NT season June to January, a moan

[lynette]

Fell free to skip this but I'm looking at the NT brochure which has just arrived ( post office wouldn't deliver cos no postage, wanted £2 and I didn't  know what it was and I wouldn't have paid two quid if I had, but postman knows us, so he brought it today - what are they playing at the NT when they can't put a stamp on? different topic..) 

I see Angels, yes a biggie and Follies, with singing ( I'm detecting a trend here in theatre...) and I see Amadeus they have brought back, and a play from a movie which I thought was West End territory and then an adaptation of a book we have seen done before and then 7 new plays. 
Am I missing something? Yes I am. Where is or are classic plays, French plays, American plays, Russian plays, any other nationality you can mention plays, twentieth century plays, nineteenth century plays, medieval plays, revivals of hot successes of the near past? ( small category that last one) 

Ink and Girl from the North Country obviously went somewhere else. You can't say to small theatres cos The Old Vic is very big. So our best writers who have a bit of a track record have given up on the NT. That's now a fact. 
So the NT is looking more and more like an off West End little number with lots of new writing and a few good actors having a 'go' between gigs in the West End. ( Duff)

But this is the National Theatre ffs. Anyone coming from anywhere in the U.K. or from abroad should be able to see one play from the canon of respected writers, English or translation. The studio, the Dorfman should offer the new writing. At the moment there is now plan, no theme, no succession of work - it is looking like the David Hare era was its golden age. 

I have booked for Angels, Mosquitoes and Oslo. That is surely a fair whack and contribution. I'm doing my bit, NT, humour me and do yours. 
As I said do skip if you want, I'm just saying..... 

[bordeaux]

Jul 17, 2017 16:10:32 GMT lynette said:

Fell free to skip this but I'm looking at the NT brochure which has just arrived ( post office wouldn't deliver cos no postage, wanted £2 and I didn't  know what it was and I wouldn't have paid two quid if I had, but postman knows us, so he brought it today - what are they playing at the NT when they can't put a stamp on? different topic..) 

I see Angels, yes a biggie and Follies, with singing ( I'm detecting a trend here in theatre...) and I see Amadeus they have brought back, and a play from a movie which I thought was West End territory and then an adaptation of a book we have seen done before and then 7 new plays. 
Am I missing something? Yes I am. Where is or are classic plays, French plays, American plays, Russian plays, any other nationality you can mention plays, twentieth century plays, nineteenth century plays, medieval plays, revivals of hot successes of the near past? ( small category that last one) 

Ink and Girl from the North Country obviously went somewhere else. You can't say to small theatres cos The Old Vic is very big. So our best writers who have a bit of a track record have given up on the NT. That's now a fact. 
So the NT is looking more and more like an off West End little number with lots of new writing and a few good actors having a 'go' between gigs in the West End. ( Duff)

But this is the National Theatre ffs. Anyone coming from anywhere in the U.K. or from abroad should be able to see one play from the canon of respected writers, English or translation. The studio, the Dorfman should offer the new writing. At the moment there is now plan, no theme, no succession of work - it is looking like the David Hare era was its golden age. 

I have booked for Angels, Mosquitoes and Oslo. That is surely a fair whack and contribution. I'm doing my bit, NT, humour me and do yours. 
As I said do skip if you want, I'm just saying..... 

Michael Billington made similar points in January:  

www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2017/jan/30/national-theatre-new-season-classic-plays-rufus-norris

Matt Trueman replied on whatsonstage.com the next day:

www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/national-theatre-michael-billington-classic-plays-trueman_42769.html

I'm sure it's just a temporary thing, a quirk of scheduling that there is so much new/American stuff.  There have been a fair number of classic revivals over the past year or so:  Waste, Les Blancs, Twelfth Night, The Deep Blue Sea, Hedda Gabler, Threepenny Opera.  Next year we are promised Macbeth and Ant and Cleo.  But, yes, I'd like something French or Greek.  And he's not getting the best new plays.  I really hope Mosquitoes is a success; he needs it.

[lynette]

Thanks for referring me to the those links. Just one point- why can't Synge and Sheridan say something today? Shakespeare is being turned inside out all over the place. We have just talented actors and directors so I'm sure they might have a go at them among others. Ok, ok. I'll shut up now.

