Nicholas Hytner has announced his last season as Artistic Director of the National Theatre.
Highlights of the National Theatre’s 2014 – 2015 season include:
- 10 world premieres including new plays by Tom Stoppard, David Hare, Richard Bean, Enda Walsh and Polly Stenham
- 3 plays by Rona Munro, about the Stewart Kings James I, James II and James III of Scotland
- Helen McCrory to star in Euripides’ Medea, Ralph Fiennes in Shaw’s Man and Superman, plus Cillian Murphy, Sofie Gråbøl, Stephen Rae
- Directors include Nicholas Hytner, Rufus Norris, Carrie Cracknell, Howard Davies, Simon Godwin, Marianne Elliot, Polly Findlay
- Family Christmas show to be Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island adapted by Bryony Lavery
- The new Dorfman Theatre to open this autumn
Sir Nicholas Hytner has announced his final season as Artistic Director of the National Theatre for 2014 and 2015, with a range of productions including ten world premieres and starring roles for Helen McCrory and Ralph Fiennes.
TRAVELEX SEASON
Tickets to this year’s Travelex season will go up to £15 and include a new production of Euripides’s Medea, in a new version by Ben Power. Directed by Carrie Cracknell and starring Helen McCrory, Medea opens in the Olivier Theatre in July 2014, and will also be screened live to cinemas on 4 September 2014.
Also part of the Travelex season will be three new plays by Rona Munro in collaboration with the National Theatre of Scotland. James I: The Key Will Keep the Lock, James II: Day of the Innocents and James III: The True Mirror will evoke three generations of Stewart Kings who ruled Scotland in the fifteenth century. Directed by Laurie Sansom, the cast includes The Killing’s Sofie Gråbøl (as the Danish-born Queen Margaret), Blythe Duff, and James McArdle, Andrew Rothney and Jamie Sives as the three kings. The plays open in the Olivier Theatre from September 2014.
The third play in the new Travelex season, opening in October in the Lyttelton Theatre, will see Lloyd Newson’s DV8 Physical Theatre return to the National with a new show called John.
The final play in the season will be a brand new work by David Hare called Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Based on a book by Katherine Boo, the play will be directed by in-coming artistic director of the National Rufus Norris, and will open in the Olivier Theatre in November 2014.
CHRISTMAS SHOW
Christmas 2014 will see a big new family show directed by Polly Findlay and adapted by Bryony Lavery, as Robert Louis Stephenson’s classic adventure Treasure Island is brought to the stage of the Olivier Theatre (from December 2014).
THE DORFMAN THEATRE
The new Dorfman Theatre will see a new play by Tom Stoppard open in January 2015 (title as yet unknown), to be directed by Nicholas Hytner.
Also at the Dorfman, a new play called Rules for Living by Sam Holcroft will open in March 2015, directed by Marianne Elliott (War Horse).
THE LYTTELTON
This summer in the Lyttelton will see a brand new play that reunites writer Richard Bean and director Nicholas Hytner following their huge hit with One Man, Two Guvnors.
September 2014 will see Cillian Murphy reunited with writer and director Enda Walsh, following their collaboration on Misterman, for Ballyturk. The cast will also include Mikel Murfi and Stephen Rea.
In December 2014, Howard Davies returns to the National to direct a new play by Croatian-born writer Tena Štivičić in the Lyttelton.
Ralph Fiennes will return to the National in February 2015, to star as John Tanner in Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman in the Lyttelton, directed by Simon Godwin.
THE SHED
In The Shed, Yellow Face by David Henry Hwang, originally staged at The Park Theatre, will open in May 2014 directed by Alex Sims.
In June sees a new play by Polly Stenham called Hotel, directed by Maria Aberg.
LINKS
Book tickets to National Theatre shows
National Theatre website
