Back to Bard & NT for Adrian Lester & Rory Kinnear???

Adrian Lester may return to the National Theatre to take the title role in a new production of Othello, helmed by NT artistic director Nicholas Hytner and co-starring Rory Kinnear as villain Iago. According to today’s Daily Mail, early negotiations are underway for a production in 2013 to coincide with the NT’s 50th anniversary. Both Lester and Kinnear have had critical success with the bard under Hytner’s direction at the NT – Lester in Henry V in 2003 and Kinnear in last year’s multi award-winning Hamlet, which has also been tipped for a return season in 2012. Othello hasn’t been seen at the NT since 1998, when David Harewood and Simon Russell Beale starred in Sam Mendes’ production, but other more recent high-profile offerings have included Michael Grandage’s Donmar Warehouse staging with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ewan McGregor in 2007 and Northern Broadsides’ with Lenny Henry, which transferred to the West End in 2009.