By Mark Shenton
17 Nov 2009

Richard Griffiths
photo by Johan Persson

The world premiere of Alan Bennett's The Habit of Art opens at the National's Lyttelton Theatre Nov. 17 following previews from Nov. 5 in London. Tony Award-winning actor Richard Griffiths leading the cast of Nicholas Hytner's production.

Griffiths replaces the originally-announced Michael Gambon, who withdrew in the midst of rehearsals "due to minor ill health for which he needs some time to rest." Both Griffiths and Hytner are reunited from Bennett's last original play, The History Boys, that also premiered at the Lyttelton Theatre in 2004, before transferring to Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre in 2006. The play was also made into a feature film, directed by Hytner and starring Griffiths. The play subsequently returned to the U.K for two West End runs at Wyndham's Theatre in 2006 and 2007, without Griffiths.

According to director Hytner, "The Habit of Art is about the business of putting a play together as much as it is about making music or poetry. Richard Griffiths will play the actor, Fitz, who plays the poet WH Auden in a play set in a rehearsal room as a group of actors work through a play about Auden and Benjamin Britten." In the play-within-the-play, 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.

According to the National, the play "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."

Griffiths, who was last seen on Broadway last year as Dr. Martin Dysart in a production of Equus that transferred from the West End and also starred Daniel Radcliffe, previously won the 2006 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play his role as Hector in Bennett's The History Boys. Griffiths also won the Evening Standard, Critics' Circle and Laurence Olivier Awards for his role in the play. His film and TV work includes the "Harry Potter" films, "Withnail and I," "Pie in the Sky," "Gormenghast" and "Bleak House".

The full cast of the play includes Danny Burns, Martin Chamberlain, Philip Childs, Frances de la Tour, John Heffernan, Alex Jennings (as Benjamin Britten), Barbara Kirby, Elliot Levey, Adrian Scarborough and Stephen Wight. It is designed by Bob Crowley, with lighting by Mark Henderson, music by Matthew Scott and sound by Paul Groothuis.

To book tickets, contact the box office on 020 7452 3000, or visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk.

John Heffernan and Frances de la Tour in The Habit of Art
photo by Johan Persson

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