National Theatre Season Brochure
March - May 2008
National Theatre, South Bank, London SE1 9PX
No booking fees
Online
Select your own seats nationaltheatre.org.uk/tickets
By phone
020 7452 3000 Mon – Sat, 9.30am – 8pm
By fax
020 7452 3030
In person
Mon – Sat, 9.30am – 8pm
Public booking opens 7 February 2008
The National Theatre will be closed on Friday 21 March 2008
Opening hours on Monday 24 March and Monday 5 May 2008:
By phone from 9.30am
In person from 4pm (includes the sale of Day Seats)
Travelex £10 Tickets are sponsored by Travelex
Media partner of Travelex £10 tickets is The Independent
Philips and the National Theatre, working in partnership to reduce energy consumption
Innovation at the National Theatre is sponsored by Accenture
New Connections, supported by Bank of America
The Shell Series: Classic Drama at the National Theatre
The National Theatre is working in creative partnership with Corbis on photographs for its 2008 season
Arts Council of England
Programme details are published in good faith, but changes
may occasionally be necessary.
Registered Charity No. 224223
Shows
Never So Good
Fram
The Year of Magical Thinking
Harper Regan
Major Barbara
The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other
Baby Girl/DNA/The Miracle
Happy Now?
National Theatre beyond the South Bank
The History Boys
RaftaRafta
Platforms
International PEN
SHOOT/GETTREASURE/REPEAT
More from the National Theatre
Free Exhibitions
Backstage Tours
Costume and Prop Hire
Free Live Music
Bookshop
Posters
Performing Arts Books
Gift Tokens
Costume Prop Hire
Free Live Music
Never So Good
a new play by Howard Brenton
Lyttelton Theatre from 17 March
World Premiere
None of us knew what we were doing, of course. At the beginning of the Great War the world was a ripening peach, and we were eating it. And looking back how lovely we were, and so earnest, and innocent.
Harold Macmillan, the Eton-educated idealist who rushed, with Homer’s lliad under his arm, to do his duty in the Grenadier Guards, is tormented by the harsh experiences of war and an unhappy marriage. His career in the 30s is blocked by his loyalty to Winston Churchill and he nearly loses his life in the Second World War. When at last he becomes Prime Minister he is brought down by the Profumo scandal.
Set against a back-drop of fading Empire, war, the Suez crisis, vintage champagne, adultery and vicious Tory politics at the Ritz, Howard Brenton’s Never So Good paints the portrait of a brilliant, witty but complex man, at times comically and, in the end, tragically out of kilter with his times.
My life. My life. Tarnished silver, perhaps, but solid. British.
With a genuine hallmark: ‘Democratic politician.’
Jeremy Irons plays Harold Macmillan.
Director Howard Davies
Designer Vicki Mortimer
Lighting Designer Mark Henderson
Music Dominic Muldowney
Choreography Lynne Page
Sound Designer Paul Arditti
Cast includes
Anna Carteret
Bertie Carvel
Anna Chancellor
Jeremy Irons
Ian McNeice
Captioned performance
Wed 14 May at 7.30pm
Audio-Described performances
Fri 23 May at 7.30pm and Sat 24 May at 2.15pm
Sponsored by Accenture
Fram
a new play by Tony Harrison
Olivier Theatre 10 April – 22 May
World Premiere
Reliance on devices like the photograph and slide will lead, I rather fear, to linguistic suicide.
We must keep on challenging language to engage with all we suffer from in this new modern age.
This epic sweep of a play takes us from a contemporary Westminster Abbey to the Arctic ship Fram – or Forward – specially built by the famous Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen who, with his suicidal companion, Johansen, makes a bid on foot for the North Pole in the 1890s.
Though incompatible, they share a bear fur sleeping-bag through the long winter. Nansen, still haunted by Johansen’s ghost, is appointed to the League of Nations. As a figurehead of Russian famine relief in 1922, he conducts the first celebrity campaign, searching for means, however shocking, to make people care.
A major new work by Britain’s foremost theatre poet, Tony Harrison, whose many plays for the NT include The Oresteia and The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus. His long poem v. caused a celebrated national controversy.
