National Theatre have announced the line-up for their upcoming 2023 season.
One of the most highly-anticipated productions is Jack Thorne’s new play, The Motive and the Cue, directed by Academy award-winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty, 1917). The play was inspired by the making of Richard Burton and John Gielgud’s Hamlet. Initial casting news has also been announced, with Johnny Flynn (Lovesick, Emma) and Mark Gatiss (Sherlock, Wolf Hall) as the iconic thespians. Alongside them is Tuppence Middleton (Mank, War and Peace) as Elizabeth Taylor. The play opens in May at The Lyttleton Theatre, and gives the audience a look into rehearsal room politics.
Another debut is Deborah Bruce’s Dixon and Daughters. The show is produced in conjunction with Clean Break, a company showcasing theatre with and about women who have been affected by the criminal justice system. Róisin McBrinn, artistic director at The Gate Theatre, Dublin, will direct this “powerful story about family and forgiveness.”
At The Olivier Theatre, we see two revivals of critically-acclaimed plays. In April, the Irish family drama Dancing at Lughnasa is being staged in a production starring Siobhán McSweeney (Derry Girls), Ardal O’Hanlon (Father Ted), and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (Translations), and directed by Josie Rourke (Mary Queen of Scots). In September, Anupama Chandrasekhar’s The Father and The Assassin, centred around the life of Gandhi’s murderer Nathuram Godse, returns to the stage. Paul Bazely returns from the original production to play Gandhi.
Outside of London, there are three prominent UK tours taking place. The first is Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane, off the back of its West End success. Second is a production of Home, I’m Darling, presented by Bill Kenwright. Opening at the Theatre Royal Windsor in January, the UK tour kicks off in May. The third is a new production devised by The PappyShow entitled Shut Up, I’m Dreaming. It visits 55 secondary schools across the country as part of National Theatre’s Theatre Nation Partnerships initiative.
In cinemas across the country and beyond, audiences will be able to watch star-studded casts star in some of the company’s biggest shows. Arthur Miller’s classic witch-trial drama The Crucible, starring The Crown‘s Erin Doherty will be broadcast from 26 January. Shakespeare’s Othello stars Giles Terera (Hamilton) and Rosy McEwen (Blue Jean) as Othello and Desdemona, alongside Paul Hilton (The Inheritance) stepping into Iago’s evil shoes on screens from 23 February. Finally, GOOD, “a blistering re-imagining of one of Britain’s most powerful, political plays” is led by David Tennant (Doctor Who, Staged) directly from the West End into cinemas from 20 April.
To see further information about the 2023 programme at The National Theatre, and book tickets, visit National Theatre’s website.
Words by Rehana Nurmahi
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