Hytner's final season at the National Theatre

Nicholas Hytner has revealed his plans for his final season at the National Theatre, including new plays by Tom Stoppard and Richard Bean; both plays are as yet untitled. Stoppard’s play will premiere in the re-opened Dorfman Theatre (formerly the Cottesloe Theatre) in January, while Bean’s will be staged in the Lyttelton in the summer. Hytner also revealed that the total UK audience for National Theatre productions for 2013-14 will be 2.67 million, including 374,000 on tour and 698,000 on cinema screens via NT Live, meaning that more people can now see their productions outside of London than on London's South Bank. This phenomenal figure cannot be ignored, especially not by the government who have come down hard on British theatre in general. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kja1jCejQYA The National’s 12th Travelex-sponsored season, which Hytner introduced in his first year at the helm of the theatre, will see 100,000 tickets (almost half of those available for every performance) offered for £15 for six productions. The season will start with Helen McCrory in the title role of Carrie Cracknell’s production of Medea to open in July, and continue with the trilogy of Rona Munro’s The James Plays, co-produced with the National Theatre of Scotland, opening in September following their world premiere as part of the Edinburgh International Festival. This will be followed with the return of Lloyd Newson’s DV8 Physical Theatre company with their new show John in October, a mix of dance, drama and theatre, before the Travelex season concludes with the world premiere of David Hare’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers, based on the book by Katherine Boo, that is to be directed by Hytner’s successor at the National Theatre, Rufus Norris. The whole NT season will include ten world premieres, with eight of the 14 original plays being produced by the theatre this season written by women.