Cast includes
Mark Addy
Jasper Britton
Viviana Durante
Jeff Rawle
Sian Thomas
Directors Tony Harrison and Bob Crowley
Set Designer Bob Crowley
Costume Designer Fontini Dimou
Lighting Designer Mark Henderson
Music Richard Blackford
Choreographer Wayne McGregor
Video Designer Jon Driscoll
Captioned performance
Thu 1 May at 7.30pm
Audio-Described performances
Fri 9 May at 7.30pm and Sat 10 May at 2pm
Travelex £10 Tickets
The Year of Magical Thinking
a play by Joan Didion based on her memoir
Lyttelton Theatre from 25 April
UK Premiere
Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it. We know that someone close to us could die. We might expect to feel shock. We do not expect this shock to be obliterative, dislocating to both body and mind. We might expect to be prostrate, inconsolable, crazy with loss. We do not expect to be literally crazy – cool customers who believe that their husband is about to return and need his shoes.
The Year of Magical Thinking, adapted for the stage by Joan Didion from her best-selling memoir of the same name, chronicles the aftermath of her husband’s sudden death.
Following a sell-out run on Broadway in 2007, Vanessa Redgrave repeats her award-winning solo performance in David Hare’s celebrated production which now receives its UK premiere.
‘Vanessa Redgrave is the reason The Year of Magical Thinking is not only the hottest ticket in town, but also the theatrical event of the season... That the audience is rapt is an understatement.’ Observer
‘Poignant, heartbreaking, and wry; the emotions here are so genuine that we can’t help but be affected by them.’
Newsweek
Cast includes
Vanessa Redgrave
Director David Hare
Designer Bob Crowley
Lighting Designer Jean Kalman
Sound Designer Paul Arditti
a new play by Simon Stephens
Cottesloe Theatre from 16 April
World Premiere
If you go, I don’t think you should come back.
On a startlingly bright Autumn night in 2006 Harper Regan walked away from her home and her husband and her daughter and she kept walking. She told nobody that she was going. She told nobody where she was going. She put everything she ever built at risk. For two lost days and nights, until it looked as though her entire life might unravel, she didn’t turn back.
From Uxbridge to Stockport to Manchester and back again, Simon Stephens’ new play navigates the UK, exploring family, love and delusion; and how to live in a godless universe.
Director Marianne Elliott
Designer Hildegard Bechtler
Lighting Designer Chris Davey
Sound Designer Ian Dickinson
Cast includes
Lesley Sharp
Olivier Theatre
Now playing
Nothing is ever done in this world until men are prepared to kill one another if it is not done.
Major Barbara works tirelessly for the poor at a Salvation Army shelter until a large but morally dubious donation is welcomed from her estranged father, a millionaire weapons manufacturer. But when she visits the factory itself, the well-fed workers in their thriving model town make a devastating case for arms trade profits and a whole new set of ideals.
The greatest of evils and the worst of crimes is poverty… our first duty – a duty to which every other consideration should be sacrificed – is not to be poor.
The National’s recent production of Saint Joan suggested that Shaw may be our most provocative contemporary playwright.
Simon Russell Beale plays the millionaire, Undershaft, in this radical state-of-the-nation play which confronts the big questions with brutal panache.
Director Nicholas Hytner
Set Designer Tom Pye
Costume Designer Vicki Mortimer
Lighting Designer Paul Pyant
Music Matthew Scott
Sound Designer Mike Walker
Cast
Paul Anderson
Tom Andrews
Hayley Atwell
Ian Burfield
Katharine Burford
Martin Chamberlain
Alasdair Craig
Patrick Drury
Keiran Flynn
Jessica Gunning
John Heffernan
Clare Higgins
Derek Howard
Stephanie Jacob
Barbara Kirby
Maggie McCarthy
Pamela Merrick
Paul Ready
Simon Russell Beale
Richard Shanks
Lizzie Winkler
Captioned performance
Tue 1 April at 7.30pm
Audio-Described performances
Fri 4 April at 7.30pm and Sat 5 April at 2pm
Travelex £10 Tickets
The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other
by Peter Handke
from a new translation by Meredith Oakes
Lyttelton Theatre, ends 12 April
For a moment, a bright, empty town square. And then a figure darts across, and another and another – businesspeople, roller-bladers, a cowboy, several street-sweepers, a half-dressed bride, a film crew, a line of old men, a tourist, a beauty in a mirrored dress, Abraham and Isaac, a family of refugees, a fool – more and more people, the bizarre and the humdrum, fleetingly connected by proximity alone.
