The Ocean at the End of the Lane tickets at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, the National Theatre's stage adaptation of Neil Gaiman's best-selling novel is to embark on a major UK and Ireland tour later this year. Hailed by the Independent as ‘theatre at its best’ with Time Out declaring ‘shows like this don’t come along very often’, the five-star play completes its West End run at the Duke of York's Theatre this week on 14 May 2022. The 10-month tour will open at The Lowry in Salford on 12 December 2022 and complete its run at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre on 30 September 2023. Full tour dates listed below. The first major stage adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s work, this fantasy novel is a modern myth, where the power of imagination and storytelling transports audiences on a spellbinding and spectacular adventure. Gaiman commented: "The Ocean at the End of the Lane is about memory, magic, family. It's about who you were and who you are. It's not like anything else I've ever been involved in. It's not like anything else you'll ever see at the theatre. The Ocean at the End of the Lane has its own theatrical magic. It's why happy people tell you that they cried while watching it, it's why it becomes a dreamlike experience in memory, it gets bigger the further inside you follow it. Like a duck pond that contains an ocean that holds the universe…" The Ocean at the End of the Lane (c) Manuel Harlan Gaiman’s magical world and the much-loved characters that inhabit it are ‘brought to thrilling life' (The Times) on stage in a spectacular, tour de force of imagination and storytelling by an award winning creative team helmed by director Katy Rudd. Adapted for the stage by Joel Harwood, the production features stunning set design by Fly Davis, costume and puppet design by Samuel Wyer, lighting design by Paule Constable, sound design by Ian Dickinson, magic and illusions direction and design by Jamie Harrison and puppetry direction by Finn Caldwell. Movement direction is by Steven Hoggett, and composition is by Jherek Bischoff. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is booking till 14 May 2022 at the Duke of York's Theatre, London. UK & Ireland tour dates for The Ocean at the End of The Lane The Lowry, Salford (12 December 2022 to 7 January 2023) New Victoria Theatre, Woking (24 to 28 January), Leicester Curve (31 January to 11 February) Theatre Royal Plymouth (14 to 25 February) Sunderland Empire (28 February to 4 March) Theatre Royal Bath (7 to 18 March) Grand Opera House, Belfast (21 to 25 March) Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin (28 March to 1 April) The Alhambra Theatre, Bradford (4 to 8 April) New Wimbledon Theatre (11 to 15 April) Edinburgh Festival Theatre (18 to 22 April) Liverpool Empire (2 to 6 May) Sheffield Lyceum Theatre (9 to 20 May) The Alexandra, Birmingham (23 to 27 May) Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff (30 May to 3 June) Nottingham Theatre Royal (6 to 17 June) New Theatre, Oxford (20 to 24 June) Milton Keynes Theatre (27 June to 1 July) Mayflower Theatre, Southampton (4 to 8 July) Newcastle Theatre Royal (11 to 22 July) Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury (25 to 29 July) Cliffs Pavilion, Southend (8 to 12 August) Bristol Hippodrome (15 to 19 August) His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen (22 to 26 August) King's Theatre, Glasgow (29 August to 2 September) Norwich Theatre Royal (5 to 9 September) Regent Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent (12 to 16 September) Hall for Cornwall, Truro (19 to 23 September) Wolverhampton Grand Theatre (26 to 30 September)

The National Theatre has announced an ambitious new staging of Greek epic The Odyssey. The new, multi-location production will tour the UK, produced in partnership with local communities, theatres and artists. The show will form part of the National's 60th anniversary programme next year, and the fifth anniversary of their Public Acts initiative to create acts of theatre and community around the UK. In collaboration with hundreds of community members and professional artists, Homer's adventures of Odysseus are going to be reimagined across four episodes taking place in Spring 2023, and culminating in a fifth and final episode performed on the Olivier stage at the National Theatre in August 2023. The lead creative team for the project is Director of Public Acts Emily Lim, playwright and lyricist Chris Bush, who will write the final episode and act as Dramaturg for the first four episodes in collaboration with playwrights from across the country, and music composer Jim Fortune who will compose music for the final episode and write a finale song that will feature across all five episodes. The first four episodes will be created and performed by local artists and communities in four partner organisations in April 2023: Episode 1 – The Lotus Eaters in Restoke in Stoke-on-Trent (1-2 April 2023); Episode 2 – The Cyclops in Cast in Doncaster (15-16 April 2023); Episode 3 – The Four Winds in Trowbridge Town Hall in Trowbridge (22-23 April 2023;); and Episode 4 – The Island of the Sun in The Fire Station (for Sunderland Culture in partnership with Sunderland Empire) in Sunderland (28-29 April 2023). The four artists writing each of these four episodes in co-creation with their communities are Gabriella Gay (Stoke), Tajinder Singh Hayer (Doncaster), Florence Espeut-Nickless (Trowbridge) and Lindsay Rodden (Sunderland). The culmination of the Odyssey journey, the fifth episode called The Underworld, will be staged as an epic full-scale musical production at the National Theatre on 27-29 August 2023. This final production will feature community performers from all four nationwide companies, as well as members recruited through Public Acts founding community partners in London, founding theatre partner Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, and Trybe House Theatre in London who are working with Public Acts for the first time this year. The performance will feature a total of 140 people including six professional actors, six live musicians and three cameo performance performance groups from across the UK. Emily Lim, the Director of Public Acts for the National Theatre said, “We are so excited to be bringing The Odyssey to life with such an inspiring group of theatre-makers. In light of everything that’s happened over the past two years it feels incredibly special, and right, to be coming together from all corners of the country to tell a story about how we heal and move forwards after a period of profound loss and change. We hope the project will create an unforgettable gesture of unity, creativity and radical joy which everyone can feel a part of.” The National Theatre is currently playing The Corn is Green in its Lyttelton Theatre, and Small Island in the Olivier Theatre. Its production of The Ocean at the End of the Lane is currently playing at the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End. Book tickets to Small Island at the National Theatre Book tickets to the Ocean at the End of the Lane at the National Theatre

