Recent touring history
Continuing the National’s commitment to regional touring of the best new plays from its repertoire, David Hare’s Gethsemane completed a highly successful 5-week UK tour in 2009.
Later in the year, Lee Hall’s highly acclaimed The Pitmen Painters, a co-production with Live Theatre Newcastle, toured throughout the UK and Ireland, prior to its Broadway transfer in September 2010 to the Friedman Theatre under the management of the Manhattan Theatre Club.
In the summer of 2009, Phèdre, with Helen Mirren in the title role, brought the National back to the ancient theatre of Epidaurus in Greece, where it played to an audience of 23,000 over two nights and finished its tour at the Harman Hall in Washington DC to a sell-out two-week season.
The National’s first major piece of work for 3 to 6 year olds during Nicholas Hytner’s tenure was Dr Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat which transferred to the Young Vic theatre following a sell-out limited season at the Cottesloe.
In 2010, the National will tour Alan Bennett’s latest play The Habit of Art across the UK and in spring 2011, Nicholas Hytner’s production of Hamlet with Rory Kinnear, will tour in the UK and internationally.
The National Theatre has toured its productions nationally and internationally since the company's earliest days at the Old Vic. Since 2003, NT productions of Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman, Matthew Bourne's Play Without Words, David Hare's The Permanent Way, Kwame Kwei-Armah's Elmina's Kitchen, Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, Antony Sher's Primo, Richard Thomas and Stewart Lee's Jerry Springer – The Opera, Mike Leigh's Two Thousand Years and Alan Bennett's The History Boys have toured in the UK and overseas, sometimes as co-productions with other companies. The Seafarer, by Conor McPherson toured the UK in Spring 2007 and opened on Broadway in 2008. Deborah Warner's production of Happy Days, with Fiona Shaw as Winnie, toured internationally in 2007/8, and was the first modern production ever to be staged at the ancient theatre at Epidaurus in Greece. In 2008 the touring productions were The Year of Magical Thinking and Waves, both of which played UK and international dates, with Waves concluding its run in New York.
The History Boys has been seen in Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, and opened on Broadway in April 2006; its second UK tour began in August 2006 at the Birmingham Rep and its third tour in September 2007 at the Plymouth Theatre Royal, before returning to the Wyndham's Theare in the West End. Primo visited the Baxter Studio in Capetown, South Africa and was on Broadway in 2005.
Other productions from the NT to be seen in New York include Carousel, Arcadia, Indiscretions (Les Parents Terribles), Racing Demon, Skylight, Stanley, Closer and Amy's View – the last four were nominated for 23 Tony Awards between them – Copenhagen, Our Lady of Sligo, Rose, Noises Off, Jumpers, Democracy, The Pillowman (winner of two Tony Awards for Set Design and Lighting), The History Boys and The Seafarer (the most recent of these through Boyet and Ostar Productions).
Elsewhere in London in recent years: An Inspector Calls was in the West End from 1995 to 2002, at the Aldwych Theatre, then the Garrick and finally the Playhouse Theatre, returning in 2009-10 at the Novello at Wyndham's Theatres; Closer had a long run at the Lyric; The Invention of Love was at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket; Copenhagen and Blue/Orange at the Duchess; Gagarin Way at the Arts; The Island at the Old Vic; Humble Boy at the Gielgud; Vincent in Brixton at Wyndham's and the Playhouse; both My Fair Lady and Anything Goes at Drury Lane; Jumpers at the Piccadilly, Jerry Springer – The Opera at the Cambridge; and Elmina's Kitchen at the Garrick.
National Theatre productions that have been filmed recently include King Lear, Oklahoma!, The Merchant of Venice and The History Boys.
For more information contact:
Pádraig Cusack – Associate Producer - +44 (0)20 7452 3330
Bella Rodrigues – Planning and Touring Co-ordinator - +44 (0)20 7452 3424