Surprising, funny, fast and physical, this is theatre to set the imagination on fire.
Twenty-seven actors, 450 characters and no dialogue: a play without words by the great experimental figure of European theatre, Peter Handke.
Cast
Susan Brown
Jessie Burton
Pip Carter
Paul Chesterton
Lisa Dillon
Callum Dixon
Noma Dumezweni
Susan Engel
Susannah Fielding
Mark Hadfield
Amy Hall
Daniel Hawksford
Tom Hickey
Richard Hope
Nick Malinowski
Shereen Martineau
Mairead McKinley
Justine Mitchell
Daniel Poyser
Adrian Schiller
Amit Shah
Sara Stewart
Giles Terera
Jason Thorpe
Harry Towb
Simon Wilson
Sarah Woodward
Director James Macdonald
Associate Director Jonathan Burrows
Set Designer Hildegard Bechtler
Costume Designer Moritz Junge
Lighting Designer Jean Kalman
Composer Mel Mercier
Sound Designer Christopher Shutt
Sponsored by Accenture
Baby Girl/DNA/The Miracle
Punchy, probing and vital, this trio of plays have a finger on the pulse of today’s teen generation.
‘Want a night out with your teenagers? Here’s the ticket... A real insight into the lives of children becoming adults.’
Lyn Gardner, 1 January 2008, Guardian
Baby Girl
a new play by Roy Williams
Kelle is 13 and still a virgin. And if her best friend Danielle knows, then the whole school knows.
But will sleeping with the wide-boy wannabe Nathan prove a step too far…?
DNA
a new play by Dennis Kelly
A group of teenagers do something bad, really bad, then panic and cover the whole thing up. But when they find that the cover-up unites them and brings harmony to their otherwise fractious lives, where’s the incentive to put things right?
The Miracle
a new play by Lin Coghlan
When the canal burst its banks and a holy statue arrived through her bedroom floor, no one was more surprised than 12-year-old Veronica.
With the help of her best friend she sets about using her new-found skills to create something magical within her ailing community.
Cottesloe Theatre ends 10 April
Suitable for 13yrs+
All performances are £10 for under 18yrs
Director Paul Miller
Designer Simon Daw
Lighting Designer Paule Constable
Sound Designer Rich Walsh
Cast
Ruby Bentall
Ian Bonar
Clare Burt
Nicole Charles
Gregg Chillin
Rebecca Cooper
Sam Crane
Claire Foy
Troy Glasgow
Jack Gordon
Claire Lams
Petra Letang
Candassaie Liburd
Henry Lloyd Hughes
Apaiketuya Marchant
Ryan Sampson
Winston Sarpong
Kellie Shirley
Benjamin Smith
Paul Thornley
Audio-Described performances Baby Girl/DNA/The Miracle
Sat 29 March at 2pm
Captioned performance DNA/The Miracle
Tue 8 April at 7.30pm
Happy Now?
a new play by Lucinda Coxon
Cottesloe Theatre, ends 10 May
World Premiere
I’m wondering at what point it became acceptable for you to stand in this house on which I pay the mortgage, drinking the drink I bought out of the glasses I washed in front of the cake I baked and talk that fucking talk. All – and I think this is a lovely touch for which I must take full credit – while I’m wearing an apron.
A chance encounter at a conference hotel plays upon Kitty’s mind as she struggles to balance personal freedom with family life, fidelity and a testing job. Her husband seems more interested in misplaced apostrophes than his marriage, her parents are looking down the barrel of oblivion and, although she might toy with joining a gym, Kitty’s running out of time for big changes.
Lucinda Coxon’s Happy Now? dares to ask just that, in this painfully truthful, darkly comic take on contemporary life and how to survive it.
