Three Days in the Country - National Theatre (Lyttelton)
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
THE NATIONAL Theatre has announced its new season and it includes Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good; Duncan Macmillan’s new play People, Places and Things; Sally Cookson’s staging of Jane Eyre; wonder.land, a new musical by Damon Albarn and Moira Buffini; and the Orange Tree Theatre’s Pomona.
However, the season opens with Patrick Marber directing his own new version of Three Days in the Country, after Turgenev, which runs in repertoire in the Lyttelton Theatre from July 28 (previews from July 21) to October 21, 2015.
The cast includes Amanda Drew, Gawn Grainger, John Simm and Cherrelle Skeete.
A passionate and moving comedy, Ivan Turgenev’s A Month in the Country has been the source of inspiration for films, a ballet and the plays of Chekhov.
Russia. A beautiful country estate. The mid-nineteenth century. A handsome new tutor brings reckless, romantic desire to an eccentric household. Over three days one summer the young and the old will learn lessons in love: first love and forbidden love, maternal love and platonic love, ridiculous love and last love. The love left unsaid and the love which must out.
Patrick Marber’s previous plays for the National Theatre are Dealer’s Choice (Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy); Closer (Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy, Laurence Olivier and Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Play), for which he also wrote the screenplay; Howard Katz; and The Musicians for Connections. His latest play, The Red Lion, opens in the Dorfman Theatre in June.
John Simm’s extensive screen credits include Code of a Killer, Prey, The Village, Mad Dogs, Exile, Doctor Who, Life on Mars, Sex Traffic, State of Play and The Lakes. His most recent stage appearance was in The Hothouse at Trafalgar Studios. Prior to that, his roles include Jerry in Betrayal and the title role of Hamlet at Sheffield Theatres, and Elling at the Bush for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award.
Produced in association with Sonia Friedman Productions, A Month in the Country will be designed by Mark Thompson, with lighting by Neil Austin, music and sound by Adam Cork and movement by Polly Bennett.
Also in the Lyttelton Theatre: Simon Godwin’s reinvention of Bernard Shaw’s witty, provocative classic Man and Superman starring Ralph Fiennes (until May 17); and Caryl Churchill’s Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (previewing from April 15).