Southern venues host a more theatrical programme, where the tone is set by Slaughter On 10th Avenue (the comic mobster ballet created by Balanchine for the musical On Your Toes).
Pale and spare, it looks more like a political manifesto than a theatrical programme (in the late 50s, the Theatre Royal, home of Joan Littlewood's radical Theatre Workshop, was at the cutting edge of contemporary graphic design) – and sure enough, inside are two rather extraordinary, not to say contradictory, declarations.
It's part of an intelligent programme of theatrical archaeology that has included three shows from another Belgian ensemble Ontroerend Goed, and several stunning pieces from Laurie Anderson's back catalogue.
Some conductors would have milked the occasion, shed theatrical tears, perhaps changed the programme, but not Mackerras.
The venue, in the 21st century, has a regular programme of concerts, theatrical performances, lectures and conferences, serving a similar purpose to that for which the building was constructed in the nineteenth century.
A shortened theatrical version of a two-part TV programme, it follows Woody Allen around New York as he and a vast cast of friends, colleagues and admiring observers review his life and work.
Actually, it is always worth scrutinising the National's programmes – which makes them rare theatrical beasts.
This year's programme includes Phil Solomon's American Falls, a theatrical presentation of a work conceived for six screens and surround-sound.
However, with the work's four soloists, male and female chorus, and the dramatic hammering of four pianos and percussion, this was as richly theatrical as any of the other collaborations on the programme.
To celebrate his bicentennial year in 2012, the Charles Dickens Museum and Film London launched Dickens 2012, a year long international programme of events including readings, film screenings, theatrical performances and exhibitions.
It should be impossible to stage, but limitations become a liberation in Herbert Fritsch's production, the final flourish in an Edinburgh international festival programme that has put itself firmly back on the theatrical map under its director, Fergus Lineham.