Cast
Jonathan Cullen
Emily Joyce
Stuart McQuarrie
Anne Reid
Dominic Rowan
Olivia Williams
Stanley Townsend
Director Thea Sharrock
Designer Jonathan Fensom
Lighting Designer Oliver Fenwick
Sound Designer Paul Arditti
Audio-Described performances
Sat 26 April at 2.30pm and Mon 28 April at 7.30pm
National Theatre beyond the South Bank
This multi-award-winning production returns to the West End for the last time.
****
Evening Standard, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, The Times
‘A triumphal return. Desmond Barrit puts on a hypnotic performance. The actors crackle and pop with talent.’
Evening Standard, 8 January 2008
‘Dazzling. It fulfils the definition of a modern classic, on each viewing it yields new meanings.’ Guardian, 9 January 2008
‘One of the wisest and most moving comedies of the past decade. If you’ve not seen it before, don’t miss it now. If you have seen it, see it again.’ Sunday Express, 13 January 2008
‘Bennett’s lesson in life and love is an enduring delight. I am more convinced than ever of its greatness. A superb new cast, who bring banter and the confused emotions of adolescence to exhilarating life.’ Daily Telegraph, 9 January 2008
Wyndham’s Theatre
A Delfont Mackintosh Theatre Charing Cross, London WC2.
0844 482 5120 (24hr) delfontmackintosh.co.uk
Tickets also available from National Theatre
020 7452 3000 nationaltheatre.org.uk
The History Boys is co-produced by
National Theatre and National Angels.
Tickets £12.50 – £49.50
£1.50 booking fee per ticket except
when booked in person from the Wyndham’s Theatre Box Office
Booking until 26 April 2008
Captioned performance
Saturday 15 March at 2.30pm
Rafta Rafta
by Ayub Khan-Din
based on All in Good Time
by Bill Naughton
31 January – 16 February
Birmingham Repertory Theatre
0121 236 4455
birmingham-rep.co.uk
19 – 23 February
Salford The Lowry
0870 787 5790 (booking fee)
thelowry.com
26 February – 1 March
Milton Keynes Theatre
0870 060 6652 (booking fee)
miltonkeynestheatre.com
5 – 14 March
Bradford St George’s Hall
01274 432 000 (booking fee)
bradford-theatres.co.uk
Supported by an anonymous donor
For more details on all touring programmes visit
nationaltheatre.org.uk/touring
Platforms
6pm (45mins)
£3.50 / £2.50 (unless stated)
For the latest guest updates visit nationaltheatre.org.uk/platforms
Kathleen Turner
Tue 11 Mar, Olivier
Screen icon and stage star Kathleen Turner, most recently seen in London in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, talks about her life and work and her poignant autobiographical self-portrait, Send Yourself Roses: My Life, Love and Leading Roles. Booksigning
Claire Tomalin on Milton
Wed 26 Mar, Cottesloe
The renowned biographer introduces
her selection of John Milton’s poetry, ranging from the classical to the religious and from the lyrical to the epic. Booksigning
Simon Russell Beale: A Shropshire Lad
Fri 28 Mar & Tues 1 Apr, Cottesloe
Simon Russell Beale reads from AE Housman’s cycle of poems about love and life and youth and the passing of time. With soundscape by Christopher Shutt.
The August Wilson Century Cycle
Mon 7 Apr, Cottesloe
The late August Wilson’s plays offer a sweeping view of the black American experience in the twentieth century. As the plays are published together, Bonnie Greer, Paulette Randall and Roy Williams celebrate the legacy of this influential and celebrated writer.
Mark Ravenhill on Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat
Wed 9 Apr, Cottesloe
While his series of short plays are appearing across London (see page 13), Mark Ravenhill discusses the genesis and development of his work.
Howard Brenton on Never So Good
Thu 17 Apr, Lyttelton
The playwright discusses his new play about Harold Macmillan.
Nicholas Hytner on Major Barbara
Thu 24 Apr, Olivier
The Director of the National talks about his production of one of Bernard Shaw’s most controversial plays.
Joan Didion on The Year of Magical Thinking
Fri 25 Apr, Olivier
The distinguished American writer reflects on her acclaimed work as the adaptation of her memoir arrives in the Lyttelton.
Roy Hattersley: Bernard Shaw and the Salvation Army – a Misalliance?
