Rufus Norris' final National Theatre season unveiled

25 ^th September 2024

Rufus Norris’s ten-year tenure as the esteemed director of the National Theatre comes to an end in 2025.

As Norris prepares to hand over the reins to new director Indhu Rubasingham, the final season of productions showing in 2025 is a brilliant mix of thrilling new work with some exciting returns in the mix too.

The new season will showcase four world premieres with new plays by Suzie Miller, Shaan Sahota, David Lan, and David Eldridge, as well as the UK premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s critically acclaimed final musical Here We Are. Michael Abbensetts’ seminal 1970s piece Alterations also features in Norris’s final season, while the ground-breaking London Road makes its return for a short run in the early summer.

When it comes to Hollywood star power, each season never fails to bring in the finest. London theatre-goers will have their eyes peeled for the announcement of dates and ticket sales for Suzie Miller’s brand new play Inter Alia. Starring Rosamund Pike in her first-ever role at the National Theatre, it is set to light up the Lyttleton stage in late summer 2025.

2025 National Theatre highlights

Alterations

20 February to 5 April 2025 at the Lyttelton. Tickets on sale from 16 October 2024

Bush Theatre Artistic Director Lynette Linton (Blues for an Alabama Sky, Shifters) returns to the National Theatre to direct the first revival in 40 years of Guyana-born British writer Michael Abbensetts’ era-defining comedy. Set over the course of 24 hours in the tailor shop of the ambitious Walker Holt who is battling tirelessly to complete his new client’s impossible needs, Alterations illuminates the Guyanese experience of 1970s London.

Dear England

10 Mar to 24 May 2025 at the Olivier. Tickets now on sale

James Graham’s Olivier Award-winning play about Gareth Southgate and the England men’s football team returns to the stage in a newly updated version that completes the story by reflecting on Southgate’s final chapter as England manager during the 2024 Euros.

Here We Are

23 April to 28 June 2025 at the Lyttelton. Tickets on sale from 16 Oct 2024

After receiving its world premiere in New York in 2023, Here We Are, the final musical by the legendary Stephen Sondheim (Follies) will have its UK premiere in a new production in the Lyttelton theatre. Inspired by two of Luis Buñuel’s iconic films, this unmissable musical comedy had a sold-out New York run and is directed by two-time Tony Award-winner Joe Mantello.

London Road

5 June to 21 June 2025 at the Olivier. Tickets on sale from 16 Oct 2024

The National Theatre welcomes the return of the innovative musical London Road directed by Rufus Norris. First staged at the National in 2011, this critically acclaimed verbatim work is based on the story of how the London Road community in Ipswich grappled with the discovery and subsequent trial of a serial murderer on their street, and they sought to rebuilt their shattered community in the aftermath.

Nye

3 July to 16 August at the Olivier. Tickets on sale 16 October

Tim Price’s celebrated Welsh fantasia which charts the life of Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan and his battle to create the NHS is back once again after debuting at the National Theatre in spring 2024. Vividly directed once again by Rufus Norris, the magnificent Michael Sheen reprises his lead role as the valiant and visionary Nye Bevan.

Inter Alia

Summer 2025 dates TBA at the Lyttelton

Get in line to see this brand new work from the team behind the multi-award winning Prima Facie, writer Suzie Miller and director Justin Martin. Rosamund Pike makes her National Theatre debut as an eminent High Court Judge forced to reckon her professional life and role as wife, mother, friend and feminist.

The Estate

Summer 2025 dates TBA at the Dorfman

The world premiere of The Estate written by Shaan Sahota and directed by Daniel Raggett (Accidental Death of an Anarchist). An ambitious politician has sights set on Number 10, but his father’s death brings questions about the family estate to the fore. Casting includes Adeel Akhtar (pictured).

The Land of the Living

Autumn 2025 dates TBA at the Dorfman

In September 2025, the Dorfman stage will host the world premiere of The Land of the Living by former Young Vic Artistic Director David Lan, which tells the story of displaced children after World War II.

End

Winter 2025 dates TBA at the Dorman

Rounding out the year, and Norris's decade at the theatre, is the suitably titled play End by David Eldridge. Yet another world premiere, Eldridge's latest work is the concluding part of a trilogy that was commissioned by Rufus Norris and which included the plays Beginning and Middle.

Rufus Norris' final National Theatre season unveiled