NTS Moves Harrower 365 to Hammersmith, 8 Sep

Following its world premiere at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival in August (See News, 2 Apr 2008), the National Theatre of Scotland’s production of David Harrower’s 365 will transfer to London’s Lyric Hammersmith from 8 to 27 September 2008.

The new play from the author of Blackbird and Knives in Hens concerns fragmented modern lives and young people in the UK’s care system. There are over 70,000 children in care, who on average, pass 11 stages of the system. In the final stage before independence, a practice flat is one of the state’s mechanisms to gently introduce these children to the adult world.

365 is the story of a year in a practice flat – a purpose-built witness to hopes, dreams, fear, opportunity and memory. NTS artistic director Vicky Featherstone directs the premiere which previews in Inverness (12 to 16 August) before its EIF run at the Edinburgh Playhouse (22 to 25 August) and transfer to London.

Other highlights in the National Theatre of Scotland’s newly announced season, covering July 2008 to January 2009, include: the previously announced Donmar Warehouse co-production of Be Near Me, starring Ian McDiarmid, who has also adapted it from Andrew O’Hagan’s Booker-longlisted 2006 novel (See News, 18 Apr 2008); the premiere of American devised piece Architecting, in collaboration with Team (USA), at the Traverse Theatre in August during the Edinburgh Fringe; a Hieronymous Bosch-inspired installation piece; children’s show One Giant Leap with Wee Stories; a Scottish tour of an updated version of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes; and new international for Black Watch and David Harrower’s version of The Bacchae starring Alan Cumming.

Back post-festival Edinburgh, NTS will return to the Traverse Theatre from 23 October to 30 November 2008 to present a season of four brand new plays by debut playwrights: Nobody Ever Forgive Us by Paul Higgins (an actor whose credits include TV’s The Thick of It and the original NTS production of Black Watch), Andy Duffy’s Nasty, Brutish and Short, Kenny Lindsay’s The Dogstone and Sam Holcroft’s Cockroach.

– by Terri Paddock