The National Theatre began in 1963 with the first Artistic Director Lord Laurence Olivier begin directing and producing shows from The Old Vic Theatre. By 1977, the National Theatre moved into its current home on the South Bank. The building designed by Sir Denys Lasdun has become noted and famed for the brutalist concrete fly towers that overlook the National's Olivier and Lyttelton theatres. The National Theatre is home to four theatres as of 2015, the amphitheatre style Olivier, the Lyttelton for smaller productions, the recently reopened Dorfman (previously Cottesloe) and the red crate Temporary Theatre which looks out over the River Thames.
As a producing theatre, the National Theatre produce around 30-40 productions each year covering a wide range of genres from Shakespeare to classics and of course musical theatre. Notable productions include Here Lies Love, the London transfer of the off-Broadway hit by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim which reopened the Dorfman in October 2015, Jerry Springer The Opera opened in 2003 at the National as part of the then new Artistic Director Sir Nicholas Hytner's opening season, Tori Amos and Marianne Elliott bought the new work The Light Princess in 2013 which garnered positive reviews. A number of musical theatre productions took place under Artistic Director Trevor Nunn between 1997 and 2003 and many transferred into the nearby West End.
Jim Carter met Imelda Staunton on stage, flirted and fall in love.
Filmed at the National Theatre as part of the In Conversation with Judi Dench, Ian McKellen and Jim Carter series, this clip captures the exact moment the conversation turns to Dame Judi's somewhat unexpected film credit: the role of Aereon — an enigmatic, ethereal prophet of the Elemental race — in David Twohy's 2004 sci-fi epic The Chronicles of Riddick, starring Vin Diesel. Judi Dench, it should be noted, is very proud of this. Ian McKellen and Jim Carter cannot entirely hide their delight.The story she tells — of Vin Diesel coming to see her at the Haymarket, arriving with a bouquet so vast it could not fit up the stairs, sitting in her dressing room, and asking, with what she describes as "absolutely charming" courtesy, whether she'd like to be in his film — is one of those anecdotes that belongs permanently to the canon of great theatre stories. That she said yes without hesitation, and has never watched the film, makes it entirely perfect.
Now streaming on National Theatre at Home https://www.ntathome.com/videos/judi-dench-and-ian-mckellen-in-conversation-with-jim-carter
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
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National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
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About the Speakers
Sir Ian McKellen is one of the most celebrated stage and screen actors of his generation, with a career spanning six decades and encompassing landmark Shakespeare roles, West End and Broadway productions, and iconic film performances.
Dame Judi Dench is one of the most decorated actors in British history — winner of an Academy Award, eight BAFTA Awards, and nine Olivier Awards — whose love of the stage has never dimmed despite a glittering screen career.
Jim Carter, best known as Carson in Downton Abbey, is himself a distinguished theatre actor and the perfect host for a conversation this good. Together on the National Theatre stage, the three of them are unstoppable.
#JudiDench #VinDiesel #NationalTheatre #IanMcKellen #ChroniclesOfRiddick #JimCarter #BritishTheatre-
Stream Bacchae worldwide on National Theatre at Home → ntathome.com/bacchae
We sat down with Nima Taleghani to talk through his new version of Euripides’ timeless tragedy, Bacchae, directed by National Theatre Artistic Director, Indhu Rubasingham.
Find out more about the show's plot, Nima's background and inspirations, and what he's learnt in the process.
Nima Taleghani is an actor and writer whose debut play Bacchae made history as the first ever debut play staged on the National Theatre's Olivier stage. Born and raised on the Elthorne estate in North London, his parents having emigrated from Iran, Taleghani studied English literature at Warwick and then a master's at UCL before establishing himself as a stage actor in productions directed by Jamie Lloyd, including Cyrano de Bergerac and Romeo and Juliet, as well as playing Mr Farouk in Netflix's Heartstopper. His adaptation of the Greek tragedy came from a desire to explore a story about someone who isn't accepted because of where they come from — a half-god, half-man who is a refugee — and is written entirely in verse, infused with spoken word, rhyme, and rap. He has said the writing was instinctual — "I didn't Google how to write a play, I just started doing it" — and that staying slightly naive is the key: being in touch with the part of yourself that doesn't know everything, and letting that push you to go for things you might otherwise hold back from.