The National Theatre in London has announced its new slate of shows for Summer 2022. In the Olivier Theatre will be Jack Absolute Flies Again, billed as a riotous new version of Sheridan's comedy The Rivals, co-written by Richard Bean - who wrote one of the National's biggest ever hits, One Man, Two Guvnors, and Oliver Chris (Emma). It will run in the Olivier in July 2022. Emily Burns (The Comeback) is directing, and Laurie Davidson (Cats) stars as Jack Absolute, alongside Caroline Quentin (Jonathan Creek) as Mrs Malaprop, Natalie Simpson (Three Sisters) as Lydia Languish, Kelvin Fletcher (Emmerdale) as Dudley Scunthorpe and Kerry Howard (Him & Her) as Lucy. James Corrigan, Theo Cowan, Jordan Metcalfe, George Kemp, Akshay Sharan, Tim Steed, Geoffrey Towers, Shona White and Helena Wilson are also in the cast. The show will feature set and costume design is by Mark Thompson, lighting design by Tim Lutkin, composer is Paul Englishby, sound design by Paul Arditti and video and projection design by Jeff Sugg. Physical comedy director will be Toby Park, choreography by Lizzi Gee and staff director Cara Nolan. In the Lyttelton theatre, and also in July 2022, director Simon Godwin (Romeo & Juliet) returns to the venue to direct Shakespeare's timeless romantic comedyMuch Ado About Nothing. Set at the fictional Hotel Messina on the Italian Riviera, the show stars Katherine Parkinson (The IT crowd) as Beatrice and John Heffernan (The Pursuit of Love) as Benedick. Set design will be by Anna Fleischle, costume design by Evie Gurney, lighting design by Lucy Carter, composer is Michael Bruce, sound design is by Christopher Shutt, and staff Director is Hannah Joss. In September in the Lyttelton, Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre, Lynette Linton, directs a new production of Pearl Cleage's Blues for an Alabama Sky. Set in 1930 during the Harlem renaissance, the play is about four friends whose lives and passions collide when a newcomer from Alabama arrives. Samira Wiley (The Handmaid's Tale, Orange is the New Black) stars as Angel Allen, with Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo (Three Sisters) as Delia Patterson, Osy Ikhile (Sweat) as Leland Cunningham, Sule Rimi (Barber Shop Chronicles) as Sam Thomas and Giles Terera (Death of England: Face to Face) as Guy Jacobs. Set and costume design will be by Frankie Bradshaw, lighting design by Oli Fenwick, movement director Kane Husbands, composer Ben Kwasi Burrell, sound designer by George Dennis and Staff Director TD Moyo. In the Dorfman Theatre in July, award-winning writer and comedian Francesca Martinez will present her new play All of Us, directed by Ian Rickson. All of Us is a powerful and timely drama exploring the human cost of abandoning those who struggle to fit in. The play stars Francesca Martinez alongside Chris Anderson, Oliver Alvin-Wilson, Bryan Dick, Kevin Hely, Christopher-John Slater, Francesca Mills and Wanda Opalinska. The creative team features set and costume design is by Georgia Lowe, lighting design by Anna Watson, movement direction by Lucy Cullingford, composer Stephen Warbeck, sound design by Gregory Clarke, fight director Terry King, and staff Director is Hana Pascal Keegan. National Theatre Live continues its programme this Spring/Summer, with live broadcasts to cinemas of Henry V from The Donmar Warehouse on 21 April, and Straight Line Crazy, the new play by David Hare starring Ralph Fiennes from the Bridge Theatre on 26 May. In terms of the National Theatre in the West End and on tour, their acclaimed production of The Ocean at the End of the Lane continues in London's West End until 14 May. This is the first major stage adaptation of Neil Gaiman's work, and is adapted by Joel Horwood and directed by Katy Rudd. Also the National's production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time based on Mark Haddon's best-selling novel, adapted by Simon Stephens and directed by Marianne Elliott, continues on its 10th anniversary tour of the UK and Ireland.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, the National Theatre's stage adaptation of Neil Gaiman's best-selling novel has opened to stunning reviews at the Duke of York's Theatre in London. Tickets for The Ocean at the End of the Lane are now booking to May 2022. Hailed by the Independent as ‘theatre at its best’ and Time Out declares ‘shows like this don’t come along very often’, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is one of the must-see shows in London's West End. The first major stage adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s work, this fantasy novel is a modern myth, where the power of imagination and storytelling transports audiences on a spellbinding and spectacular adventure. The Ocean at the End of the Lane (c) Manuel Harlan Gaiman’s magical world and the much-loved characters that inhabit it are ‘brought to thrilling life' (The Times) on stage in a spectacular, tour de force of imagination and storytelling by an award winning creative team helmed by director Katy Rudd. Adapted for the stage by Joel Harwood, the production features stunning set design by Fly Davis, costume and puppet design by Samuel Wyer, lighting design by Paule Constable, sound design by Ian Dickinson, magic and illusions direction and design by Jamie Harrison and puppetry direction by Finn Caldwell. Movement direction is by Steven Hoggett, and composition is by Jherek Bischoff. The cast features James Bamford, Nia Towle, Penny Layden, Charleen Qwaye, Charlie Cameron, Emma Bown, Grace Hogg-Robinson, Kieran Garland, Laura Rogers, Miranda Heath, Nicolas Tennant, Peter Twose, Ruby Ablett, Siubhan Harrison, Tom Mackley, Jeff D'Sangalang. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is booking to May 2022 at the Duke of York's Theatre, London.