Hytner to End Run at National Theatre with New Tom Stoppard Play

BBC News reports that Sir Nicholas Hytner will close out his run with the National Theatre by directing a new play by Tom Stoppard. While few details are known about the project, the production will mark Stoppard's return to the National in over a decade. His last work staged there was 2002's The Coast of Utopia, a trilogy of three-hour plays, directed by Sir Trevor Nunn.

The new play will open at the Dorfman Theatre (formerly the Cottesloe), in January of 2015. Nicholas joked of the project, "I've been nagging him twice a year since 2001 and he's always said he wouldn't. And one day he said: 'I'm writing'. And he disappeared to Dorset and wrote and he's just finished."

He also revealed to the BBC, "It's a chamber play. It's both entertaining and challenging but that won't be a surprise because that's what Tom's work always is."

In addition, the new season at the National will feature Ralph Fiennes in George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman in February 2015. Hytner will also helm a new play from writer Richard Bean (One Man, Two Guvnors) at the Lyttelton Theatre this summer.

Anounced on Thursday, March 20th, Sir Nicholas' final season will also feature 10 world premieres, including a new play from David Hare, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, based on Katherine Boo's novel about Mumbai, which will have its premiere at the Olivier this November. Rufus Norris, Hytner's successor, will direct. A new adaptation of Euripides' Medea, by Ben Power, starring Helen McCrory in the title role, opens in July.

Hytner spoke to the BBC about his departure from the National after a long and successful run, commenting "I'm really not keen on doing a grand farewell - I think the 50th birthday gala was my goodbye."

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