The Hard Problem

The new play by Tom Stoppard, The Hard Problem, directed by Nicholas Hytner will be his last production as Director of the National Theatre, it is to be screened through the National Theatre Live series to Theatr Mwldan on April 16 at 6.45pm.

Hilary, a young psychology researcher at a brainscience 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? This is ‘The Hard Problem’ which puts Hilary at odds with her colleagues who include her first mentor Spike, her boss Leo and the billionaire founder of the institute, Jerry. Is the day coming when the computer and the fMRI scanner will answer all the questions psychology can ask? Meanwhile Hilary needs a miracle, and she is prepared to pray for one.

The Hard Problem is Tom Stoppard’s first play for the stage since Rock ’n’ Roll (Royal Court, 2006), and his first for the National since his trilogy, The Coast of Utopia, in 2002. His long association with the National Theatre began with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead in 1967, and went on to include productions of Jumpers, On the Razzle, Rough Crossing, The Real Inspector Hound, Arcadia, The Invention of Love, The Coast of Utopia and Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (written with André Previn). His stage plays, which have won eight Evening Standard awards and five Tony awards, also include Travesties, The Real Thing and Shakespeare in Love.

The play is designed by Bob Crowley, with lighting by Mark Henderson and sound by Paul Arditti; the cast includes Anthony Calf, Vera Chok, Jonathan Coy, Damien Molony, Lucy Robinson, Parth Thakerar and Olivia Vinall (as Hilary).

Olivia Vinall has recently played Cordelia in King Lear and Desdemona in Othello at the NT; she also appeared in Live from the National Theatre: 50 Years on Stage.

Tickets are priced £12.50 full price (£11.50 concessions) available from Theatr Mwldan’s Box Office on 01239 621200, on-line at www.mwldan.co.uk or via smartphones.

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