National Theatre confirm futher shows to Schedule!

National Theatre confirm futher shows to Schedule!

The National Theatre has announced further shows for their schedule, including a new play by David Hare.

Public booking opens 29 June 2009 for new shows.

 

New Productions...

THREE MORE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS
by Caryl Churchill
in the Lyttelton Theatre
(Previews from 30 July 2009, Opens 31 July 2009, Closes 27 Aug 2009)
(10 performances only - at 6pm!)
Directed by Gareth Machin, designed by Naomi Dawson, lighting by Laurie Clayton, sound by Mike Winship
Cast includes Lindsey Coulson, Ian Hart, Hattie Morahan and Paul Ready
A look at human interaction and relationships. One double bed. Two couples. Three short acts of love-tangled conversation that expertly twist and turn, from existential angst to sci-fi films; from explosive arguments to long silences.


LOLITA
by Vladimir Nabokov, edited by Richard Nelson
in the Lyttelton Theatre
(3 Performances only - 7, 14, 21 September)
A 90-minute monologue. Humbert Humbert is a European intellectual adrift in America, haunted by memories of thwarted adolescent love. He becomes obsessed and involved with 12-year-old Dolores Haze; but first he must deal with the mother.


MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN
by Bertolt Brecht, in a translation by Tony Kushner
in the Olivier Theatre
(Previews from 9 Sep 2009, Opens 16 Sep 2009, Booking to 11 Oct 2009)
Directed by Deborah Warner, designed by Tom Pye, lighting by Jean Kalman, costumes by Ruth Myers, sound by Andrew Bruce and Nick Lidster, songs by Duke Special, musicscape by Mel Mercier, video by Lysander Ashton and Mark Grimmer
Cast includes Fiona Shaw (Mother Courage)
Mother Courage drags her cart across the battlefields, profiteering from a war that destroys her children, one by one.


OUR CLASS
by Tadeusz Slobodzianek, in a version by Ryan Craig
in the Cottesloe Theatre
(Previews from 16 Sep 2009, Opens 23 Sep 2009, Booking to 10 Oct 2009)
Directed by Bijan Sheibani, designed by Bunny Christie, lighting by Jon Clark, sound by Ian Dickinson, choreography by Aline David
Cast includes Tamzin Griffin, Amanda Hale, Edward Hogg, Sinead Matthews, Jason Watkins.
A group of schoolchildren, Jewish and Catholic, declare their ambitions: one to be a fireman, one a film star, one a pilot, another a doctor. They are learning the ABC. This is Poland, 1925. As the children grow up, their country is torn apart by invading armies, first Soviet and then Nazi. Internal grievances deepen as fervent nationalism develops; friends betray each other; violence escalates: until these ordinary people carry out an extraordinary and monstrous act that darkly resonates to this day.


THE POWER OF YES - A dramatist seeks to understand the financial crisis
by David Hare
in the Lyttelton Theatre
(Previews from 29 Sep 2009, Opens 6 Oct 2009, Booking to 29 Oct 2009)
On 15 September 2008, capitalism came to a grinding halt. As sub-prime mortgages and toxic securities continued to dominate the headlines, the National Theatre asked David Hare to write an urgent and immediate work that sought to find out what had happened, and why. It is not so much a play as a jaw-dropping account of how, as the banks went bust, capitalism was replaced by a socialism that bailed out the rich alone.


NATION
based on a novel by Terry Pratchett, adapted by Mark Ravenhill
in the Olivier Theatre
(Previews from 11 Nov 2009, Opens 24 Nov 2009, Booking to 5 Jan 2010)
Directed by Melly Still, designed by Melly Still & Mark Friend, lighting by Paul Anderson, sound by Paul Arditti, projections by Jon Driscoll, music by Adrian Sutton
Cast includes Gary Carr, Emily Taaffe
A parallel world, 1860. Two teenagers thrown together by a tsunami that has destroyed Mau's village and left Daphne shipwrecked on his South Pacific island, thousands of miles from home. One wears next to nothing, the other a long white dress; neither speaks the other's language; somehow they must learn to survive. As starving refugees gather, Daphne delivers a baby, milks a pig, brews beer and does battle with a mutineer. Mau fights cannibal Raiders, discovers the world is round and questions the reality of his tribe's fiercely patriarchal gods. Together they come of age, overseen by a foul-mouthed parrot, as they discard old doctrine to forge a new Nation.

 

 

Returning Production...