[martin1965]

For whats it worth, i agree with you Lynette. I saw Angels last week having booked in Jan and am going to Oslo. Sadly i saw the Common farrago!
As some of us have said previously it seems we are not the pubters Norris is going for, next year might bring better programming but...

[wiggymess]

Still no news on the new Annie Baker?

[Jon]

Jul 17, 2017 20:46:41 GMT wiggymess said:

Still no news on the new Annie Baker?

Think that'll be mid to late 2018 at the Dorfman, probably Spring

[Deleted]

George and the Dragon in the Olivier feels like a bit of a risk as well; even if it's brilliant, that's a big venue to fill with a new play and not really a star name. I'm looking forward to seeing the Heff but not even so I'm 100% confident in the NT's ability to pick a winner currently.

[dave72]

Slightly OT: can anyone work out what will be on in the Dorfman in December and January? Apart from the return of Barber Shop Chronicles, I mean. There are roughly 20 days in December and all of January after the 9th unaccounted for. If not the Annie Baker (and not The Great Wave, which according to the Tricycle's website opens in Spring 2018), then what? Anyone know?

[vabbian]

Looking forward to next year! new production of

"Antony & Cleopatra by William Shakespeare, with Ralph Fiennes as Antony, is now planned for later in 2018."

[jek]

Jul 17, 2017 16:10:32 GMT lynette said:

Fell free to skip this but I'm looking at the NT brochure which has just arrived ( post office wouldn't deliver cos no postage, wanted £2 and I didn't  know what it was and I wouldn't have paid two quid if I had, but postman knows us, so he brought it today - what are they playing at the NT when they can't put a stamp on? different topic..) 

I received my membership stuff from the NT without a stamp on it. Unfortunately I don't know my postie and so had a bus trip to the local depot to pay and collect.

[peggs]

Jul 18, 2017 21:10:57 GMT jek said:

Jul 17, 2017 16:10:32 GMT lynette said:

Fell free to skip this but I'm looking at the NT brochure which has just arrived ( post office wouldn't deliver cos no postage, wanted £2 and I didn't  know what it was and I wouldn't have paid two quid if I had, but postman knows us, so he brought it today - what are they playing at the NT when they can't put a stamp on? different topic..) 

I received my membership stuff from the NT without a stamp on it. Unfortunately I don't know my postie and so had a bus trip to the local depot to pay and collect.

Is this the Nationals new cost saving measure?!

[peelee]

Jane Eyre was excellent theatre and among the best of what I've seen at the National this past year or two. Its return is welcome, and I might even see the play again. Network will attract many and I can understand the attraction, though by now the ticket prices exclude my sort of theatregoer. Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad and more recently Trumbo fame—both now on Netflix, btw—could really do something in this forthcoming play, the Paddy Chayefsky association with the 1970s screenplay being for me a quality Kitemark. So I think both plays justify themselves in the schedule.

Beginning is a play by David Eldridge, thoughtful and a writer of note. Pinocchio sounds like it could be good. And the well-liked on here Barber Shop Chronicles returns and could attract a lot of interest. They'll find their audiences, and of the five plays I've mentioned they'll likely do enough to maintain the profile of the National up to year's end and into the new year. They are too interestingly varied, and while some are new there are also classics of a sort among them.

[Deleted]

The 'new' revivals (as opposed to the return of Amadeus) are Follies and Angels in America, two classic American texts. Given that there aren't really any until the last a hundred years that's a pretty good spread. I really don't think that Network will be your usual West End fare and it's adapted by Lee Hall, one and of our best established writers.

Having said that I think there is an argument that the NT is currently too focused on America at the expense of the continent, however, and HG, for one, has expressed that frustration.

[n1david]

Jul 19, 2017 9:30:53 GMT @cardinalpirelli said:

Having said that I think there is an argument that the NT is currently too focused on America at the expense of the continent, however, and HG, for one, has expressed that frustration.

