The Hard Problem - National Theatre (Dorfman)
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
THE HARD Problem, a new play by Tom Stoppard, premieres at the Dorfman Theatre on January 28, 2015 (previews from January 21). It will be directed by Nicholas Hytner, his last production as Director of the National Theatre.
Hilary, a young psychology researcher at a brainscience institute, is nursing a private sorrow and a troubling question at work, where psychology and biology meet. If there is nothing but matter, what is consciousness? This is ‘the hard problem’ which puts Hilary at odds with her colleagues who include her first mentor Spike, her boss Leo and the billionaire founder of the institute, Jerry.
Is the day coming when the computer and the fMRI scanner will answer all the questions psychology can ask? Meanwhile Hilary needs a miracle, and she is prepared to pray for one.
The cast will include Vera Chok, Jonathan Coy, Damien Molony, Lucy Robinson, Parth Thakerar and Olivia Vinall (as Hilary). Vinall has recently played Cordelia in King Lear and Desdemona in Othello, both at the National Theatre, where she also appeared in Live from the National Theatre: 50 Years on Stage.
The Hard Problem is Tom Stoppard’s first play for the stage since Rock ’n’ Roll (Royal Court, 2006), and his first for the National since his trilogy, The Coast of Utopia, in 2002. His long association with the National Theatre began with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead in 1967, and went on to include productions of Jumpers, On the Razzle, Rough Crossing, The Real Inspector Hound, Arcadia, The Invention of Love, The Coast of Utopia and Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (written with André Previn).
Stoppard’s stage plays, which have won eight Evening Standard Awards and five Tony Awards, also include Travesties, The Real Thing and Shakespeare in Love.
Since becoming Director of the National in April 2003, Nicholas Hytner has directed Henry V, His Dark Materials, The History Boys, Stuff Happens, Henry IV, Southwark Fair, The Alchemist, The Man of Mode, The Rose Tattoo (with Steven Pimlott), Rafta, Rafta… , Much Ado About Nothing, Major Barbara, England People Very Nice, Phèdre, The Habit of Art, London Assurance, Hamlet, Collaborators, Travelling Light, One Man Two Guvnors, Timon of Athens, People, Cocktail Sticks, Othello, Live from the National Theatre: 50 Years on Stage and Great Britain.
The Hard Problem will be designed by Bob Crowley, with lighting by Mark Henderson and sound by Paul Arditti.
NB: There will be a National Theatre Live broadcast of The Hard Problem on April 16; and on Friday, February 6 at 5.30pm, Nicholas Hytner and Tom Stoppard will discuss the play in a National Theatre Platform.
The award-winning New York production of David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s musical Here Lies Love continues in the Dorfman until January 8, 2015.