National Theatre's Fall Season to Feature Shaw, Mother Courage and More

The National Theatre has announced the lineup for its fall 2009 season. Headlining the season will be Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children, starring Fiona Shaw in the title role. Also included is Tadeusz Slobodzianek's Our Class and the theatrical adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Nation.

Translated by Tony Kushner and directed by Deborah Warner, Mother Courage and Her Children begins performances on September 9 at the Olivier Theatre. The title character is known as one of the astonishing stage creations of the twentieth century, who drags her cart across battlefields, profiteering from a war that destroys her children, one by one. Shaw returns to the National having starred in productions of Happy Days, Richard II, The Good Person of Sichuan, Machinal, The Way of the World, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Powerbook. She has also been seen in the Broadway and West End productions of Medea, Hedda Gabler in the West End and The Wasteland.The production features scenic design by Tom Pye, costume design by Ruth Myers, lighting design by Jean Kalman, songs by Duke Special and sound design by Andrew Bruce and Nick Lidster.

Ryan Craig's version of Polish playwright Slobodzianke's Our Class begins performances at the Cottesloe on September 16, directed by Bijan Sheibani. Set in Poland in 1925, the play focuses on a group of schoolchildren, some Jewish and some Catholic, who declare their ambitions. One wants to be a fireman, one a film star, one a pilot and another a doctor. As the children grow up, their country is torn apart by invading armies. Internal grievances deepen as nationalism develops, friends betray each other and violence escalate until these ordinary people carry out an extraordinary and monstrous act that darkly resonates to this day. Included in the cast are Tamzin Griffin, Amanda Hale, Edward Hogg, Sinead Matthews and Jason Watkins. The production features scenic design by Bunny Christie, lighting design by Jon Clark, choreography by Aline David and sound by Ian Dickinson.

Based Terry Pratchett's bestselling adventure stories, Nation begins performances on November 24 at the Olivier Theatre. It is set in parallel worlds in 1860, where two teenagers are thrown together by a tsunami that has destroyed Mau's village and has left Daphne shipwrecked on his South Pacific island, thousands of miles from home. One wears next to nothing, the other a long white dress. Neither speaks the other's language but they somehow must learn to survive. As straving refugees gather, Daphne delivers a baby, milks a pig, brews beer and does battle with a mutineer. Meanwhile, Mau fights cannibal raiders, discovers the world is round and questions the reality of his tribe's fiercely patriarchial gods. Together, Mau and Daphne come of age, overseen by a foul-mouthed parrot, as they discard old doctrine to forge a new Nation. Adapted by Mark Ravenhill and directed by Melly Still, Nation features scenic design by Still and Mark Friend, costume design by Dinah Collin, lighting design by Paul Anderson and sound by Paul Arditti. Featured in the cast will be Gary Carr and Emily Taaffe.

In addition to the full productions, the National will feature 10 performances of Caryl Churchill's Three More Sleepless Nights at the Lyttelton from July 30 to August 27. There will also be three performances of Vladmir Nabokov's Lolita on September 7, 14 and 21. Lee Hall's Pitmen Painters will return to the Lyttelton from September 2-22 prior to embarking on a national tour, which includes stops at Newcastle Theatre Royal, Cardiff's New Theatre, Milton Keynes Theatre, Salford's Lyric Theatre, Sheffield's Lyceum, Norwich's Theatre Royal, Bath's Theatre Royal and Plymouth's Theatre Royal.