Tue 6 May, Olivier
Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara pits the Salvation Army against the arms trade; Roy Hattersley, former Labour minister and author of Blood & Fire: William and Catherine Booth and Their Salvation Army, explores the themes of the play. Booksigning
Tony Harrison, Edith Hall and Oliver Taplin on Fram
Fri 9 May, Olivier
Tony Harrison is joined by classical scholars Edith Hall and Oliver Taplin to explore the many links between Gilbert Murray, Greek drama, the League of Nations and a large part of the current Olivier repertoire. As well as Murray being a leading character in Harrison’s Fram, he and his wife Mary were also the inspiration for fellow-Humanist Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara and Adolphus Cusins.
Marianne Elliott and Simon Stephens on Harper Regan
Tue 13 May, Cottesloe
The director and playwright talk about the premiere of Harper Regan in the Cottesloe with Dan Rebellato.
Acting with Facts – Docudrama
Wed 14 May, Lyttelton
David Edgar and Derek Paget explore the impact of the increasingly popular genre of documentary drama; they discuss the specific challenges and strange experience of playing real, and sometimes living, people on stage.
Mark Thomas on the Arms Trade
Thu 15 May, Olivier
Major Barbara focuses on the munitions ethics in 1905; Mark Thomas, comedian and political campaigner, explores the contemporary arms trade in As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela, uncovering major loopholes in the law surrounding arms and torture weapons.
Book Signing
Michael Frayn: Stage Directions – Writing on Theatre
Mon 19 May, Lyttelton
This new collection charts Michael Frayn’s path into the theatre – from the ‘doubtful beginnings’ of his childhood to his subsequent scorn as a young man and, surprisingly late in life, his reluctant conversion to the stage.
Book Signing
International PEN present
Free The World: A Celebration of World Literature
Fri 11 Apr 6pm, Lyttelton
Fri 11 and Sat 12 Apr, Late Lounge
Meet the great writers you know and the great writers you don’t…
As part of International Pen’s Free The Word: Festival of World Literature taking place at venues along the South Bank from 11-13 April, the National will be hosting events on 11 and 12 April including an opening Platform in the Lyttelton and chill-out entertainment in the Late Lounge.
More details from mid-March: internationalpen.org.uk
Shoot / Get Treasure / Repeat
3 – 20 April 2008, Mark Ravenhill’s
Shoot / Get Treasure / Repeat
The Gate Theatre, National Theatre, Out of Joint, Paines Plough and Royal Court join forces to present Mark Ravenhill’s Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat, an epic cycle of plays exploring the personal and political effect of war on modern life.
The plays began life at last year’s Edinburgh Festival as Ravenhill For Breakfast and form a collage of very different scenes, with each taking its title from another classic work. Throughout April, the plays will be presented in various venues across London, from Sloane Square, the South Bank and Notting Hill to a Victorian warehouse in East London.
At the National, four of the plays will be presented in pairs on two evenings and a Saturday morning, when you can catch both pairs in either order (coffee and breakfast will be available from 9.30am):
The Mikado
Peter, who has cancer, expresses his anger to his partner.
The Odyssey
A group of soldiers prepare to go home after invading a foreign country.
Thu 3 Apr 6pm / Sat 5 Apr 10am & 11am (Lyttelton Theatre)
Intolerance
A middle-class wife and mother suffers a repeated pain in her stomach.
Crime and Punishment
A soldier interrogates a native woman in an occupied zone.
Fri 4 Apr 6pm / Sat 5 Apr 10am & 11am (Cottesloe Theatre)
Olivier
Travelex £10 Tickets
£10 £15 £30
Fram
Previews 1 & 2
£10 £12.50 £20
Major Barbara
Lyttelton
£10 £19 £29 The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each other
Lyttelton
£10 £22 £29.50 £38.50 £41
Never So Good
The Year of Magical Thinking
Previews 1 & 2
£10 £17 £17 £22 £22
All remaining Previews
£10 £22 £22 £27 £27
Cottesloe
£10 £20 £29
Harper Regan
Previews 1 & 2
£10 £17 £22
All remaining Previews
£10 £17 £27
Happy Now?
Baby Girl/DNA/The Miracle
No booking fees.
