Former National Theatre Director Richard Eyre returns to direct the landmark play ahead of its 50th anniversary and Hare’s 80th birthday with Emilia Clarke making her stage debut in the Lyttleton.
The National Theatre has announced that Emilia Clarke will make her National Theatre debut in a new production of David Hare’s landmark play Plenty, staged in the Lyttelton Theatre in spring 2027.
Clarke plays Susan Traherne, a former Special Operations Executive agent whose wartime purpose curdles into disillusionment across two decades of peacetime England — a role that has become one of the great parts in modern British drama. The production is directed by former National Theatre Director Richard Eyre, marking a celebrated reunion between Eyre and playwright David Hare, and is staged ahead of the play’s 50th anniversary and Hare’s 80th birthday.
Plenty premiered at the National’s own Lyttelton Theatre in April 1978, directed by Hare himself and starring Kate Nelligan, whose performance earned her an Olivier Award nomination.
The play went on to be recognised as a landmark of modern British theatre, particularly after Nelligan reprised the role in a celebrated 1982 New York production that transferred to Broadway.
The role has since become a defining showcase for its leading actors: Meryl Streep played Susan in David Hare’s own 1985 film adaptation, and Cate Blanchett gave an acclaimed London performance in a 1999 production at the Albery Theatre (now the Noël Coward Theatre), praised for being “wired, erotic and superbly flaky.”
Further casting for the 2027 production is yet to be announced, alongside specific dates. Sign up to be alerted when it goes onsale.
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