Terry Johnson, who replaced Guy Masterston as director of the Christian Slater-starrer One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, will direct the first production for this year's Royal Court Theatre autumn season. It will feature actors Rupert Graves and Douglas Hodge. The pair were critically acclaimed when they appeared together in Patrick Marber's much-admired West End production of Harold Pinter's The Caretaker in 2000. They will be joined by Anna Maxwell Martin, who came to the attention of National Theatre audiences playing the part of Lyra in Nicholas Hytner's marathon staging of His Dark Materials, adapted from the Philip Pullman novels.

Penhall is best known for his psychological drama Blue/Orange for which the author won an Olivier Award, and which transferred from the National to the West End. With such a high-profile cast, there may be hopes for a similar export, though the difficult economics of London theatre have made Royal Court transfers fairly rare (the last was Johnson’s own Hitchcock Blonde in summer 2003).

Dumb Show has its press night on Sept. 7 and is scheduled to run until Oct. 9. It will be followed by a new work from writer Kevin Elyot called Forty Winks. Elyot's previous plays for the Royal Court — Mouth to Mouth and My Night With Reg — both transferred to the West End. Forty Winks will be directed by Katie Mitchell, whose acclaimed production of the Euripidean tragedy Iphigenia at Aulis is currently playing at the National.

For more information, call (0)20 7565 5000.