Acclaimed playwright and WGGB member Tom Stoppard’s The Hard Problem is his first play for stage since Rock ‘n’ Roll in 2006.

Running at the National Theatre until 27 May 2015, its central character Hilary (Olivia Vinall) is a psychology student at Loughborough University, conducting experiments on adult motivation and child behaviour patterns.

Renowned for using drama to explore problems, Stoppard poses questions such as: how does consciousness come about? And how much is human behaviour the product of egoism or altruism?

You can book tickets, and see events running alongside the production, on the National Theatre’s website.

Main picture: Olivia Vinall as Hilary in The Hard Problem by Tom Stoppard (photo: Johan Persson)