At the National Theatre Nicholas Hytner announces plans for 2008 and beyond...

At the National Theatre Nicholas Hytner announces plans for 2008 and beyond...

Nicholas Hytner announces plans for 2008 and beyond at the National Theatre...

In the Olivier Theatre...

April 2008
FRAM, a new play by Tony Harrison about the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen, directed by Tony Harrison and Bob Crowley; the cast will include Jasper Britton, Sian Thomas.

June 2008
THE REVENGER'S TRAGEDY, by Thomas Middleton, directed by Melly Still, with Rory Kinnear as Vindice.

July 2008
HER NAKED SKIN, a new play by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, set against the backdrop of the Suffragette movement, will be directed by Howard Davies.

Aug 2008
EVERY GOOD BOY DESERVES FAVOUR, by Tom Stoppard and Andre Previn. A co-production between Southbank Sinfonia and the National Theatre.

Oct 2008
OEDIPUS, by Sophocles, in a new version by Frank McGuinness. Directed by Jonathan Kent, starring Ralph Fiennes

Nov 2008
WAR HORSE , returns to the National. Based on Michael Morpurgo's novel and adapted by Nick Stafford, the production is directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris

In the Lyttelton Theatre...

March 2008
NEVER SO GOOD, a new play by Howard Brenton about Harold Macmillan (Conservative politician and Prime Minister 1957-1963) will be directed by Howard Davies. Jeremy Irons makes his NT debut as Macmillan.

April 2008
THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING, a play by Joan Didion based on her memoir. Directed by David Hare, starring Vanessa Redgrave. The production (first seen on Broadway in 2007) will also tour the UK and internationally.

June 2008
AFTERLIFE, a new play by Michael Frayn. Exploring the life of the Austrian impresario and founder of the Salzburg Festival, Max Reinhardt. Directed by Michael Blakemore.

Summer 2008
A SLIGHT ACHE , by Harold Pinter will be produced for a run of early evening performances, with Simon Russell Beale leading the cast.

September 2008
TITLE TO BE CONFIRMED!, a new work co-directed and performed by Akram Khan and Juliette Binoche and designed by Anish Kapoor. Co-produced by the National.

October 2008
TO BE STRAIGHT WITH YOU, new work by DV8, directed by Lloyd Newson

In the Cottesloe Theatre...

April 2008
HARPER REGAN, a new play by Simon Stephens, directed by Marianne Elliott, with Lesley Sharp playing the title role

Spring/Summer 2008??
THE PITMEN PAINTERS, by Lee Hall. Transfers from Live Theatre, Newcastle (where it premiered in September) for a limited run, with the original cast directed by Max Roberts.

July 2008
THE IDIOT, by Dostoyevsky, adapted by Katie Mitchell, starring Ben Whishaw

Aug 2008
WAVES, by Katie Mitchell, based on Virginia Woolf's novel, returns for a limited run, prior to a UK and international tour.

Nov 2008
MRS AFFLECK, by Samuel Adamson, from Ibsen's Little Eyolf. Directed by Marianne Elliott.

Beyond 2008...

GETHSEMANE, a new play by David Hare, will open in early 2009, directed by Howard Davies.

Deborah Warner will direct Fiona Shaw in the title role of Brecht's MOTHER COURAGE

Nicholas Hytner said : '2008 will be the most ambitious year since I became the National's director. It will be marked above all by the extraordinary confidence of British playwriting, which is in evidence all over the country, at theatres large and small. We have four new plays from the current great generation of major English playwrights, and eight from their successors. Many of them are on an epic scale, and they share the repertoire with an unprecedented profusion of classics, devised shows, physical theatre and dance theatre. The National is only part of a surge of creative energy throughout the British theatre and I'm looking forward to seeing the results on our stages.'

Public booking OPENS 7 FEB 2008 for FRAM, HARPER REGAN, NEVER SO GOOD and THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING