Fiennes, Shaw, Etc. to Star in National Theatre Shows

Tony Award-winning History Boys director Nicholas Hytner, who is the artistic director of The National Theatre, announced at a press conference that actors Ben Chaplin, Ralph Fiennes and Fiona Shaw, as well as playwright David Hare, will all have a part in the theatre's future productions.

Ben Chaplin (films such as The New World, Birthday Girl) will star in Nicholas Wright's The Reporter, directed by former National artistic director Richard Eyre and based on the real-life suicide of TV reporter James Mossman.

Tony Award-winner Ralph Fiennes will headline Oedipus, which will play a national tour after its London run.  Jonathan Kent, who recently directed Fiennes in Faith Healer, will helm the Sophocles classic.  Fiennes' other theatre credits include Hamlet, while his many films include the Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, The English Patient, Quiz Show, and Schindler's List.

Fiona Shaw, a Tony Award-nominee for Medea who is considered a preeminent London stage actress, will star in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days.  The show will be directed by Shaw's frequent collaborator Deborah Warner.

No details have been announced for the Hare play--other than that Hytner will direct it.  In the past, the National has presented the Vertical Hour playwright's Stuff Happens, Amy's View, A Map of the World, and more.

The National will also present a stage adaptation of the 1946 film A Matter of Life and Death, which will be directed by Emma Rice, as well as a prodution of George Etheredge's The Man of Mode, directed by Hytner, and a new play by Ayub Khan-Din (of East is East fame).

Visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk for more information on The National Theatre.