Paul Mescal, Letitia Wright, Monica Barbaro And Nicola Coughlan To Make Star Debuts At London’s National Theatre

Gladiator II’s Paul Mescal, A Complete Unknown’s Monica Barbaro, Black Panther’s Letitia Wright and Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan will be making their debuts at the National Theatre, regarded by many as Britain’s top cultural institution.

They’re among a host of star names invited to tread the NT’s boards by Indhu Rubasingham, the organization’s new artistic director and co-chief executive.

The theatre chief also revealed that she and famed rapper and grime music genius Stormzy are developing a show that will be staged at the National at a later date.

Mescal, who by the way has been known to rap, will lead a repertory company at the National’s Lyttelton Theatre in 2027. There he will star in two plays: Tom Murphy’s A Whistle in the Darkabout a married Irishman living in the Midlands who allows his three brothers to lodge with him and his young wife. Directed by Caitríona McLaughlin, it’s a co-production with Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, where McLaughlin is artistic director.

The Irish-born Mescal will then play Biff in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, to be directed by Rebecca Fracknall, who worked with the actor on the celebrated Almeida Theatre production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire.

Much sought after on stage and screen, Mescal was able to spread his commitment to the Williams play across well over two years in London and New York, all the while carving a schedule between stage runs where he could film Gladiator II with Ridley Scott and make time for Oliver Hermanus’ Cannes-bound The History of Sound in which he stars opposite Josh O’Connor. He also had time to play William Shakespeare in Hamnet alongside Jesse Buckley, Emily Watson and Joe Alwyn. That Chloé Zhao-directed film begins a limited stateside release November 27.

Mescal is also portraying Paul McCartney in Sam Mendes’ Paul McCartney biopic for Apple.

Rubasingham pushed back against suggestions that she and co-chief executive Kate Varah were seeking Hollywood names to bolster ticket sales.

Rubasingham told Deadline that she wanted Mescal treading boards at the National because he’s “a proper actor, he’s a proper theatre actor. It’s about backing quality actors.”

Same was true, Rubasingham said, of Barbaro, Oscar-nominated for her Joan Baez in James Mangold’s Bob Dylan movie. “We obviously knew she’d trained thoroughly in acting and dance and acting before we even approached her,” Rubasingham reasoned.

Barbaro will join Lesley Manville (The Crown), fresh from her best actress Olivier Award win two weeks ago for Oedipusand Aidan Turner, so good in Rivals on Disney+, in a major revival of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ Dangerous connections directed by multiple Tony- and Olivier-winning Marianne Elliott. The adaptation is by Christopher Hampton.

Coincidentally, Manville played the ingenue Cécile de Volanges in the original 1985 production for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Coughlan will star in John Millington Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World In the Lyttelton from December 4, again by Caitríona McLaughlin, with Éanna Hardwicke and Siobhán McSweeney.

Wright will star in Tracey Scott Wilson’s new play The Storyabout a young reporter pursuing a hot lead and the racism and vitriol she has to endure. Rubasingham described the play as “chillingly relevant.” It will be directed by Clint Dyer.

James McArdle (Mare of Easttown), Clare Perkins (Wheel of Time) and fact roach (Big Mood) will lead Rubasingham’s production of Bacchus into the Olivier stage from September 13. Written by Nima Taleghani from the ancient Greek tale about the God of theatre, it will feature designs by Robert Jones, choreography by Kate Prince and an original score by D.J. Walde.

The show will be filmed for future streaming on National Theatre at Home.

Robert Hastie will direct Olivier-winning actor Hiran Abeysekera (Life of Pi) playing the Danish prince in Hamlet at the Lyttelton Theatre from September 2025. The show will be also be shot for future National Theatre Live release in cinemas around the world.

Rubasingham noted that Hamlet was the first production — starring Peter O’Toole — to be staged at the National Theatre in 1963.

A new adaptation of The Jungle Book by Anupama Chandrasekhar, based on Rudyard Kipling’s classic tale, will be directed on the Olivier stage by Rubasingham in time for the December 2026 holidays. The production will feature puppetry by Finn Caldwell and Nick Barnes.

Co-chief executive Varah said the National has signed up to collaborate with The Shed in Manhattan and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, while Rubasingham added that she’s always in conversation with Oskar Eustis at the Public Theater in NYC.

Rubasingham declared that she’s more interested in “state-of-the-world plays than state-of-the-nation plays.”

To that end, she and her team are pursuing partnerships with actors, writers, directors and designers from around the world and seeking “artists that open the doors to audiences.” Productions will tour UK theatres and schools; indeed, many shows will be scaled down to be presented at schools here in the UK and over in Brooklyn in partnership with BAM.

The National Theatre’s now very much the International Theatre.