Stage and screen star David Oyelowo is set to make his National Theatre debut in a new production of Shakespeare's Corioulanus, to be directed by Lyndsey Turner. The revival will play the London company's Olivier Theatre beginning September 11, with performances running through November 9.
Oyelowo, who will star in the title role, will be joined in the cast by Luke Aquilina, Anushka Chakravarti, Anton Cross, Patrick Elue, Peter Forbes, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Conor McLeod, Jordan Metcalfe, Richard Pryal, Jordan Rhys, Stephanie Street, and John Vernon. Further casting is to be announced.
The production will feature set design by Es Devlin, costume design by Annemarie Woods, lighting design by Tim Lutkin, sound design by Tom Gibbons, music by Angus MacRae, video design by Ash J Woodward, and fight direction by Sam Lyon-Behan. Casting is by Bryony Jarvis-Taylor.
Coriolanus is one of several newly announced summer and fall productions headed to the National, though the only set to play the Olivier stage.
The Dorfman Theatre will close for "urgent renovations" (according to press notes) beginning mid-November 2024 and continuing through mid-2025. But the space has one production ahead before the closure, the world premiere of Tanika Gupta's A Tupperware of Ashes. The work centers on a Michelin-starred chef who begins to show signs of dementia. Pooka Ghai will direct, reuniting with Gupta after collaborating on The Empress. Performances will run September 25-November 16.
The cast will feature Raj Bajaj, Natalie Dew, Marc Elliott, Stephen Fewell, Shobna Gulati, Avita Jay, Meera Syal, and Zubin Varla.
The creative team will include set and costume designer Rosa Maggiora, lighting designer Matt Haskins, composer Nitin Sawhney, sound designer Elena Peña, illusion director and designer John Bulleid, movement director Anjali Mehra, and fight and intimacy directors Rachel Bown-Williams and Ruth Cooper-Brown. Casting is by Naomi Downham.
Newly revealed for the company's Lyttelton Theatre is The Other Place, a new play written by Alexander Zeldin. Inspired by Antigone, the work follows a family still reeling from the death of their patriarch, and a sibling who demands justice for the pain she carries. Zeldin is also directing the world premiere.
The cast will include Lee Braithwaite, Emma D'Arcy, Jeremy Killick, Tobias Menzies, and Nina Sosanya.
The production, being presented in association with A Zeldin Company, will feature set and costume design by Rosanna Vize, lighting design by James Farncombe, music by Yannis Philippakis, sound design by Josh Anio Grigg, and movement direction by Marcin Rudy. Casting is by Alastair Coomer.
Along with the production announcements, the National has revealed casting for its upcoming stagings of Pulitzer Prize winner The Hot Wing King, playing the Dorfman Theatre July 11-September 14; and The Grapes of Wrath, set for the Lyttelton Theatre July 17-September 14.
For The Hot Wing King, the previously announced Kadiff Kirwan will be joined by Jason Barnett, Kaireece Denton, Olisa Odele, Simon-Anthony Rhoden, and Dwane Walcott, with Roy Alexander Weise at the helm.
The Grapes of Wrath, which as previously announced will be led by Cherry Jones as Ma Joad, will feature Zoë Aldrich, Afolabi Alli, Rhys Bailey, Rachel Barnes, Brandon Bassir, Lin Blakley, Morgan Burgess, Tom Bulpett, Ryan Ellsworth, Amelia Gabriel, Christopher Godwin, Valentine Hanson, Greg Hicks, Harley Johnston, Natey Jones, William Lawlor, Mirren Mack, Maimuna Memon, Matthew Romain, Anish Roy, Michael Shaeffer, Robyn Sinclair, Tucker St Ivany, Emma Tracey, Harry Treadaway, and Cath Whitefield. Carrie Cracknell is directing.
For full details, including a Public Acts world premiere celebrating the people and music of Sunderland titled Public Record, visit NationalTheatre.org.uk.
