The National Theatre has announced details of its programme from October
2009 to January 2010:
Pains of Youth
By Ferdinand Bruckner, in a new version by Martin Crimp
Cottesloe Theatre
Opening 28th October (Previews from 21), continuing in repertoire
Directed by Katie Mitchell, the production will be designed by Vicki
Mortimer, with costumes by John Bright, lighting by Jon Clark, music
by Paul Clark and sound by Gareth Fry. The cast includes Sian Clifford,
Laura Elphinstone, Cara Horgan, Jonah Russell, Geoffrey Streatfeild
and Lydia Wilson.
Vienna, 1923. A discontented post-war generation diagnose youth to
be their sickness and do their best to destroy it.
Promiscuous, pitiless and bored, six sexually entangled medical students
restlessly wander in and out of a boarding house, cramming, drinking,
taunting, spying. Freder sets about savagely experimenting with the
young, pretty maid, with half an eye on his former lover Desiree,
a wild, disillusioned aristocrat. Petrell abandons Marie for the ruthless
underdog Irene. Marie doesn't waste any time weeping - Desiree wants
her.
The Habit of Art
By Alan Bennett
Lyttelton Theatre
Opens 17th November (previews from 5th), continuing in repertoire
Directed by Nicholas Hytner, the production will be designed by Bob
Crowley, with lighting by Mark Henderson, music by Matthew Scott and
sound by Paul Groothuis. The cast include: Frances de la Tour, Michael
Gambon, John Heffernan, Alex Jennings, Elliot Levey, Adrian Scarborough
and Stephen Wight.
Benjamin Britten, sailing uncomfortably close to the wind with his
new opera, Death in Venice, seeks advice from his former collaborator
and friend, W H Auden. During this imagined meeting, their first for
twenty-five years, they are observed and interrupted by, amongst others,
their future biographer and a young man from the local bus station.
Alan Bennett's new play is as much about the theatre as it is about
poetry or music. It looks at the unsettling desires of two difficult
men, and at the ethics of biography. It reflects on growing old, on
creativity and inspiration, and on persisting when all passion's spent:
ultimately, on the habit of art.
The production will be broadcast to cinema screens in the UK and
internationally, as part of NT Live, on 22nd April 2010.
The Cat in the Hat
Cottesloe Theatre
Opens 16th December (previews from 11th), continuing in repertoire.
Performance times: 10:30am and 1:30pm. Running time: 45 mins approx
Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat is directed by Katie Mitchell.
The production will be designed by Vicki Mortimer, with lighting by
Jon Clark and sound by Gareth Fry.
Following its run at the NT, The Cat in the Hat will play
at the Maria Studio, Young Vic from 28th January to 13th March, at
10.30am and 1.30pm daily; public booking opens on 26th October.
