Nicholas Hytner's London Theatre Company announces first season at The Bridge Theatre

New season announced for London Theatre Company.

Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr have today announced details of their inaugural season at The Bridge Theatre with their newly formed London Theatre Company which opens this October on the river by Tower Bridge and City Hall.

The theatre opens with Young Marx by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman on 26 October 2017, following previews from 18 October, running to 31 December 2017. Directed by Nicholas Hytner, it will star Rory Kinnear as Marx and Oliver Chris as Engels. It will feature design by Mark Thompson, music by Grant Olding, lighting by Mark Henderson and sound by Paul Arditti.

"1850, and Europe's most feared terrorist is hiding in Dean Street, Soho. Broke, restless and horny, the thirty-two-year-old revolutionary is a frothing combination of intellectual brilliance, invective, satiric wit, and child-like emotional illiteracy. Creditors, spies, rival revolutionary factions and prospective seducers of his beautiful wife all circle like vultures. His writing blocked, his marriage dying, his friend Engels in despair at his wasted genius, his only hope is a job on the railway. But there's still no one in the capital who can show you a better night on the piss than Karl Heinrich Marx."

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare will star Ben Whishaw as Brutus, Michelle Fairley as Cassius, David Calder as Caesar and David Morrissey as Mark Antony. Directed by Nicholas Hytner and staged in promenade, it will run from 20 January to 15 April 2018.

"Caesar returns in triumph to Rome and the people pour out of their homes to celebrate. Alarmed by the autocrat's popularity, the educated élite conspire to bring him down. After his assassination, civil war erupts on the streets of the capital."

Laurie Sansom will direct the world premiere of Barney Norris's Nightfall which runs from 28 April to 3 June 2018, with an official opening on 8 May 2018.

"On a farm outside Winchester, Ryan struggles to make a living off the land. His sister Lou has returned home after the death of their father to support Jenny, their formidable mother. Not so long ago, when a neighbour's Labrador strayed onto the farm, their dad reached for his shotgun. Now, when Lou's boyfriend Pete reappears, flush with money from his job at an oil refinery, Jenny fights to hold her children to the life she planned for them."

From summer 2018, productions will include a new play by Lucinda Coxon based on the novel Alys, Always by Harriet Lane; a new play by Nina Raine about JS Bach, played by Simon Russell Beale; flatpack, a new play by John Hodge; The Black Cloud, a new play by Sam Holcroft from the novel by Fred Hoyle; and Carmen Havana, a version of Bizet's opera by Lucy Prebble with choreography by Miguel Altunaga and directed by Nicholas Hytner.

London Theatre Company has been founded by Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr who worked together at the National Theatre for twelve years. The company will focus on the commissioning and producing new shows, as well as staging the occasional classic. Based at the new venue The Bridge, it will present four or five new productions throughout the year, including Sunday performances and a Monday night programme which will include intimate gigs.

The Bridge describes itself as the first new theatre of scale to be added to London's commercial theatre sector in 80 years and the first to be built outside the historic West End. Based at the foot of Tower Bridge next to City Hall it is a 5-10 minutes' walk from London Bridge.

Nicholas Hytner said: "We want to make bold popular theatre. We've commissioned ambitious plays that reach out to embrace the audience, and we've built an environment for them that is exciting, welcoming and flexible: a theatre that can be changed to suit the show. We reckon that London needs new theatres, designed for the shows that people make in the 21st century and the expectations that audiences have for a really good night out."

Nick Starr said: "After the National Theatre, it was time for something new and scary. London is a brilliant city for making and seeing theatre, evidenced by the 25% increase in audiences over the last fifteen years. We think there's room for a new independent on the scene, driven by both a mission and a bottom line. We hope that will resonate with artists and audiences, and are hugely looking forward to welcoming them to The Bridge."

Tickets for the first three productions go on public sale from 27 April 2017.