National Theatre Announces Four New Productions, Including Return of Russell Beale, Briers and Shaw

By Mark Shenton
November 13, 2009

London's National Theatre has announced a slate of four new productions to open between January and March 2010, including the return of Simon Russell Beale, Richard Briers and Fiona Shaw to the venue in a new production of Dion Boucicault's classic play London Assurance. Also planned are a new play by Tamsin Oglesby called Really Old, Like Forty Five, a new production of Bulgakov's The White Guard and a visiting production The 14th Tale.

The National's artistic director Nicholas Hytner, whose world- premiere production of Alan Bennett's The Habit of Art opens in the Lyttelton Nov. 17, will stage London Assurance, beginning performances March 2, prior to an official opening March 10, in the Olivier Theatre. It is being staged as part of the Shell Series, following the company's previous sponsorship of classic drama at the National Theatre with Much Ado About Nothing and Oedipus.

Boucicault was the Irish genius of London theatre in the age of Dickens, and in London Assurance, written in 1841, he created two of the great comic roles for the English stage in Lord Harcourt and Lady Spanker, played here by Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw. Beale, who is a NT Associate, was last seen there in Major Barbara; and was last seen on the London stage in the transfer of the Bridge Project double bill of The Winter's Tale and The Cherry Orchard to the Old Vic. Shaw is currently playing the title role in Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children at the National's Olivier Theatre, running through Dec. 8. Prior to London Assurance, she will reprise her performance of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land at Wilton's Music Hall, Dec. 30-Jan. 10, 2010.

The cast will also include Richard Briers (in his first London stage appearance since he starred in a 2002 production of Bedroom Farce at the Aldwych Theatre, though he was to have appeared in the current London revival of Beckett's Endgame but subsequently withdrew), Paul Ready and Michelle Terry. The production will be designed by Mark Thompson, with lighting by Neil Austin, music by Rachel Portman and sound by John Leonard.

Tamsin Oglesby's Really Old, Like Forty Five will begin performances in the Cottesloe Theatre Jan. 27, prior to an official opening Feb. 3. Described in press materials as a furious comedy that confronts head-on our embarrassment and fear about old age, it will be directed by Anna Mackmin, designed by Lez Brotherston, with lighting by Mark Henderson, video design by Mark Grimmer with Lysander Ashton, choreography by Scarlett Mackmin and sound by Christopher Shutt. The cast comprises Lucy May Barker, Paul Bazely, Amelia Bullmore, Tanya Franks, Gawn Grainger, Thomas Jordan, Michela Meazza, Judy Parfitt, Paul Ritter and Marcia Warren. Oglesby's previous plays include Olive for the NT’s New Connections, The War Next Door at the Tricycle, US and Them and My Best Friend (both at Hampstead Theatre) and Two Lips Indifferent Red at the Bush Theatre.

Mikhail Bulgakov's rarely-performed The White Guard, a play set in Kiev during the Russian civil war, will be revived in a new version by Andrew Upton, beginning performances in the Lyttelton Theatre March 15, prior to an official opening March 23. Howard Davies will direct a cast that will include Pip Carter, Paul Higgins, Conleth Hill and Justine Mitchell. The production will be designed by Bunny Christie, with lighting by Neil Austin and sound by Christopher Shutt. Upton previously adapted Gorky's Philistines for the National Theatre, which Davies also directed, and The Cherry Orchard, Hedda Gabler, Don Juan and Cyrano de Bergerac (all for Sydney Theatre Company, where he is joint artistic director with Cate Blanchett).

The 14th Tale, described as a free-flowing narrative that tells the hilarious exploits of a natural born mischief growing from the clay streets of Nigeria to rooftops in Dublin, and finally to London, is written and performed by Nigerian-born Inua Ellams, who moved to the U. K as a teenager. It will visit the Cottesloe Theatre for ten performances only, beginning Feb. 9 and running in rep to March 13. It is directed by Thierry Lawson, with lighting by Michael Nabarro.

Public phone/online booking for these new productions opens from Dec. 2. To book tickets, contact the box office on 020 7452 3000, or visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk