The National Theatre has commissioned a piece of documentary theatre about our changing relationship with the planet. Greenland will open in the Lyttelton theatre in a spring season that also includes a new play by Ryan Craig and a revival of Clifford Odets’s Rocket To The Moon.
Greenland, which opens on 1 February (previews from 25 January), is a collaboration between playwrights Moira Buffini and Matt Charman, whose plays at the NT include Welcome To Thebes and The Observer respectively, along with Penelope Skinner (Eigengrau at the Bush theatre) and Jack Thorne (TV’s This Is England ’86). After spending six months interviewing key individuals from science, politics, business and philosophy, the quartet have created a piece of work which combines the factual and theatrical in a provocative response to questions about the environment and the future of our planet.
The cast of West End regulars includes Lyndsey Marshal (Three Days Of Rain), Michael Gould (The Ugly One), Peter McDonald (Dancing At Lughnasa) and Amanda Lawrence (Kneehigh’s Brief Encounter) .
The production, directed by National Theatre associate Bijan Sheibani (Our Class), will be accompanied by a series of platforms and free discussion events giving audiences an opportunity to discover more about current views on climate change.
Also in the Lyttelton, Chichester Festival Theatre Associate Director Angus Jackson (The Power Of Yes at the NT) will direct Odets’s 1938 play Rocket To The Moon from 23 March (press night 30 March).
A play about frustrated dreams and opportunity, Rocket To The Moon centres on dentist Ben Stark, whose married, humdrum world is turned upside down by the arrival of stunning, ruthless Cleo Singer, a woman discovering life and hungry for love.
American playwright Odets was the author of works including Awake And Sing!, which was revived at the Almeida theatre in 2007, and The Country Girl, which is currently playing at the Apollo theatre.
Meanwhile, in the Cottesloe, Henry Goodman will star in Craig’s new play The Holy Rosenbergs from 8 March (press night 16 March).
Multi-Laurence Olivier Award-winner Goodman, whose credits include The Merchant Of Venice and Guys And Dolls at the National, and, currently, Yes, Prime Minister in the West End, plays big-hearted Jewish Londoner David, whose children are at loggerheads. While eldest son Danny fights for the Israelis in Gaza, his sister investigates war crimes in the same conflict. Their brother drinks and brawls and refuses to join his father’s ailing catering firm. When tragedy strikes, each of them is forced to confront the clash between individual identity and the expectations of community.
The Holy Rosenbergs is Craig’s first play for the National Theatre, though he wrote the English translation of Our Class, which played at the venue last year. Craig’s other work includes The Glass Room at the Hampstead theatre and What We Did To Weinstein at the Menier Chocolate Factory.
Goodman is directed by Laurie Sansom, who returns to the National Theatre following the success of his productions of Spring Storm and Beyond The Horizon. The double-bill played in the Cottesloe earlier this year after transferring from the Royal & Derngate, Northampton, where Sansom is Artistic Director.
Dates have also been confirmed for Danny Boyle’s hugely anticipated production of Frankenstein, which sees Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternate in the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the creature he creates. Frankenstein will begin previews in the Olivier theatre on 5 February and have two press nights – one for each of the two lead performances – on 22 and 23 February.
CB