The National Theatre announced their 2020-2021 season this morning, detailing nine productions that will play on the South Bank in the next year.
From October, Rufus Norris’ acclaimed production of Andrea Levy’s Small Island returns to the Olivier Theatre after a sell-out run in 2019. Following, in January 2021, Standing At The Sky’s Edge will transfer to the Olivier. Directed by Robert Hastie with songs by Richard Hawley and a book by Chris Bush, this musical tells the story of three families in a council estate in Sheffield.
At the Lyttelton Theatre in June, Dominic Cooke returns with a new production of Emlyn Williams’ The Corn Is Green. The Welsh classic will feature Nicola Walker alongside Adam Baker, Jordan Bamford, Saffron Coomber, Gareth David-Lloyd, Iwan Davies, Jonathan Hawkins, Richard Lynch, Alice Orr-Ewing, Sophie Stanton, Garyn Williams and Rufus Wright. From October will be Alice Birch’s adaptation of Rachel Cusk’s trilogy Outline. Transit. Kudos. Directed by Katie Mitchell, the production will incorporate film and audio to recount the tale.
Also in the Lyttelton, Simon Stone will make his National Theatre debut in December, directing a new adaptation of Phaedra with Kristin Scott Thomas and Assaad Bouab which will be broadcast internationally through NT Live. In February 2021 Lynette Linton directs a new production of Pearl Cleage’s Blues For An Alabama Sky, starring Giles Terera, which tells the story of four friends whose lives collide when an Alabaman stranger arrives in 1930s Harlem.
The Chichester Festival Theatre’s production of Roy Williams’ Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads – a play about race and identity in England – will come to the Dorfman Theatre from September, directed by Nicole Charles. April de Angelis’ new play Kerry Jackson also comes to the Dorfman. Directed by Indhu Rubasingham, this new comedy is set ina Hackney restaurant caught up in the tides of gentrification. In January 2021, Headlong and the National Theatre co-produce After Life, a new play written by Harry Potter And The Cursed Child writer Jack Thorne, and created by Jack Thorne, Jeremy Herrin and Bunny Christie.