In a press statement issued in April, he stated, "It’s been a joy and a privilege to lead the National Theatre for ten years and I’m looking forward to the next two. I have the most exciting and most fulfilling job in the English-speaking theatre; and after twelve years it will be time to give someone else a turn to enjoy the company of my stupendous colleagues, who together make the National what it is.”

Nick Starr, who has been executive director since 2002 alongside Hytner, also announced that he will be leaving the NT during 2014. Starr stated, "There’s a genius to this place and it will be a wrench to leave it. But I want to make room for the next generation, and it’s time for me to plough new furrows."

Hytner recently told Playbill.com, "You can't do this job forever. I've enjoyed every single moment of it, so it will be horrible to go, but it is good for me and it is good for the theatre to hand it over to someone else now, who can do the job from a different perspective and refresh it. Even when it is working well, it is good to refresh it, and it is time to refresh me. I can't do it for much longer!"

Hytner also revealed to Playbill.com that he and Starr plan to join forces after they depart the National. "We are going to continue working together, we have plans, but there's not going to be a big glitzy announcement. What we want to do will take time. We are hoping there is a way we can produce theatre in a way that, if we pull it off, will be wide-ranging and ambitious. Both of us have too much of a taste for helping people we admire do the kind of work they want to do in the right way."



Playbill.com will report the name of Hytner's successor Oct. 15.