Nicholas Hytner to direct two World Premieres

Nicholas Hytner will direct the world premiere of Alan Bennett’s Allejujah!, previewing at the Bridge Theatre from 11 July 2018 with opening night on 18 July and running to 28 September 2018. Designed by Bob Crowley, Allelujah! will have lighting by Natasha Chivers and music by George Fenton. Tickets will go on sale at 10am today for priority members with public booking opening on Friday 2 March 2018 at 10am. Casting for Allelujah! will be announced shortly.

The Beth, an old fashioned cradle-to-grave hospital serving a town on the edge of the Pennines, is threatened with closure as part of an NHS efficiency drive. Meanwhile, a documentary crew eager to capture its fight for survival follows the daily struggle to find beds on the Dusty Springfield Geriatric Ward, and the triumphs of the old people’s choir (newest member: the Pudsey Nightingale).

Alan Bennett’s new play is as sharp as The History Boys and as funny as The Lady in the Van.

Allelujah! will be the tenth collaboration between Bennett and Hytner. They first worked together on Bennett’s adaptation of The Wind in the Willows for the National Theatre in 1990. Then followed The Madness of King George III, The Lady in the Van and The History Boys, all of which were also seen on film, The Habit of Art, People and the double bill Untold Stories.

Nicholas Hytner will also direct the world premiere of Lucinda Coxon’s Alys, Always based on the novel by Harriet Lane. Alys, Always will preview at the Bridge Theatre from 23 January with opening night on 30 January and will run to 30 March 2019. Casting for Alys, Always will be announced at a later date and booking information will be announced in September.

Frances works on the books pages of a Sunday newspaper. She’s quiet and capable, but nobody takes much notice: her face is pressed to the window, on the outside, looking in. One evening, driving back to London after visiting her infuriating parents, she comes across an upturned car crumpled on the side of the road. She waits with the injured driver, Alys Kyte, until the ambulance arrives. Later, when Alys’s famous family gets in touch, Frances finds herself for the first time ushered into the world on the other side of the window. And she begins to wonder: what would it take to become a player?

A gripping psychological thriller that excavates the fault line that separates the entitled from the unentitled.

Alys, Always was Harriet Lane’s debut novel, published in 2012, and was followed in 2014 with Her. Previously Lane wrote for the Guardian and the Observer as well as Vogue and Tatler.