Theater News

Frances de la Tour, John Lithgow, Alex Jennings to Perform as Part of London’s National Theatre Season

John Lithgow
(© Tristan Fuge)
John Lithgow
(© Tristan Fuge)

The National Theatre in London has announced additional details for its 2012-2013 season.

Among the highlights is the news that John Lithgow will play the title role in The Magistrate. Timothy Sheader directs the play in the Olivier Theatre, which joins the repertory November 14, with an opening on November 21. Nancy Carroll and Joshua McGuire are also featured in this farce set in Victorian London.

As previously reported, three-time Olivier Award winner Frances de la Tour will star in Alan Bennett‘s new play People. Nicholas Hytner directs with the cast also featuring Frances Ashman, Linda Bassett, Selina Cadell, Philip Childs, Jack Chissick, Giles Cooper, Andy de la Tour, Peter Egan, Nicholas le Prevost, Jess Murphy, Alastair Parker, and Robin Pearce. The show — centered around an attic sale — will play in repertory at the Lyttelton Theatre, beginning October 31, with an opening on November 7.

Performed alongside People at the Lyttelton will be Hymn (a 30-minute piece beginning November 22) and Cocktail Sticks a 60-minute piece beginning December 5), two recollections by Bennett, performed by Alex Jennings as Bennett in both pieces, and directed by Hytner.

Rupert Goold helms Lucy Prebble’s new play, The Effect, in repertory at the Cottesloe Theatre beginning November 6, opening November 13. Tom Goodman-Hill, Anastasia Hille, Jonjo O’Neill and Billie Piper comprise the cast of this romance, exploring questions of sanity, neurology and the limits of medicine.

Hansel and Gretel, directed by Katie Mitchell, begins its repertory run at the Cottesloe December 7, with an opening on December 13. Suitable for 7 – 10-year-olds, the piece is written by Lucy Kirkwood and devised by Katie Mitchell and Lucy Kirkwood, based on the story by the Brothers Grimm.

Following a sell-out run at the National last winter, The Animals and Children Took to the Streets will return December 12-January 10 at the Lyttelton. Cretated by the award-winning company 1927, the piece combines live music, performance and storytelling with film and animation. It is performed by Suzanne Andrade, Esme Appleton and Lillian Henley, and directed and written by Suzanne Andrade, with film, animation and design by Paul Barritt.

Simon StephensPort will become part of the repertory at the Lyttelton beginning January 22, with an opening on January 28. Marianne Elliott will direct the play, chronicling a thirteen-year odyssey for two kids, largely abandoned and growing up in the deprived suburban shadows of Manchester.

Click here for more information on the National Theatre.