The new play by Alan Bennett, which is due to premiere at the National Theatre later this year, may well be the biggest london show of 2009. It has certainly been receiving a lot of attention and now that the two stars of the show have been named that looks set to continue.

The provisional title for the play is ‘The Habit of Art’ and it will deal with the relationship of the poet W H Auden and the composer Benjamin Britten. Michael Gambon is set to play Auden whilst Alex Jennings will play Britten. Frances de la Tour and Adrian Scarborough are also attached to the production which is due to open in the Lyttleton Theatre in November. It will be directed by the National’s Artistic Director Nicholas Hytner.

The play tells the story of an imagined meeting as Auden and Britten meet in the 1960s towards the end of their lives. The two had worked together on the documentary ‘Night Mail’ and the operetta ‘Paul Bunyan’ but fell out with each other in the 1940s.

This play is expected to emulate the huge success of past Bennett premieres at the National such as ‘The History Boys’ and ‘The Madness of George III’. Another Bennett play, ‘Enjoy’ is currently in the West End and breaking box office records.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 12:46 pm and is filed under Theatre News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.