Beware Women & Sinner at NT, Habit Transfers???

A new play by Drew Pautz titled Love the Sinner is being lined up for a full-scale premiere production at the National Theatre this spring, probably in the NT Cottesloe, directed by Matthew Dunster. The piece has been in development since March 2007 when it was created as part of nabokov theatre company’s regular Present: Tense challenge, in which a group of playwrights, directors, poets and musicians have just one week to respond to a topical news story. Pautz wrote in response to the schism over homosexuality in the Anglican Church after a General Synod vote.

Amongst the other NT productions queuing up for 2010, dates still to be announced are, in the £10 season in the NT Olivier (See News, 22 Sep 2008): the postponed production of Georg Buchner’s 1835 piece about the French Revolution, Danton’s Death, marking the NT debut for Donmar artistic director Michael Grandage as well as Middleton’s 17th-century tragedy Women Beware Women, directed by Marianne Elliott; and a new play by Moira Buffini based on Eurydice and directed by former NT artistic director Richard Eyre.

In other NT whispers, we hear that The Habit of Art, Alan Bennett’s first new play since The History Boys, is likely to transfer to the West End before the end of next year. Hytner’s premiere production, which stars Richard Griffiths, Alex Jennings and Frances de la Tour, is currently booking in rep in the NT Lyttelton through April. It will be broadcast live to cinema screens around the world on 22 April as part of the NT Live initiative, and will tour regionally after its London dates. So plenty of chances to see it!