Some really fantastic news!

Cate Blanchett is returning at the National Theatre starring in a new play which will reunite her with Nina Hoss, director Benedict Andrews and composer Hildur Gudnadottir. The play which draws on Sophocles ‘Electra’ and Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Persona’ also stars Ella Lily Hyland and will have its world premiere in autumn 2026.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 has started its principal photography in London on Monday, 26 January. Cate is reprising her role as Valka, Hiccup’s mother.

Electra/Persona at National Theatre

Electra / Persona will receive its world premiere at the National Theatre in autumn 2026.

Directed and adapted by Benedict Andrews, making his National Theatre debut, the production will be staged in the Lyttelton.

The cast includes Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss, who reunite following their work together on the film Tár, alongside Ella Lily Hyland. Hoss worked with Andrews on The Cherry Orchard at Donmar Warehouse, while Blanchett was last at the National Theatre in When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other by Martin Crimp in 2019.

The play draws on Sophocles’ story of Electra from Greek mythology and Ingmar Bergman’s 1966 film Persona, bringing the two works together in a single piece. Music is by composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (Joker).

Andrews says that the play will interrogate the inner life of an actress “and query how grief can make us strangers to ourselves.” The production’s music has been composed by Oscar-winning composer Hildur Guðnadóttir.

Cate is on the board of the National Theatre, she last performed here with When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other directed by Katie Mitchell in 2019. She was in a production of Electra in 1992 while studying at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA). Andrews last directed Cate in Sydney Theatre Company’s production of The Maids (2013-14). He directed Nina Hoss in Donmar Warehouse’ production of The Cherry Orchard (2024-25). Cate, Nina, and Hildur, as you may all know, first work together in Todd Field’s TÁR (2022).

How to Train Your Dragon 2 Principal Photography

Sources: National Theatre, WhatsOnStage, Deadline