Select your own seats when booking online nationaltheatre.org.uk
020 7452 3000
Box Office
Open Monday – Saturday, 9.30am – 8pm
(includes the sale of Day Seats).
The National Theatre will be closed on Friday 21 March.
Opening hours on 24 March & 5 May:
By phone from 9.30am.
In person from 4pm (for sale of Day Seats).
Tickets always available
Day Seats £10 from Box Office in person
on the day of performance from 9.30am.
Tickets subject to availability
Standby £20 from 90 mins before performance.
Student Standby £10 from 45 mins before the performance.
Also Stage Pass, SOLT, NCA, theatre unions and unemployed. Bring ID.
Standing £5 after all tickets have been sold.
Concessions
Under-18 yrs Monday – Friday evenings and all matinees: £16.50. (excludes Travelex £10 productions). All performances of Baby Girl/DNA/The Miracle are £10.
Senior Citizen
Midweek matinees: £20.
Disabled People
£12 + one companion at the same price (£10 for Travelex productions).
Groups 020 7452 3010
12+ people: £5 off top two prices for Never So Good, The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other and The Year of Magical Thinking (excludes previews, and all Cottesloe shows).
Subject to availability.
School group 10+ people under 19 yrs: £12
(excludes Saturday evenings and Travelex £10 productions).
College group 10+ people 19 – 25 yrs: £15
(excludes Saturday evenings and Travelex £10 productions).
NT Education group 10+ people: £9
(excludes Saturday evenings).
Available during priority booking period only.
Olivier Theatre
Open-stage with seating for 1,110 people. First three rows in the Front Stalls have no arm rests and are slightly narrower.
Lyttelton Theatre
Proscenium-stage with seating for 890 people. First four rows in the Front Stalls have no arm rests, are slightly narrower, and are on a flat floor (not raked).
Cottesloe Theatre
Studio theatre on three levels, with flexible staging and seating for up to 300. For some productions certain seats have a semi-restricted view (at £19/£20) or restricted view (at £10)
Ticket Exchange: There are no refunds. However, tickets may be exchanged for a later performance or for credit, on condition that we receive the tickets at least 24 hours before the performance (7 days for group bookings). There is an administration fee of £2 per ticket.
Please Note: Strobe lighting, smoke effects and gunshots are sometimes used in productions; details are available from the Information Desk after the first preview. Concessions are limited and allocated at the management’s discretion. Latecomers may not be admitted until a suitable break in the performance. Children under four are welcome in the foyers, however they cannot be admitted to the auditoriums. If parents or guardians would like guidance on the content and suitability of individual NT plays, please call the Information Desk on 020 7452 3400.
For Your Safety and Comfort: In common with many public buildings in London, we have introduced extra measures to improve safety. You can make your visit, and that of all our other customers, more comfortable and secure by following a few simple instructions and using the free facilities provided. Small handbags only are allowed into the auditoriums. Bags, briefcases and packages must be left in the free cloakrooms in the foyers. Please avoid bringing large bags, rucksacks and luggage to the theatre.
For Secondary Schools and Further Education
Workshops
Available to accompany most productions in the repertoire.
Price £120 - £150
For further information visit nationaltheatre.org.uk/edu
or email pawilson@nationaltheatre.org.uk
Secondary School and Further Education work supported by JPMorgan and Abbey Charitable Trust
For Teachers
INSET and £5 Teacher preview evenings
For full details of the programme visit nationaltheatre.org.uk/edu
www.stagework.org
Features on Women of Troy and Much Ado About Nothing are the latest additions to our BAFTA-award-winning behind-the-scenes site.
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Full details from nationaltheatre.org.uk/edumemb
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For more details 020 7452 3254 or
priority@nationaltheatre.org.uk
Supporting Cast Member from £400
• First priority booking
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For more details 020 7452 3218 or
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Corporate Member from £7,500
There are four tiers of membership. Benefits include:
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For more details 020 7452 3319 or
ismith@nationaltheatre.org.uk
‘I feel privileged to have such world class entertainment with world class actors and producers on my doorstep and at such reasonable prices. Excellent value for money. Thank you all so very much.’ Michael Hart, National Theatre Priority Member
More from the National Theatre
Stanislavski on stage
9 April – 10 May
Konstantin Stanislavski, co-founder of the Moscow Art Theatre, devised the first formalised system of actor-training, which revolutionised approaches to performance in the West. His influence is still central to our experience of acting and his books, An Actor Prepares and My Life in Art, are standard reading for all who are interested in the theatre. This exhibition features rarely seen photographs from the archive of The Stanislavski Centre, Rose Bruford College. The exhibition has been made possible by the generosity of Evgeny Lepedev.
