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Although the general details of Rufus Norris’s final four plays as artistic director of the National Theatre were announced last year, it’s finally time for the end. Literally: not only are these his last bits of programming before being succeeded by Indhu Rubasingham later this year, but his final play will be End, by David Eldridge, a cool conceptual flourish but also an entirely legitimate conclusion to Eldridge’s trilogy of Norris-era relationship dramas that began with 2017’s smash Beginning and continued with 2022’s Middle.
It’s a slightly eccentric ‘season’, stretching from July to the end of the year, but with no shows in the NT’s biggest venue the Olivier, only one in the medium Lyttelton, and three going into the smaller Dorfman – presumably the fact the Dorfman is currently closed for urgent upgrades has had an impact on the shape of Norris’s final programming, and presumably we can expect Rubasingham’s first Olivier and Lyttelton shows this autumn.
Anyway: that Lyttelton show is the much anticipated Inter Alia (Jul 10-Sep 13), which will see Susie Miller and Justin Martin – writer and director of the Jodie Comer-starring smash Prima Facie – reunite for a drama about a female high court judge trying to live a normal life out of the spotlight. Big name Rosamund Pike will make her NT debut as judge Jessica Parks.
It’ll run at the same time as the first of the Dorfman plays. The Estate (Jul 9-Aug 23) by first time playwright Shaan Sahota is a political drama about ‘family, power and the lies we tell about ourselves’ that stars Adeel Akhtar as a politician in line to become Leader of the Opposition – if only his sisters can keep their mouths shut.
Next up and former Young Vic boss David Lan’s new drama The Land of the Living (Sep 9-Nov 1) follows a young UN aid worker who makes a fateful decision in 1945 with regards to the fate of an Eastern European child who had been abducted by the Nazis – 45 years later she much come to terms with the consequences of her choices. Juliet Stevenson stars in the Stephen Daldry-directed drama.
Then it’s time for End (from Nov 13) which reunites Eldridge with director Rachel O’Riordan. Where Beginning was about the funny, awkward, horny start of a relationship and Middle about the knotty hinterlands, End stars Clive Owen and Saskia Reeves as a couple happily looking back on a life well-lived – and are now preparing to write their ending.
Tickets will go on general public sale February 6.
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