Ralph Fiennes To Star At National Theatre
A new drama about the arms trade and an adaptation of a beloved war film are highlights of the coming season at Britain's National Theatre, artistic director Nicholas Hytner announced Thursday.
Future productions include star turns for Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche.
Among the National's 2007-2008 shows are "Landscape With Weapon," a play about the weapons industry by "Blue/Orange" playwright Joe Penhall. It opens in April, overseen by "Notting Hill" director Roger Michell.
May brings "A Matter of Life and Death," an adaptation of the 1946 film about a wartime pilot — played on screen by David Niven — who is shot down and must go on trial for his life after a celestial mix-up.
Later in the year, rising star Anne-Marie Duff ("The Virgin Queen" and the TV series "Shameless") will star as Joan of Arc in a production of George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan," directed by Marianne Elliott. "'Saint Joan,' which is about holy war," Hytner said, "seems to be a particularly" relevant play.Photos: New Home For Landmark Theater
Other productions include a staging of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" starring Zoe Wanamaker and Simon Russell Beale, and "Rafta, Rafta," a new play by "East Is East" playwright Ayub Khan Din.
Hytner said he would continue his commitment to theater for young people with an adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's novel, "War Horse," about a cavalry horse during World War I.
The summer and autumn schedule includes productions of Maxim Gorky's "Philistines," Harold Pinter's rarely staged play, "The Hothouse," Noel Coward's "Present Laughter" and Euripides' "Women of Troy."
In 2008, Fiennes will play the title role in Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex" and French star Binoche will appear in an as yet-untitled collaboration with choreographer Akram Khan.
A musical about London life by Blur and Gorillaz front man Damon Albarn, announced last year, is still in development, Hytner said.
Britain's flagship state-funded theater has enjoyed a run of successes since Hytner took the helm in 2003, staging critically lauded shows and transferring several big hits — most recently Alan Bennett's "The History Boys" — to the West End and Broadway.
Hytner said the three-auditorium theater on the south bank of the River Thames would continue its policy of pricing two-thirds of the seats for many of its big shows at about $20, a move credited with attracting a more diverse audience to the National.
He warned that bottom-end prices would likely have to rise next year, but said the National remained committed to affordable theater.
"What we're about is doing the most ambitious possible work for the largest possible number of people," Hytner said.