Theatre News

More Travelex Season, Full NT Autumn Line-up

The National Theatre have announced full details of their autumn line-up, which includes Arnold Wesker‘s The Kitchen, directed by Bijan Sheibani and Mike Bartlett‘s new play 13 directed by Thea Sharrock, as part of the Travelex £12 Season in the NT Olivier.

The NT Olivier will also host Jonathan Miller‘s staging of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, translated and edited by Paul Goodwin, presented in collaboration with the Southbank Sinfonia. The production will play nine performances between 19 September (previews 17 September) and 2 October 2011.

Elsewhere in the programme, The Veil, a new play written and directed by Conor McPherson, opens in the NT Lyttelton on 4 October (previews from 27 September), where it will be presented alongside Daniel Kitson’s 2010 Edinburgh Fringe hit It’s Always Right Now, Until It’s Later from 7 to 21 October 2011.

Also in the Lyttelton, the National will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible with readings of 12 extracts under the direction of Nicholas Hytner, James Dacre and Polly Findlay from 8 October to 6 November.

Full casting has also been announced for Mike Leigh‘s upcoming – and still titleless – devised play, which it is also announced will tour to Bath and Cambridge during its repertory run in the NT Cottesloe.

NT Olivier

Jonathan Miller will stage Paul Goodwin‘s English translation of Bach’s St Matthew Passion in collaboration with Southbank Sinfonia from 19 September (previews from 17 September) to 2 October.

Stripping away the traditional performance conventions of the sacred work, Miller’s production will see the work performed by casually dressed soloists and a choir who interact with the full orchestra.

The soloists are: Sally Bruce-Payne, Ruby Hughes, Benjamin Hulett, James Laing, Andrew Staples and Mark Stone with a chorus from Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

The Travelex £12 Season will continue in the NT Olivier with National associate Bijan Sheibani directing Arnold Wesker‘s post-war workplace play The Kitchen. The play opens on 7 September (previews from 31 August).

Written in 1959, Wesker’s play premiered at the Royal Court (who are currently reviving his Chicken Soup with Barley). Tom Brooke will star as the play’s young cook Peter who, between preparing dishes, manages to strike up an affair with married waitress – all the time dreaming of a better life.

Brooke will be joined in the cast by Neal Barry, Ian Burfield, Rebecca Davies, Stavros Demetraki, Craige Els, Ruth Gibson, Colin Haigh, Rendah Heywood, Tendayi Jembere, Siobhan McSweeney, Gerard Monaco, Sarah Mowat, Bruce Myers, Vincenzo Nicoli, Luke Norris, Jessica Regan, Samuel Roukin, Tim Samuels, Sam Swann, Stephanie Thomas and Rosie Thomson.

The Kitchen will play in rep with Mike Bartlett‘s new play 13, directed by Thea Sharrock. The production of Bartlett’s “epic” new work will open on 25 October (previews from 18 October 2011).

Set in the near future against a backdrop of imminent war, 13 tackles political protest through the eyes of young man who returns home after years away. Reflecting on the Arab Spring and anti-cut and student protests which have seen thousands take to the streets, 13 explores the meaning of personal responsibility and the hold that the past has over the future and the nature of belief itself.

Bartlett’s plays include Earthquakes in London which was co-produced by Rupert Goold‘s Headlong in the NT Cottesloe last year, and which the company will tour from September. His other credits include Love, Love, Love for Paines Plough, which is also currently on tour.

Thea Sharrock‘s most recent production at the National, her Olivier Award-winning revival of Terence Rattigan’s After The Dance starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Nancy Carroll was also staged in the NT Lyttleton last year. Her other recent credits include Cause Celebre at the Old Vic and Blithe Spirit on tour and at the Apollo Theatre.

NT Lyttelton

Conor McPherson will direct his new play The Veil which opens on 4 October (previews from 27 September) with a cast announced today as Brid Brennan, Caoilfhionn Dunne, Ursula Jones, Peter McDonald, Jim Norton, Adrian Schiller, Emily Taaffe and Fenella Woolgar.

McPherson’s new play weaves Ireland’s troubled colonial history into a transfixing story about the search for love. Set around a haunted house in 1822, a defrocked Reverend charged with looking after a 17-year-old girl proposes a séance, resulting in catastrophic consequences.

Also in the NT Lyttelton, the National Theatre will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible – “the Book that changed the world” – with readings of 12 extracts edited by Edward Kemp performed from 8 October to 6 November 2011.

NT artistic director Nicholas Hytner will be joined by James Dacre and Polly Findlay to helm an ensemble of “leading NT actors”. Performances are expected to run 80 minutes without an interval.

Full casting has also been announced for Katie Mitchell‘s upcoming production of A Woman Killed With Kindness. As previously reported, the Travelex £12 production opens in the NT Lyttelton on 19 July 2011 (previews from 12 July).

The cast have been announced as Sebastian Armesto (Wendoll), Leo Bill (Charles Mountford), Nick Blakely, Louis Brooke, Josie Daxter, Kate Duchene, Nick Fletcher, Gawn Grainger, Tom Kay, Esther McAuley, Sandy McDade (Susan), Rob Ostlere, Leighton Pugh, Paul Ready (John Frankford), Hugh Sachs, George Taylor, Liz White (Anne Frankford) and Gilbert Wynne.

NT Cottesloe

Full casting has been announced for Mike Leigh‘s new devised work which will open in the NT Cottesloe on 21 September (previews from 14 September 2011).

Joining the previously announced Lesley Manville – Leigh’s frequent collaborator – and Ruby Bentall are Marion Bailey, Sam Kelly and Wendy Nottingham, who have worked with Leigh across numerous screen projects and David Horovitch.

It was also announced that Leigh’s new play, for which the title is still to be announced, and which is being developed using Leigh’s collaborative process of devising, will tour to Theatre Royal, Bath from 25 to 29 October and Cambridge Arts Theatre from 1 to 5 November, during its Cottesloe run.

Also in the NT Cottesloe, as previously reported, Alecky Blythe and Adam Cork’s acclaimed verbatim music-theatre piece London Road has extended its run through to 27 August 2011.

It was today announced the production’s director Rufus Norris has been appointed as an associate director of the National Theatre. His previous productions for the National include Death and the King’s Horseman and Market Boy. His other recent credits include Vernon God Little, Tintin, Sleeping Beauty, Peribanez and Afore Night Come for the Young Vic.