Michael Grandage talk - National Theatre

Yesterday (13/04/12) I went to the Michael Grandage platform at the National Theatre in which he talked about his decade at the Donmar and the book of the same name which will soon come out.
The Michael Grandage talk was my first platform at the National which is surprising as most of the productions I see are there, but anyway it was a very insightful 45 minutes in which we were given a great insight into some of his productions and his overall experience in turning the Donmar into a powerhouse of theatre. Some of the highlights were as follow:

• Frost/Nixon was apparently a difficult experience due to there being a fare few egos involved.
• Jonathan Groff will be taking Eddie Redmayne's place in the LA production of RED - Alfred Molina will be returning.
• Grandage told us that he doesn't do read-throughs due to the actor's being at different places in terms of performance.
• He likes to use more abstract sets due to his upbringing in Cornwall as he continually saw figures against the landscape - he also wittingly added that some actors find this hard as they love props, continuing to tell us that Derek Jacobi loves a good prop.

I really wanted to ask if the reports of him directing Ben Whishaw and Judi Dench is a new John Logan play were true, but felt that it would put him on the spot. Nevertheless, the talk made for a great evening and I would heavily recommend the NT platforms.