 |
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
News
|
|||
|
News
|
Dateline: 15th September, 2006
News from the National As Nicholas Hytner predicted last year, attendances at the National fell during the financial year 2005/6, reaching 84%, a 10% drop on the previous year. This was inevitable, he said, because what had made the two previous years so successful was the number of "blockbusters", mainly His Dark Materials and The History Boys. As a result the company made an operational loss of £160,000 on its budget of £41m. However it does have an unrestricted reserves surplus of £718,000. During the year the National presented seventeen productions, toured eight and transferred four to Broadway. The Travelex season continues to be a success and Hytner hopes in the future to include in it productions in the Lyttelton as well as the Olivier. He is still, he said, committed to Sunday opening, even though BECTU members at the theatre have objected to it being written into the contracts, inisisting that working on Sundays should be voluntary and that staff should be paid overtime. To go ahead could cost up to half a million pounds but Hytner says that they have to be prepared to take the risk. On his own future at the National, he aid that he has done three and a half years as artistic director and fully intends to extend his contract for a further five years when it runs out in 2008. Future productions will include Fiona Shaw in Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days in January, directed by Deborah Warner; Ben Chaplin in a new play The Reporter by Nicholas Wright, directed by Richard Eyre (February); Ralph Fiennes in Oedipus, directed by Jonathan Kent (2008); George Etheredge’s The Man Of Mode, directed by Hytner; War Horse by Michael Morpurgo adapted by Nick Stafford, in collaboration with South African puppet company Handspring and directed by Marianne Elliott, and A Matter Of Life And Death by Kneehigh’s Emma Rice. He has also commissioned a new play, as yet untitled, by David Hare. A West End transfer is also pencilled in for The History Boys for 2007, assuming a suitable theatre is available. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
|
||
|
|
