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| Carol Ann Duffy to collaborate in Brexit-inspired National Theatre production | Carol Ann Duffy to collaborate in Brexit-inspired National Theatre production |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The National Theatre is to take on Brexit as part of its new season, in a verbatim work compiled from interviews conducted in towns across the UK and woven together by the poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, and NT artistic director Rufus Norris. | |
| My Country: A Work in Progress will draw on material collected by the National Theatre through a listening project that began in June. An expansive archive of conversations around the EU referendum, recorded everywhere from Londonderry and Glasgow to Leicester and Merthyr Tydfil, will form the basis of the play. | |
| Norris said the final shape of the show was still unknown and that material was still being being gathered. However, he stressed that considering the National Theatre usually programmed works at least two years in advance, “this is pretty much as quick as we can get something into the theatre. We don’t know how that’s going to grow and develop.” | |
| The play will be staged not just in London but in each of the towns which participated in the listening project, and may even be taken to Europe at the end of its UK run. | |
| “One of the dangers in this situation is going to be ‘we need to tell the world what we think about this’ when one of the problems that was highlighted by the referendum was that people are really fed up of being told by other people what to think about this,” added Norris. | |
| “So it really did feel that our first duty in this situation was to get out and give voice to people who have expressed the fact that they have no voice.” | “So it really did feel that our first duty in this situation was to get out and give voice to people who have expressed the fact that they have no voice.” |
| Next year will see several big names return to the National Theatre. The full cast of the revival of Tony Kushner’s magical-realistic epic on the Aids pandemic, Angels in America, will include Nathan Lane, Denise Gough and Russell Tovey, alongside the previously announced Andrew Garfield. | |
| Norris said he had also finally “wooed” Olivia Colman back to the National to play one of two sisters in Lucy Kirkwood’s new play Mosquitoes, which will premiere at the Dorfman in 2017. | Norris said he had also finally “wooed” Olivia Colman back to the National to play one of two sisters in Lucy Kirkwood’s new play Mosquitoes, which will premiere at the Dorfman in 2017. |
| “One of the problems is when actors get that kind of success in television and film, before you know it you can have five or 10 years going by without them having been on the stage,” said Norris. | “One of the problems is when actors get that kind of success in television and film, before you know it you can have five or 10 years going by without them having been on the stage,” said Norris. |
| “So it is really important to get those people back in and to keep that side of their craft up and keep their love for this side of the whole ecology. So I’m totally thrilled she’ll be joining us.” | “So it is really important to get those people back in and to keep that side of their craft up and keep their love for this side of the whole ecology. So I’m totally thrilled she’ll be joining us.” |
| Imelda Staunton will also be appearing on the National Theatre stage next year in a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Follies, directed by Dominic Cooke. | Imelda Staunton will also be appearing on the National Theatre stage next year in a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Follies, directed by Dominic Cooke. |
| Next year’s offerings will also include Us/Them, a hostage drama that was one of the most talked-about productions at this year’s Edinburgh fringe, and an experimental new play, Lost Without Words, which will take actors in their 70s and 80s, who have spent their lives in the theatre, and put them on stage in an improvised work without a script. | |
| Norris said the play, which has been in development over the past two years, would include some of the most “well loved” actors, although he conceded that Ian McKellen was not among them. | |
| “Some of the stuff I’ve seen has been very moving and hilarious. It’s an experimental way of using that theatre … I dare say it will change radically night by night but one thing’s for sure, it’s that those people will know how to enter through the French windows.” | “Some of the stuff I’ve seen has been very moving and hilarious. It’s an experimental way of using that theatre … I dare say it will change radically night by night but one thing’s for sure, it’s that those people will know how to enter through the French windows.” |
| As well as a theatrical experiment, Norris said the production would also prove interesting in terms of the audience it brought through the door. | As well as a theatrical experiment, Norris said the production would also prove interesting in terms of the audience it brought through the door. |
| “It’s funny we obsess all the time about getting a younger audience and trying to bring the average age down, but it’s great to be doing a project which will hopefully drive that in the opposite direction,’’ he said. “It would be great to have a show where the average age was 85.” | “It’s funny we obsess all the time about getting a younger audience and trying to bring the average age down, but it’s great to be doing a project which will hopefully drive that in the opposite direction,’’ he said. “It would be great to have a show where the average age was 85.” |