundra and Stephanie Street, accompanied by a live band.

A spokeswoman told Whatsonstage.com that the National had originally “wanted to do something completely different” with the Cottesloe for Double Feature, and concluded the team create “an even more exciting space” in the Paintframe, which is normally only accessed by the public during backstage tours of the National. The vast room is part of the NT’s scenic studios and is where large set canvases are usually hung and decorated. The spokeswoman said this would be the “first and only time” the Paintframe will be used as a performance environment.

- by Terri Paddock

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Booking Tickets & Show Listings
	London Road Listing Page
	Double Feature Listing Page
	Double Feature Listing Page

Internal Links
	London Road returns to National, plays Olivier in August? - 24th Jan 2012 gossip
	Boss Blog: Theatre's Debt to Comedy - 11th Aug 2011 blog
	Double Feature - 5th Aug 2011 reviews
	Photos: NT Opens Paintframe for New Play Double - 4th Aug 2011 news
	Opening: NT Paintframe, Scoop Fest & EdFringe - 1st Aug 2011 news
	More Travelex Season, Full NT Autumn Line-up - 3rd Jun 2011 news
	Soho Theatre Moves Into Gear - 20th May 2011 blog
	Moore, Basden, Holcroft & Puwanarajah Featured - 12th May 2011 news
	Review Round-up: Blythe Captures London Road - 15th Apr 2011 roundup
	London Road - 15th Apr 2011 reviews