Interestingly I was at the Angels platform with Nathan Lane and Russell Tovey, and Nathan Lane said he'd had lunch with Rufus Norris prior to casting and Rufus had said that he wanted to build a stronger relationship between the NT and American actors, which presumably accounts for Nathan and Bryan Cranston. So it sounds like there is evidence of a strategy at work (albeit Lane said American actors rather than American work, although one might expect some correlation between the two)

[zahidf]

I don't mind if it has an American focus for a bit: Angels was superb, and Follies, Network and Pinnochio have great potential to be as well.

And who wouldn't want Cranston as the centrepiece of a season?

[Deleted]

Jul 19, 2017 14:11:22 GMT n1david said:

Jul 19, 2017 9:30:53 GMT @cardinalpirelli said:

Having said that I think there is an argument that the NT is currently too focused on America at the expense of the continent, however, and HG, for one, has expressed that frustration.

Interestingly I was at the Angels platform with Nathan Lane and Russell Tovey, and Nathan Lane said he'd had lunch with Rufus Norris prior to casting and Rufus had said that he wanted to build a stronger relationship between the NT and American actors, which presumably accounts for Nathan and Bryan Cranston. So it sounds like there is evidence of a strategy at work (albeit Lane said American actors rather than American work, although one might expect some correlation between the two)

That's interesting - I wonder why? I don't say that in a critical way, it would just be interesting to know why American actors are important for the NT. I'd assume it can't just be about bums on seats since there are plenty of non-USA actors who can provide the same service. Unless it's a refugee service for American actors who want to sit out the Trump years in exile in London; bit like how we picked up some great German exiles in the 30s and Americans during the McCarthy years (inc Sam Wannamaker, I think?). Actually I'm talking myself into it now!

Though my knee-jerk reaction would be to try to develop closer links with European theatre in current times.

[jadnoop]

Jul 19, 2017 15:01:07 GMT @abby said:

Unless it's a refugee service for American actors who want to sit out the Trump years in exile in London; bit like how we picked up some great German exiles in the 30s and Americans during the McCarthy years (inc Sam Wannamaker, I think?).

Before the election Bryan Cranston was saying that he would emmigrate if Trump won. He's taken that back since then, but I can't imagine his choice of play and location is just a coincidence.

[lynette]

I love this idea of American refugee actors. 😂

[Deleted]

Jul 19, 2017 14:11:22 GMT n1david said:

Interestingly I was at the Angels platform with Nathan Lane and Russell Tovey, and Nathan Lane said he'd had lunch with Rufus Norris prior to casting and Rufus had said that he wanted to build a stronger relationship between the NT and American actors, which presumably accounts for Nathan and Bryan Cranston. So it sounds like there is evidence of a strategy at work (albeit Lane said American actors rather than American work, although one might expect some correlation between the two)

This is disgraceful! Presumably, given the evidence of Nathan Lane and Bryan Cranston, he means high profile American star actors. Are there also some coming up in Follies? Why is the NT so obsessed with the USA? Why does it not have a strategy on the casting of British and UK-based actors?

To set the NT's casting in some context, compare it with the RSC which generally casts acting companies comprising a balanced mixture of established and returning RSC actors, mid-career actors and emerging actors fresh from their initial training, who all work together in a repertore of two or three plays. This is a major contributionto the continuing development of the acting profession working throughout the UK. Whereas the NT's piecemeal, one-off casting policy makes no such contribution, and they seem to have no larger casting strategy at all - except, we now learn, to employ a few high-profile Americans! Unbelievable!

[jadnoop]

Jul 19, 2017 16:32:25 GMT @honouredguest said:

This is disgraceful! Presumably, given the evidence of Nathan Lane and Bryan Cranston, he means high profile American star actors. Are there also some coming up in Follies? Why is the NT so obsessed with the USA? Why does it not have a strategy on the casting of British and UK-based actors?

I'm unclear why this is a disgrace. It is a National Theatre, but imo it makes sense both financially and culturally to bring in talent from outside the UK as well as having homegrown talent. Given that the US is a major place in terms of acting and has English as the native language, it makes sense that talent would be brought over from there. Naturally, the fact that they will have public clout might be a bit part of it, but I'm not sure you can really compare Angels (where Andrew Garfield surely has more public star power than Nathan Lane) to Network, which seems like a vehicle for Bryan Cranston.

