Top line-up for Royal's 50th

The Royal Court is to stage new works by Sir Tom Stoppard and David Hare as part of its 50th anniversary season.

The celebrations herald a return to the theatre of some of its most illustrious plays and players.

Highlights next year at the Sloane Square venue, which has set many a young playwright's career in motion, include Harold Pinter performing in a revival of Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape - to be directed by the Royal Court's outgoing artistic director Ian Rickson.

Rock And Roll, Stoppard's first original play since 2002's Russian trilogy The Coast Of Utopia, will open at the Royal Court in the summer and will be directed by Sir Trevor Nunn.

It is the Oscar-winning writer's first play for the Royal Court and depicts life in communist Czechoslovakia between the 1968 Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution in 1989 as viewed from the perspective of a rebellious rock band.

In contrast to Sir Tom, Hare, whose new and as yet untitled play is set to be staged in autumn next year, is no stranger to the Royal Court. He was resident
dramatist at the theatre 35 years ago and he chose the venue to premiere his 2000 comedy My Zinc Bed.

Hare's play will be directed by Stephen Daldry, another former artistic director of the Royal Court.

Terry Johnson, whose previous play Hitchcock Blonde caused a stir at the Royal Court after leading lady Rosamund Pike stripped off on stage, will be returning with a new play entitled Piano/Forte.

Rickson will have a busy final year before he steps down as artistic director. In addition to directing Pinter, he is also directing Anton Chekhov's The Seagull in a new version by Christopher Hampton as well as a revival of Cloud Nine, a play by Royal Court stalwart Caryl Churchill, which first opened in 1979.

The Royal Court has been no stranger to controversy and the theatre will be looking back over the issue of censorship, with the help of Evening Standard Theatre Critic Nicholas De Jongh.

"There will be a dramatic entertainment about the role of censorship in the 20th century," De Jongh said. "Actors will perform excerpts from banned scenes and plays."