THE PITMEN PAINTERS
by Lee Hall, inspired by a book by William Feaver
in the Lyttelton Theatre
(from 2 Sep 2009, Closes 22 Sep 2009)
Directed by Max Roberts
Cast includes Christopher Connel, Michael Hodgson, Ian Kelly, Brian Lonsdale, Lisa McGrillis, Deka Walmsley, David Whitaker, Phillippa Wilson.
In 1934, a group of Ashington miners hired a professor to teach an art appreciation evening class. Rapidly abandoning theory in favour of practice, the pitmen began to paint. Within a few years the most avant-garde artists became their friends and their work was acquired by prestigious collections; but every day they worked, as before, down the mine.

 

Productions Extending...

TIME AND THE CONWAYS now closing 16 Aug 2009
THE OBSERVER now closing 3 Sep 2009

 

New Platforms...

6pm unless stated/ Length 45 mins

In Conversation with... Margaret Tyzack
Mon 27 July
3pm (1hr) Cottesloe
The ongoing series of informal conversations with company members chatting about their work and answering audience questions. Chaired by Al Senter.

Andrew Motion and Claire Tomalin on Keats
29 July, Lyttelton
Keats is a poet who never goes out of fashion. Andrew Motion, former Poet Laureate and biographer of Keats, joins Claire Tomalin to discuss and read from her selection of Keats' work.

Hanif Kureishi and Jatinder Verma on The Black Album
10 Aug, Cottesloe
The writer and director talk about this new adaptation of Kureishi's acclaimed novel set in 1989.

Vera Lynn
18 Aug, Olivier
The Forces' Sweetheart, Vera Lynn, marks the 70th anniversary of the start of WWII with Some Sunny Day, a new memoir of her extraordinary career in momentous times.

In Conversation with... Conleth Hill
Wed 2 September 3pm (1hr) Cottesloe
The ongoing series of informal conversations with company members chatting about their work and answering audience questions. Chaired by Al Senter.

David Edgar
3 Sep, Cottesloe
The founder of Britain's first university play-writing course 20 years ago, playwright David Edgar analyses how plays function in his book How Plays Work, arguing that the same basic mechanisms and techniques have been employed by dramatists throughout the ages from Aeschylus to Ayckbourn.

Joss Ackland
7 Sep, Cottesloe
Actor Joss Ackland, whose 50-year career includes celebrated performances in White Mischief and Shadowlands, talks about My Better Half and Me, which combines the candid diaries of his late wife, Rosemary, with his own observations on the life they spent together.

Richard Eyre
10 Sep, Lyttelton
In Talking Theatre, his collection of candid interviews with actors, writers, composers and directors - from Dench and Stoppard to Sondheim and Lepage - Richard Eyre offers a unique insight into the working lives of 41 major theatre practitioners, and discusses the future of the dramatic form.

Griff Rhys Jones
15 Sep, Lyttelton
The comedian, actor, presenter and writer, Griff Rhys Jones, returns to the scene of his river-bound escape as Toad in The Wind in the Willows, to talk about his new book, Rivers, investigating the history and changing face of Britain's rivers, and exploring how they have inspired industry, commerce and the arts.

June Whitfield
17 Sep, Lyttelton
June Whitfield, whose iconic comedy creations range from the ever-single Eth Glum in Take It From Here in the 50s to the ever-patient mother in Absolutely Fabulous in the 90s, reflects on her rich career in At A Glance, an illustrated account of her life and times.

Bijan Sheibani on Our Class
2 Oct, Cottesloe
The director discusses his production of the new play by Tadeusz Slobodzianek.

Roald Dahl Day with Quentin Blake and friends
3 Oct, 10.30am, Olivier
To celebrate the fourth annual Roald Dahl Day, his principal illustrator Quentin Blake once again draws live on stage, and is joined by actors reading from Dahl's work.

Michael Palin
6 Oct, Olivier
In the second volume of his diaries, Halfway to Hollywood, the scriptwriter, comedian, novelist, TV presenter, actor and playwright, Michael Palin, looks back with his customary wit and enthusiasm on the decade that took him from the end of the Pythons, via A Fish Called Wanda and A Private Function to the beginnings of Around the World in 80 Days.

Fiona Shaw and Deborah Warner on Mother Courage
8 Oct, Olivier
As they take on Brecht in the Olivier, Fiona Shaw and Deborah Warner discuss their latest collaboration.

Gregory Doran
9 Oct, Cottesloe
Lovingly compiled by RSC associate director Gregory Doran, The Shakespeare Almanac is a cornucopia of the family occasions, changing seasons, local customs and global events that made up Shakespeare's world, illustrated with quotations from his plays and poetry.


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