John Hodge’s new play Collaborators, starring Alex Jennings and Simon Russell Beale, is to transfer from the National’s Cottesloe theatre to its larger Olivier theatre on 30 April to open the £12 Travelex season.
Beale and Jennings are to reprise their roles as Russian leader Joseph Stalin and the playwright commissioned to write a play for his 60th birthday, Mikhail Bulgakov. Set in Moscow in 1938, Hodge’s drama depicts a dangerous game of cat and mouse as Bulgakov, who has been living among dissidents while being stalked by the secret police, deals with this poisoned chalice.
Collaborators is the first play by screenwriter Hodge, whose films include Trainspotting, Shallow Grave and The Beach.
The production received good notices on its premiere on 2 November. Official London Theatre’s first night feature said: “Director Nicholas Hytner embraces the aspects of vaudevillian comedy and nightmarish fantasy in his direction, drawing larger than life performances out at points.”
Now in its 10th year, the £12 Travelex season offers a number of tickets to productions in the Olivier theatre for just £12.
CB