This is an exerpt from the Guardian's 50 top tips for the Autumn. The National Theatre's Stage Play of His Dark Materials was ranked 12th.
Nicholas Hytner's National Theatre will take one of its boldest leaps later this year, with the staging of Philip Pullman's trilogy, adapted by Nicholas Wright as two complete plays which audiences will see together on one day, or separately. Hytner, who directs, thinks of His Dark Materials as 'the defining epic' of the era, one that 'invents a new mythology for a secular age' - and in doing so, presents a challenge to which the National must respond. It promises to do so spectacularly. After the 'aesthetic austerity' of his £10 season at the theatre, Hytner wants the company to spread its wings: to use the resources that only the National has, and use them at full stretch. Aiming to involve the audience in 'an imaginative conspiracy', he's planning 'a series of very beautiful images' - created by a mixture of traditional and new theatre crafts, a juxtaposition of the epic and the intimate - intended for teenagers (and older) rather than for young children. A cast of 30 will include Anna Maxwell Martin as Lyra, Patricia Hodge as Mrs Coulter and Timothy Dalton as Lord Asriel.
The daimons will be represented by a particular kind of puppet devised by the puppet-maker Michael Curry, who has worked with Julie Taymor. The big drum revolve of the Olivier will be 'dusted off', allowing the action to spring out and up and over and round the stage; video will be used, sparingly, as the action cuts between different worlds; there will be music by Jonathan Dove 'though no one's going to be bursting into song'. Pullman enthusiastically collaborated with the adaptation, even when whole swathes of plot had to be cut. The stage will get there before the movies: Tom Stoppard is writing the screenplay. Meanwhile, Pullman's new book, Lyra's Oxford will appear in November.
[The Observer, 14/9/03]
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