What are they doing?

Index

Dateline 21st January, 2001

At the National
The Royal National Theatre has announced the following new schedule for the Spring season:

• At the Olivier
  • The Cherry Orchard (Chekhov) closes on 31st March
  • Remembrance of Things Past (Marcel Proust, adapted by Pinter and Trevis) closes on 4th April
  • The Ramayana (new version by Peter Oswald) runs from 11th to 21st April
  • The Winter's Tale (Shakespeare) Opens 23rd May
• At the Lyttelton
  • My Fair Lady continues
• At the Cottesloe
  • The Walls (Colin Teevan) closes on 11th April
  • The Playboy of the Western World (JM Synge) continues
  • Finding The Sun/Marriage Play (Edward Albee) opens on 8th May
  • A Midsummer's Night Dream (Shakespeare) runs from 2nd to 4th April
  • The Good Woman of Setzuan (Bertolt Brecht) runs from 20th March to 14th May

Miller's first for Sheffield
The next production at Sheffield's Crucible, not that Guys and Dolls is finishing its run, will be Arthur Miller's first commercially produced play, The Man Who Had All the Luck. The play was a total flop at its first production.

A female Bottom
(Sorry, I couldn't resist it!) The production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is due to open at the Albery on 16th March, will be a feminist production. Set during World War II in an English stately home where, because of the absence of men, women have taken over the mechanicals' roles, it will feature Dawn French as Bottom. Directed by Francis Matthews, the cast also features Jemma Redgrave.

Life X 3 transfer casting
It has now been confirmed that the entire cast of Yasmin Reza's Life X 3 will transfer to the Old Vic with the play. The cast is Oliver Cotton, Mark Rylance, Imelda Staunton and Harriet Walter, and the run will be for 96 performances. Rmours that it will extend with a new cast have not been confirmed.

Blood Brothers extends
Willy Russell's musical Blood Brothers (Phoenix) has now extended booking until 27th October.