Full casts have been announced for two productions playing as part of Nicholas Hytner’s final season as Director of the National Theatre; the Ralph Fiennes’ led Man And Superman and Sam Holcroft’s new play Rules For Living.
Joining the previously announced Fiennes, Elliot Barnes-Worrell, Tim McMullan and Indira Varma in George Bernard Shaw’s surreal philosophical comedy are a large supporting company including stage regular Nicholas le Prevost, who follows roles in West End productions including The Last Cigarette and The Misanthrope to return to the NT where he has appeared in People and My Fair Lady.
Many of the full cast set to appear in Simon Godwin’s staging are fellow regular London stage performers returning to the NT, including Faye Castelow (After The Dance), Clare Clifford (NT’s People on tour), Colin Haigh (King Lear, The Cherry Orchard, Travelling Light and The Kitchen), Nick Hendrix (The Light Princess), Corey Johnson (Death Of A Salesman), Christine Kavanagh (Albert Speer), Ferdinand Kingsley (Welcome To Thebes) and Simon Markey (Season’s Greetings, Time And The Conways, Her Naked Skin, Much Ado About Nothing).
Making their National Theatre debuts in the much anticipated production that will play from 17 February in the venue’s Lyttelton Theatre are Nicholas Bishop (War Horse in the West End), Naomi Cranston (All’s Well That Ends Well and Anne Boleyn at Shakespeare’s Globe), Henry Everett, who appeared in Michael Grandage’s West End hits A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Cripple Of Inishmaan and Peter And Alice, regional theatre regular Mary Keegan and Arthur Wilson, who has worked extensively with acclaimed theatre company Propeller.
Rules For Living, which plays in the Dorfman Theatre from 24 March, boasts a smaller but equally exciting cast including the previously announced Deborah Findlay, Miles Jupp, Maggie Service and Stephen Mangan.
Leading the newly announced line-up joining the quartet is Chimerica star Claudie Blakley. As well as her appearance in the multi Olivier Award-winning hit, the actor has appeared in NT productions including The Comedy Of Errors, The Cherry Orchard and Attempts On Her Life. She is perhaps best known for her many screen appearances including popular television series Silent Witness and Lark Rise To Candleford.
Blakley is joined by relative stage newcomers Jon Rogan, who follows roles in pantomimes and the UK tour of Boogie Nights to make his NT debut, and young actor Daisy Waterstone, who made her professional stage debut last year in the Old Vic’s acclaimed production of The Crucible.
Also confirmed today are the dates of forthcoming NT Live screenings for productions playing as part of the busy spring season. Rufus Norris’ epic Behind The Beautiful Forevers will be screened on 12 March, Tom Stoppard’s latest play The Hard Problem on 16 April, Man And Superman on 14 May and the recently announced Everyman, starring Olivier Award winner and Academy Award nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor, on 16 July.