Rufus Norris
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Oscar-nominated Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl, Saltburn, Wheel of Time) will make her debut at London’s National Theatre in 2025, and they’ve given her the starring role in the world premiere of a new work by Suzie Miller, the playwright who created Prima Facie, the legal drama that catapulted Jodie Comer to Olivier and Tony Award trophies.
Pike has been cast in Miller’s Inter Alia, in which she’ll play a British High Court judge forced to reckon with conflict in her private and professional life. The production will reunite Miller with director Justin Martin, who also directed Comer in Prima Facie in the West End and on Broadway.
Inter Alia will be part of the final season of National Theatre director and co-chief executive Rufus Norris, who steps down from his post on March 31, 2025 after a decade at the helm of the UK’s flagship theatrical institution. Norris revealed the new season Tuesday in a press conference at the National Theatre Green Store, the organization’s new sustainability center in Bermondsey, South London.
Indhu Rubasingham, currently director designate, takes over as director and co-chief executive beginning April 1.
Miller’s play will perform in the National’s Lyttelton Theatre, with dates and other cast members to be announced.
Pike was last seen on stage starring in Hedda Gabler at the Theatre Royal, Bath in 2010. She last trod the boards in London when she appeared opposite Judi Dench in Madame de Sade for the Donmar theatre’s 2009 season in the West End.
Also set for the National’s 2025 season, Juliet Stevenson (Wolf, Bend It Like Beckham) will appear in David Lan’s new play Land of the Living, about displaced children after World War II. Stephen Daldry (The Crown, Billy Elliott) will direct on the National’s Dorfman stage. Dates have not yet been scheduled.
Stephen Sondheim’s final musical Here We Are, with a book by David Ives, which world premiered at The Shed in New York last fall, will receive its European run at the Lyttelton from April 23-June 28. Joe Mantello, who staged the show at The Shed, will direct what’s being termed a “new production” featuring original cast members Tracie Bennett (National Theatre Live: Follies) and Denis O’Hare (American Horror Story). They’ll be joined by Rory Kinnear (The Diplomat, No Time to Die).
Arinzé Kene (Lee, Ear for Eye), making his National debut, and Cherrelle Skeete (The Midwich Cuckoos, Hanna) will appear in a new version of Michael Abbensetts’ much heralded 1978 play Alterations, a comedy set in a tailor’s shop inspired by a visit the playwright made to a small room off trendy Carnaby Street where two Black tailors had set up shop.
Director Lynette Linton has collaborated with playwright Trish Cooke, who has added fresh material. The show is from the Black Plays Archive and will be presented at the Lyttelton from February 20-April 5.
There are also new dramas from playwrights Shaan Sahota with The Estate and David Eldridge with End.
James Graham’s acclaimed Dear England, directed by Rupert Goold, returns to the Olivier Theatre in March, and Norris’ production of Nye, starring Michael Sheen playing Aneurun “Nye” Bevan, the architect of Britain’s National Health Service, returns to the Olivier in July. It will also be performed at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff.
London’s National Theatre
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Norris will also stage a revival of acclaimed documentary musical London Road; it’s one of Norris’ signature successes. The production by Alecky Blythe and Adam Cork will play a limited season in the Olivier from June 5-21. It will also be filmed by National Theatre Live for future streaming on National Theatre at Home.
Speaking at his final National Theatre press conference today, Norris praised the dedication of creatives and staff who have helped make the National a “creative powerhouse.”
He added: ”There is simply nowhere else like it on earth.”
Norris said that the National will continue to “flourish and grow” under the new leadership of Rubasingham and Kate Varah, executive director and co-chief executive.