The British Theatre Guide: April to June at the National

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Dateline: 16th February, 2006

April to June at the National

The National Theatre has announced its programme from April to June, 2006:

In the Olivier

Market Boy
TRAVELEX £10 SEASON
Previews from 26 May, opens 6 June, continuing in repertoire
Market Boy, a new play by David Eldridge, will be the second production in the 2006 Travelex £10 Season. Rufus Norris directs at the NT for the first time; the cast includes Jonathan Cullen, Callum Dixon, John Marquez, Paul Moriarty, Claire Rushbrook, Freddy White and Danny Worters (in the title role).

Romford Market 1985, where a boy has everything to learn: the art of selling stilettos, learning a good wind-up, discovering sex, alcohol and drugs, the temptations of cash and how to stay sharp in the savage world of Essex traders. Market Boy is a spectacular yarn about the time Mrs Thatcher said we should embrace the marketplace; a story about the loss of innocence.

Market Boy was developed at the NT Studio.

In the Lyttelton

The Voysey Inheritance
Previews from 18 April, popens 25 April, in repertoire until 7 June
This new production of The Voysey Inheritance by Harley Granville Barker is directed by Peter Gill and designed by Alison Chitty. Lighting will be by Hartley T A Kemp and music by Terry Davies. The cast includes Lucy Briers, Nancy Carroll, Julian Glover, Martin Hutson, John Normington, Dominic West and Andrew Woodall.

Edward's highly principled world upturns when his father reveals that he has been illegally speculating with clients' money. To make matters worse, he soon discovers his large, scandal-fearing family would perpetuate the crime rather than risk public dishonour. And it's to Edward they look.

In the Cottesloe

The Overwhelming
Previews from 9 May, opens 17 May, continuing in repertoire
The Overwhelming, the world premiere of a new play by JT Rogers, is directed by Max Stafford-Clark, presented by the National Theatre in association with Out of Joint.

Seizing the opportunity to research a book, Jack Exley uproots his family from Illinois to Rwanda in early 1994. Alarmingly out of depth, Jack begins a fervent search for his dear and missing friend while his wife and teenage son find trouble of their own. As Jack involves himself in the local politics, he discovers a pattern of brutality and beliefs that jeopardizes the lives of everyone around him.

The Overwhelming is the first play by JT Rogers to be produced in the UK. His other plays include Madagascar (recently seen off-Broadway), White People, Seeing The Elephant and Murmuring in a Dead Tongue.

More to Come

The third play in the Olivier's Travelex £10 Season, opening in early July, will be Bertolt Brecht's The Life of Galileo, in a version by David Hare, directed by Howard Davies; Simon Russell Beale returns to the National as Galileo. He will also appear with fellow NT Associate Alex Jennings in the final production of the season, Ben Jonson's Jacobean comedy The Alchemist, directed by Nicholas Hytner and opening in September.

Katie Mitchell will direct Chekhov's The Seagull, in a new version by Martin Crimp, with Juliet Stevenson as Madame Arkadina and Ben Whishaw as Konstantin, opening in June. In November, again in the Lyttelton, Katie Mitchell will direct Martin Crimp's Attempts on Her Life (originally seen at the Royal Court's Theatre Upstairs in 1997).

October sees the UK premiere in the Lyttelton of the musical Caroline, or Change, with book and lyrics by Tony Kushner and music by Jeanine Tesori. It will be directed by George C Wolfe, who staged the 1993/4 Public Theater and Broadway production.

Conor MacPherson will make his National Theatre debut, directing his own new play The Seafarer in the Cottesloe and also on tour.

Melly Still's sell-out production of Coram Boy, adapted by Helen Edmundson from Jamila Gavin's novel, will return to the Olivier next winter, running from 29 November and currently booking until 20 January 2007.

Further ahead, Marianne Elliott will direct Nick Stafford's adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's novel War Horse, in collaboration with Handspring Puppet Company. The project, which follows the adventures of a horse on the World War One battlefields, has been developed by Tom Morris.

There will be a new piece of music theatre (as yet unnamed), with music and lyrics by Damon Albarn and book by Roy Williams; set in Ladbroke Grove, it will explore the great diversity of London life and the music that has emerged from it over four decades.

On Tour

The NT will be on the road for 25 weeks in the coming year. It has become a partner company of The Lowry, Salford, where the NT takes all its touring productions.

After the unprecedented box office success of The History Boys tour last autumn, a further 11-city tour will take place this autumn, opening at Birmingham Rep on 31 August. Dates and venues are:

Birmingham Repertory Theatre (31 August - 16 September);
Theatre Royal, Nottingham (19 - 23 September);
Warwick Arts Centre (26 - 30 September);
Alhambra Theatre, Bradford (3 - 7 October);
Hull New Theatre (10 - 14 October);
King's Theatre, Edinburgh (17 - 21 October);
His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen (24 - 28 October);
Grand Opera House, Belfast (31 October - 4 November);
North Wales Theatre, Llandudno (7 - 11 November);
New Theatre, Cardiff (14 - 18 November);
The Lowry, Salford (21 - 25 November).

Conor MacPherson's new play The Seafarer will tour in spring 2007, as will a mobile production of Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle, directed by Sean Holmes, who was responsible for much praised mobile production of Translations last autumn.

The NT production of The History Boys opens at the Broadhurst Theater, New York on 23 April for a 20-week limited run. The film of The History Boys will be released in cinemas nationwide in the autumn.

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