The much-rumoured National Theatre production of Hamlet, which will see Rory Kinnear take on the role of the Danish Prince, is set to open on the South Bank as part of the venue’s 2010/11 £10 season.
Nicholas Hytner, the Director of the National Theatre, revealed the programming of the upcoming season at a press event held earlier today.
Also included in the annual season, which offers two thirds of its tickets for just £10, are the postponed Michael Grandage-directed production of Danton’s Death, Women Beware Women directed by Marianne Elliott and a new piece by Moira Buffini to be directed by former National Theatre director Richard Eyre.
Kinnear’s Hamlet has been in the pipeline at the National Theatre for many years, but, with both David Tennant and Jude Law taking on the landmark role in quick succession it has taken until this upcoming season to come to fruition. Laurence Olivier Award-winner Kinnear is a National Theatre regular, where he has appeared in productions including Burnt By The Sun, The Revenger’s Tragedy, Philistines, The Man Of Mode and Southwark Fair.
Grandage, the Donmar Warehouse’s Artistic Director, was originally expected to stage Danton’s Death, Georg Büchner’s first play, earlier this year, but was forced to postpone the project when Kenneth Branagh withdrew as the director of the Donmar West End production of Hamlet and Grandage became his replacement. Danton’s Death, which will mark Grandage’s National Theatre debut, follows French Revolutionary Georges Danton, whose creation of a force that could execute without trial or evidence was eventually turned upon him.
Elliott, whose National Theatre successes include Pillars Of The Community, Saint Joan and War Horse, turns her directorial art to Middleton’s Jacobean tragedy Women Beware Women. Based in part on actual events, it is a tale of three youths who, caught in the glamorous and sophisticated court of the Duke of Florence, find their lives twisted by manipulative elders in a way which leads only to bloody revenge.
Buffini’s work returns to the National for the first time since 2002’s Dinner. More recently her work has been seen at the Almeida theatre, which has produced Dying For It and Marianne Dreams.
Dates and further casting for the season are yet to be announced.
In addition to revealing the future £10 season line up, Hytner also announced that plans were ongoing to take current London hits War Horse and The Pitmen Painters to the US.
Theatregoers hoping to see a musical at the National Theatre may have to endure a long wait. Though there are new musicals under commission, when asked whether the theatre would be reviving any musicals, Hytner concluded: “There aren’t that many that would benefit from our attention.”
MA