Curator Robert McIndoe
Designer Nigel Hook
Mounted in association with Routledge
Beauty & Difference: Worlds Apart
10 – 26 April
The Unilever International Schools Art Project 2007/8
The Unilever International Schools Art Project encourages children from around the world to create contemporary art, this year on the theme of Beauty & Difference: Worlds Apart. The project demonstrates how creativity can be used to transcend cultural
and language barriers as well as provide an opportunity for personal expression.
Ashington Group: The Pitmen Painters
19 May – 25 June
The Ashington Group of painters, pitmen most of them, flourished in Northumberland between the early thirties and the mid seventies. They began as a WEA (Workers Educational Association) class in art appreciation but, encouraged by their tutor Robert Lyon, they took to painting and became renowned for the way they depicted their surroundings and working lives. William Feaver, whose book Pitmen Painters inspired Lee Hall’s play of the same name (opening in the Cottesloe in late May) has assembled a display of paintings, drawings and sculpture by Oliver Kilbourn and other members of
this unique body of artists.
Backstage Tours
A fascinating insight into the work behind the scenes bringing our productions to the stage. Tours run up to six times daily. Book on 020 7452 3400 or at info@nationaltheatre.org.uk
Tickets £5 / £4 or £13 (2 adults and 2 under-18yrs)
‘Fascinating and informative.’
Time Out
Costume and Prop hire
Choose from thousands of top-quality costumes, furniture and props from past National Theatre productions.
nationaltheatre.org.uk/hire
‘An invaluable collection.’
Claire Christie, Costume
Supervisor/Designer
Free Live Music
Catch the best in jazz, folk and world music on the Djanogly Concert Pitch in the main foyer, before evening performances and Saturday matinees. For details see nationaltheatre.org.uk/music
‘The most complete performing arts bookshop in the
English-speaking world.’ David Hare
Britain’s leading specialist theatre bookshop.
Open 9.30 am – 10.45pm.
Secure online ordering at
nationaltheatre.org.uk/bookshop
by phone 020 7452 3456,
fax 020 7452 3457
email bookshop@nationaltheatre.org.uk
Playtexts
For much of the West End and National’s repertoire including
Major Barbara, Fram, Happy Now?, Never So Good, The Year of Magical Thinking, Baby Girl, DNA, The Miracle, Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat, War Horse, Harper Regan, Rafta, Rafta... and The History Boys.
The Year of Magical Thinking
Read the memoir on which the
play is based, and other work by Joan Didion and David Hare.
Actors Speaking
12 remarkable actors, including Alec Guinness and Rex Harrison, talk about their craft, with an introduction by Peter Gill. Published by Oberon with the NT at £12.99.
The Horse’s Mouth
by Mervyn Millar
Follows the production of War Horse onto the Olivier stage. Millar’s unique perspective as one of the creative team gives an extraordinary insight into the process. Published by Oberon with the NT at £12.99.
Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse
Special tie-in cover edition of the latest novel for young people to be adapted for the National’s stage – plus other work by one of Britain’s leading children’s authors, and
gift ideas.
Theatre Books
Biography, theatre-in-education, criticism, reference, technical, BA
and MA course reading.
Merchandise
Postcards, mugs, t–shirts, DVDs, cds and other gifts.
For current and past shows.
Posters
For current and past shows.
Performing Arts Book and Ephemera Fair
Saturday 12 April, 11am – 7.15pm Olivier Stalls Foyer.
Gift tokens
Gift tokens can be used to buy National Theatre tickets, backstage tours, in the bookshop and restaurants.
For details call 020 7452 3000.
