National Theatre Live Screening
Steve Coogan in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove
Sunday, January 11, 2026 at 3pm
co-adapted by Armando Iannucci
co-adapted and directed by Sean Foley
Running time: 2 hours and 10 minutes, including a 20-minute interval.
Dr. Strangelove, Captain Mandrake, President Muffley, Major TJ Kong: Steve Coogan
General Turgidson: Giles Terera
General Ripper: John Hopkins
Jefferson: Oliver Alvin-Wilson
Vera Lynn: Penny Ashmore
General Staines: Ben Deery
Frank: Richard Dempsey
Faceman: Mark Hadfield
Russian Ambassador Bakov: Tony Jayawardena
Ensemble: Tom Kelsey
Ensemble: Daniel Norford
Lincoln: Dharmesh Patel
Ensemble: Adam Sina
Sergeant: Alex Stoll
Director: Sean Foley
Set and Costume Designer: Hildegard Bechtler
Lighting Designer: Jessica Hung Han Yun
Sound Designer and Composer: Ben and Max Ringham
Projection Designer: Akhila Krishnan
Casting Director: Amy Ball CDG
Illusions: Chris Fisher
Movement Director: Lizzi Gee
Screen Director: Matthew Amos
Lighting Director: Bernie Davis
Sound Supervisor: Conrad Fletcher
Script Supervisor: Emma Ramsay
The following extract from the Noël Coward Theatre’s program for Dr. Strangelove is taken from Playboy’s 1968 interview with Stanley Kubrick.
‘As fewer and fewer people find solace in religion as a buffer between themselves and the terminal moment, I actually believe that they unconsciously derive a kind of perverse solace from the idea that in the event of nuclear war, the world dies with them.
God is dead, but the bomb endures; thus, they are no longer alone in the terrible vulnerability of their mortality.
Sartre once wrote that if there was one thing you could tell a man about to be executed that would make him happy, it was that a comet would strike the earth the next day and destroy every living human being.
This is not so much a collective death wish or self-destructive urge as a reflection of the awesome and agonizing loneliness of death. This is extremely pernicious, of course, because it aborts the kind of fury and indignation that should galvanize the world into defusing a situation where a few political leaders on both sides are seriously prepared to incinerate millions of people out of some misguided sense of national interest.
- In the 1964 film, Peter Sellers played three roles: Dr. Strangelove, Captain Mandrake, and President Muffley. Steve Coogan plays four: all Sellers’ parts, as well as Major TJ Kong in the final act.
- The original film was based on the novel Red Alert by Peter George. Unlike Kubrick’s film, the book does not include its dark comedic elements and does not feature the character of Dr. Strangelove.
- The story reflects anxieties about nuclear war that peaked in the mid-20th century amidst the crackling tension between the USA and Russia, and in the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.
Patrick Myles and David Luff’s projects include the stage adaptation of Paddy Chayefsky’s Network by Lee Hall, directed by Ivo van Hove and starring Bryan Cranston at the NT and Belasco on Broadway, Fleabag by Phoebe Waller-
Bridge at SoHo Playhouse, David Mamet’s American Buffalo at Circle in the Square on Broadway, starring Laurence Fishbourne, Sam Rockwell and Darren Criss, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill at Wyndham’s starring Audra McDonald.
Glengarry Glen Ross at the Apollo directed by James McDonald and starring Jonathan Pryce and Aidan Gillen, Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen at the Golden on Broadway starring David Threlfall and Alfie Allen, Pictures from Home at Studio 54 on Broadway, directed by Bartlett Sher and starring Nathan Lane and Zoë Wanamaker, and a UK tour of The Lavender Hill Mob, adapted by Phil Porter, directed by Jeremy Sams, starring Miles Jupp and Justin Edwards. Current productions include Glengarry Glen Ross on Broadway with Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk and Bill Burr, directed by Patrick Marber.
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