John Hurt in ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ for Kirk Douglas Theatre season

John Hurt performing Samuel Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape” will be among the highlights of the Kirk Douglas Theatre’s 2012-13 season, which will be announced Thursday by Center Theatre Group.

The season will feature a total of five main productions, including the world premiere of the plays “The Royale” by Marco Ramirez and “The Nether” by Jennifer Haley.

Opening the season will be “Elephant Room” (Aug. 22 to Sept. 16), an ensemble piece that will make its West Coast premiere. The offbeat comedy follows three illusionists who are holed up in a basement. The play, commissioned by Center Theatre Group, is by Trey Lyford, Geoff Sobelle and Steve Cuiffo.

Hurt will star in Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape” (Oct. 9 to Nov. 4) in a production from the Gate Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. The Oscar-nominated British actor performed the production at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Kennedy Center in Washington in 2011. The production marks the first time Hurt will perform theater in Los Angeles.

“A Christmas Carol: Twist Your Dickens!” (Nov. 24 to Dec. 30) is an irreverent holiday-themed comedy loosely based on the classic Charles Dickens novel. The show is by The Second City, the famous comedy and improvisational company.

Haley’s “The Nether” (March 19 to April 14) is a futuristic work that explores crime and the Internet. Haley won the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for the play, which will have its world premiere. Haley is an L.A. playwright whose past works have embraced the science fiction genre.

Ramirez’s “The Royale” (April 28 to June 2) is a boxing drama set in the early 20th century and is inspired by the life of Jack Johnson, a black athlete and world heavyweight champion.

The season will also feature two productions in the DouglasPlus series, which presents brief engagements of workshop productions and intimately scaled works. The series will feature “Radiate” (Aug. 3 and 4), a performance-art piece in a workshop production; and “Neva” (June 11 to 16, 2013), an English-language translation of the play by Guillermo Calderón.

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