Tom Stoppard's first new play for the stage in a decade, The Hard Problem, will premiere at the National Theatre's Dorfman Theatre in London on January 28, 2015 after a week of previews beginning January 21.
According to the official description of The Hard Problem, Stoppard is tackling a deep human and scientific question. "Hilary, a young psychology researcher at a brain-science institute, is nursing a private sorrow and a troubling question at work, where psychology and biology meet. If there is nothing but matter, what is consciousness?'
The author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties and The Real Thing has had a prolific career beginning in the 1960s, but his last opening for the National Theatre was The Coast of Utopia trilogy in 2002 and the last time he premiered a new play anywhere was Rock'n'Roll at the Royal Court Theatre in 2006.
Evidently he's been pondering some weighty matters since then.
Olivia Vinall, recently seen at the National as Cordelia in King Lear and Desdemona in Othello, will play Hilary, who is at odds with her colleagues and her institute's billionaire founder.
In addition to the new play by Stoppard, the NT has also announced a few more big names. Arthur Darvill ("Rory" in Doctor Who) will play the title role in Polly Findlay's adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island beginning December 10, and Ralph Fiennes will play Jack Tanner in George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman starting February 2015.
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