Director Rufus Norris, who will step down from London's National Theatre in 2025, has announced his final season, set to include four world premieres by playwrights Suzie Miller, Shaan Sahota, David Lan, and David Eldridge alongside the return of some of the National Theatre’s most popular productions, Dear England, London Road, and Nye.
The season will also feature the London premiere of Stephen Sondheim's final musical, Here We Are. Premiering Off-Broadway in 2023, the musical features a book by Tony nominee David Ives. The production will be directed by two-time Tony winner Joe Mantello and star Tracie Bennett, Rory Kinnear, and Denis O’Hare. Both Bennett and O'Hare appeared in the Off-Broadway premiere, which Mantello also directed.
From Shaan Sahota’s Daniel Raggett-directed new play The Estate—a family drama and political satire about the moral downfall of a politician played by Adeel Akhtar—to Suzie Miller's reunion with director Justin Martin following the global success of Prima Facie, much of Norris' final season will be politically centered. Miller's Inter Alia will feature Rosamund Pike making her National Theatre debut as an eminent High Court Judge forced to reckon her professional life and role as wife, mother, friend, and feminist.
Guyana-born British writer Michael Abbensetts’ era-defining comedy from the Black Plays Archive, Alterations, which illuminates the Guyanese experience of 1970s London and the aspirations and sacrifices of the Windrush generation, will also play the National this season. Refreshed with additional material by Trish Cooke, Alterations will receive its largest ever staging by director Lynette Linton, with Arinzé Kene and Cherrelle Skeete.
Former Young Vic Artistic Director David Lan's new play The Land of the Living will be directed by Stephen Daldry, with a cast that will include Juliet Stevenson. The new work tells the story of displaced children after World War II. End, a new play by David Eldridge (the concluding part of his trilogy of plays commissioned by Norris during his tenure), will be directed by Lyric Hammersmith Artistic Director Rachel O'Riordan.
Finally, the return of Alecky Blythe and Adam Cork’s award-winning musical London Road, directed by Norris, will be captured for a future streaming release on National Theatre at Home. This season will also see the return of two epic state-of–the-nation plays. Dear England by James Graham, directed by Rupert Goold, tells the story of the England men’s football team under Gareth Southgate, and Graham has updated his epic examination of nation and game to reflect Southgate’s final chapter as England Manager. Nye, Tim Price’s celebrated Welsh fantasia which charts the life of Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan and his battle to create the NHS, directed by Norris, will also return.
Said Norris, "Leading the creative powerhouse that is the National Theatre over the past decade has been a profound privilege. I am humbled by the commitment, dedication, and passion shown day in and day out by the extraordinary people who have joined me in the mission to make the NT a representative, sustainable, world class theatre, reaching far beyond its concrete walls. From establishing the New Work Department, which has sparked an explosion of new voices on and off stage, to creating NT at Home, now streaming in nearly every county in the world, I am beyond thrilled that NT now has a global audience reach of 19 million. There is simply nowhere else like it on earth. I can’t wait to watch from the wings as it flourishes and grows for future generations to enjoy under the brilliant leadership of Indhu Rubasingham and Kate Varah."
Norris, as previously reported, will be succeeded by Indhu Rubasingham and Kate Varah.
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