National Theatre 2011 season

© Mike Smallcombe

Artistic director Nicholas Hytner has announced plans for 2011 and beyond at the National Theatre.

Booking opens on March 8, for the National’s first season of new plays, which will consist of:

‘The Cherry Orchard’ (Olivier, from May 17). Chekhov’s final play is directed by NT regular Howard Davies. Zoë Wanamaker stars as fading aristocrat Madame Ranevskaya, with Conleth Hill as Lopakhin.

Ibsen’s epic ‘Emperor and Galilean’ (Olivier, from Jun 15). Ibsen’s play in a new version by Ben Power, directed by Jonathan Kent and starring Andrew Scott as Roman emperor Julian the Apostate.

‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ (Lyttelton, from May). Perennial provocateur Richard Bean’s reworking of Goldoni’s ‘The Servant of Two Masters’ is set in 1960s Brighton. Directed by Nicholas Hytner, the cast is led by James Corden, who featured in the original ‘The History Boys’ before TV fame beckoned.

The mighty but challenging Katie Mitchell will direct Thomas Heywood’s ‘A Woman Killed With Kindness’ (Lyttelton, from July); it will be fascinating to see what she makes of his tragic interrogation of female vice and virtue.

Finally, ‘London Road’ (Cottesloe, from Apr 14) is a is a new documentary play with music about the effect on the Ipswich community of the murders committed by serial killer Steve Wright. Written by Alecky Blythe and Adam Cork, it will be directed by Rufus Norris.

Future highlights announced include a new play from Conor McPherson, a new play for autumn 2011 from Mike Leigh (who also directs) with a cast including Ruby Bentall and Lesley Manville; and an as yet untitled piece by John Hodge, which imagines an encounter between Joseph Stalin and writer Mikhail Bulgakov, with Simon Russell Beale attached to play the dictator. Looking further ahead to 2012, May will see the opening of a musical penned by singer-songwriter Tori Amos, directed by Marianne Elliott.