I'm also not sure that the fact that they have explicitly mentioned having a strategy for improving relations with American actors necessarily means that no equivalent aims are in place for British actors. After all, 'strategy' could mean anything from a loose intention to a strict business model, and in any case surely it makes sense that you'd need more forethought/planning to bring in foreign actors (or directors/writers) than to do the same for homegrown talent.

[Deleted]

Jul 19, 2017 16:12:17 GMT lynette said:

I love this idea of American refugee actors. 😂

If someone offered me the opportunity to sit out Brexit in Berlin I'd take it!

[Jan]

Jul 19, 2017 16:32:25 GMT @honouredguest said:

Jul 19, 2017 14:11:22 GMT n1david said:

Interestingly I was at the Angels platform with Nathan Lane and Russell Tovey, and Nathan Lane said he'd had lunch with Rufus Norris prior to casting and Rufus had said that he wanted to build a stronger relationship between the NT and American actors, which presumably accounts for Nathan and Bryan Cranston. So it sounds like there is evidence of a strategy at work (albeit Lane said American actors rather than American work, although one might expect some correlation between the two)

This is disgraceful! Presumably, given the evidence of Nathan Lane and Bryan Cranston, he means high profile American star actors. Are there also some coming up in Follies? Why is the NT so obsessed with the USA? Why does it not have a strategy on the casting of British and UK-based actors?

To set the NT's casting in some context, compare it with the RSC which generally casts acting companies comprising a balanced mixture of established and returning RSC actors, mid-career actors and emerging actors fresh from their initial training, who all work together in a repertore of two or three plays. This is a major contributionto the continuing development of the acting profession working throughout the UK. Whereas the NT's piecemeal, one-off casting policy makes no such contribution, and they seem to have no larger casting strategy at all - except, we now learn, to employ a few high-profile Americans! Unbelievable!

Agree. Of course he only means high-profile American actors because they're the only ones who can get Equity clearance to appear here (in new productions)

[martin1965]

Jul 19, 2017 17:49:25 GMT Jan said:

Jul 19, 2017 16:32:25 GMT @honouredguest said:

This is disgraceful! Presumably, given the evidence of Nathan Lane and Bryan Cranston, he means high profile American star actors. Are there also some coming up in Follies? Why is the NT so obsessed with the USA? Why does it not have a strategy on the casting of British and UK-based actors?

To set the NT's casting in some context, compare it with the RSC which generally casts acting companies comprising a balanced mixture of established and returning RSC actors, mid-career actors and emerging actors fresh from their initial training, who all work together in a repertore of two or three plays. This is a major contributionto the continuing development of the acting profession working throughout the UK. Whereas the NT's piecemeal, one-off casting policy makes no such contribution, and they seem to have no larger casting strategy at all - except, we now learn, to employ a few high-profile Americans! Unbelievable!

Agree. Of course he only means high-profile American actors because they're the only ones who can get Equity clearance to appear here (in new productions)

Welcome back JB 😊

[sf]

Jul 17, 2017 16:10:32 GMT lynette said:

But this is the National Theatre ffs. Anyone coming from anywhere in the U.K. or from abroad should be able to see one play from the canon of respected writers, English or translation. The studio, the Dorfman should offer the new writing.

Actually, I can make an argument for keeping space for new writing on the larger stages. There's already a good number of theatres across the country with the capacity of the Dorfman - or less - producing new writing. The number of venues with the resources to produce a big new play - something along the lines of the major works David Hare premiered in the Olivier - is vanishingly small. That's a niche almost nobody else can fill.

[lynette]

Just seen new play at Old Vic which is a very big theatre even if the stage isn't so uber techie. The Olivier is notoriously tricky and usually looks cavernous. Sorry, I don't think the Olivier is the place for trying out. Not much of David Hare looked good there, did it? This is The National Theatre we are talking about and it costs us whether we go or not. I'm getting a bit more stingy as the years pass and I think people should be careful with other people's money.
Welcome to the board sf. Please don't let my grumpiness put you off. I'm all marshmellow inside.