Eating and Drinking at the National Theatre
Food & drink available throughout the building
Book online for Terrace Bar and
Food and Mezzanine Restaurant
nationaltheatre.org.uk/restaurants
Functions and private hire
020 7452 3264
Catering for groups
020 7452 3600
Terrace Bar and Food
Have a drink, snack or meal in the new Terrace, an informal and comfortable environment above the Lyttelton foyer. Small plates of international mezze such as roasted quail with aioli, Imam Bayaldi and salt cod with cannellini beans are served with salads or frites to make up your meal. Or, have a mezze as a starter to complement our short menu of main courses and then round your meal off with delicious puddings, including the legendary NT knickerbocker glory.
Level 2 (Lyttelton side of the building).
Reservations for weekdays before the performance and Saturday lunch on 020 7452 3555
restaurantreservations@nationaltheatre.org.uk
Terrace Bar and Food Winter 2008
£14.95 per person for a complete meal – a small plate from our international mezze menu to start, followed by a choice of main plate and a glass of house wine. Quote “£14.95 offer” when reserving a table on 020 7452 3555 – available in March and April.
Circle Café
Self service menu includes fresh pizza, or pasta and salad from £6.
Open before performances in the Olivier.
Level 2/3 (Olivier side of the building).
Lyttelton Café
Our self service café serves a delicious menu of hot and cold dishes for pre-theatre eating, such as double fishcakes or duck confit with red cabbage. Complete your meal with a choice of salads, sandwiches, puddings and cakes cooked here in our kitchens at the National Theatre.
Hot or cold main course, and a quarter bottle of wine for only £9.95.
Main foyer, ground floor, opposite the Long Bar.
Bars
Beat the queues! Orders for interval drinks and sandwiches can be placed at the Circle Café, or at any of our bars.
Espresso Bar
At the front of the building on Theatre Square, our Espresso Bar sells an innovative range including great coffee, organic teas, freshly made fruit smoothies and wines and beer. Food available includes home-made soup, hot and cold baguettes,bagels and paninis and delectable cakes.
Mezzanine Restaurant
Modern European menu including two courses for £19.95. With an emphasis on fresh fish, the seasonal menu also includes shared dishes for two such as game casserole with herb dumplings, or baked Alaska.
Our lunch and post theatre menu also includes the offer of a main course with side order and glass of wine for £16.95.
Level 1 (Olivier side of the building).
Reservations 020 7452 3600
restaurantreservations@nationaltheatre.org.uk
The Deck
An exciting new event venue at the National Theatre.
From Spring 2008 The Deck will be available to hire exclusively for dinners up to 80 and receptions or conferences up to 100.
The Deck is a beautifully designed structure, located on one of the top-most terraces of the National Theatre building, offering panoramic views of the capital’s iconic skyline.
For further details see nationaltheatre.org.uk/thedeck
National Theatre South Bank, London SE1 9PX
Open
Mon – Sat, 9.30am – 11pm
Information
nationaltheatre.org.uk
020 7452 3400
Mon – Sat, 9.30am – 11pm
Rail
Waterloo, Waterloo East or walk over the river from Charing Cross.
Underground
Waterloo, Southwark or walk over the river from Embankment.
Bus
1, 4, 26, 59, 68, 76, 77, 139, 168, 171, 172, 176, 188, 211, 243, 341, 381, 507, 521, X68, Riverside Bus (RV1).
Coach
Setting-down point in Upper Ground at the back of the National.
Bicycle
Racks outside the Espresso Bar on the corner of Theatre Square,
and opposite the Cottesloe entrance.
Car
Spaces in the NT car park are £7 after 5pm, or if you attend a daytime ticketed event and leave before 7pm.Combined matinee/evening show rate: £12. Sundays/public holidays: £7 all day. Free parking for blue badge holders – voucher from Information Desk. Congestion charge payment machines in the car park
(credit cards only).
Audio-Described performances and touch tours for blind and visually impaired people. We also offer access guides and programme information in large print, braille, CD and tape formats, and cast lists in large print and braille.
Captioned and Sign Language Interpreted performances for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing.
An infra red audio system is available in all theatres for every performance. Free headsets, available from the information desk, are essential.
Booking Access Tickets by phone
boxoffice@nationaltheatre.org.uk
Access Information by phone
access@nationaltheatre.org.uk
www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/access