About Bacchae
Fierce and unstoppable, the Bacchae are a chorus of wild energy ready to shake Thebes to its core - and liberate its women.
But their god Dionysos has his own reckoning. In a showdown with his cousin, King Pentheus, family loyalty, political power and human desire are pushed to breaking point.
Opening her tenure as National Theatre Artistic Director, Indhu Rubasingham (The Father and the Assassin) stages Nima Taleghani’s (Heartstopper) thrilling new version of Euripides’ timeless tragedy.
#playwright #playwriting #nimahtaleghani #theatre
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
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National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
Streaming now! London Road on ntathome.com
Using their own words set to an innovative musical score, London Road is a moving story of ordinary people coming together during an extraordinary time.
Director Rufus Norris (Small Island), writer Alecky Blythe (Our Generation) and composer Adam Cork reunite for this highly anticipated return of the remarkable, award-winning verbatim Musical, filmed live on stage.
A National Theatre production
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
From Malvolia's letter to Henry's battle cry — five unforgettable Shakespeare scenes performed by Tamsin Greig, Ian McKellen, Giles Terera, Paul Chahidi and Kit Harington. Stream them all on National Theatre at Home.
00:00 Twelfth Night | National Theatre | Tamsin Greig as Malvolia
Directed by Simon Godwin and produced at the National Theatre's Olivier stage — reimagining Malvolio as the female Malvolia — this is the letter scene: the moment of self-delusion at the play's heart. Tamsin Greig reads the forged letter alone, discovering in its words the promise of everything she has always wanted
02:55 Othello | National Theatre, Lyttelton | Giles Terera as Othello
The most historic Othello in the National Theatre's history — the first time a Black man (director Clint Dyer) has directed the play at a major British venue. Giles Terera (Olivier Award-winner for Hamilton) plays Othello opposite Rosy McEwen's Desdemona and Paul Hilton's Iago. This clip captures the Act 2 reunion of Othello and Desdemona in Cyprus — one of Shakespeare's most charged and tender scenes. "Were I now to die, 'twere now to be most happy" — followed, almost immediately, by Iago's aside: "O, you are well tuned now! But I'll set down the pegs that make this music as honest as I am." Joy and catastrophe in the same breath. This is what Shakespeare does.
03:52 As You Like It | National Theatre, Olivier | Paul Chahidi as Jaques
Polly Findlay's production stars Rosalie Craig as Rosalind and Paul Chahidi as Jacques in a Shakespeare classic. Chahidi's Jacques, uses the forest floor as a reflective space and the Seven Ages of Man as a meditation on depression, time, and the terrible comedy of growing old.
06:13 King Lear | NT Live | Chichester Festival Theatre / Duke of York's Theatre | Ian McKellen as Lear
Ian McKellen returned at 78 to the role he last played in the 1990s. Jonathan Munby directs this contemporary, modern-dress production, in which McKellen brings his years of Shakespearean experience to this iconic role. Ian McKellen plays a man slowly losing his grip on the world with Lloyd Hutchinson's as the Fool by his side.
08:14 Henry V | Donmar Warehouse | Kit Harington as Henry V
Directed by Max Webster and filmed for National Theatre Live at the Donmar Warehouse in 2022, Kit Harington plays Henry V. The St Crispin's Day speech is one of Shakespeare's greatest rhetorical set-pieces — a king compensating for his troubled conscience.
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
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National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
#Shakespeare #NationalTheatre #IanMcKellen #TamsinGreig #GilesTerera #KitHarington #NTatHome
Watch the full event here → youtu.be/czlUzZz6B3A
An event to remember, Songs for Joey got together a group of community choirs to perform songs from War Horse to celebrate its return to our Olivier Theatre.
Playing at the National Theatre in London, War horse it’s an unforgettable family day out, until 30 July 2026.
Experience War Horse, the Tony Award-winning global sensation, based on Michael Morpurgo’s beloved novel.
Find out more about this live theatre show and book tickets on the official website: nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/war-horse/
With thanks to our singers from
The Chelsea Pensioners
Mixed Up Chorus
Sing for Freedom
The Boury Academy
Choir with No Name
National Theatre Staff Choir
Creative Team
Musical Director - Ty Lowe
Pianist - Josh Sneesby
Accordionist - Ben Murray
Soloist - Billy Meechan
Tea Poldervaart (Joey head puppeteer)
Alex Cartuson (Joey heart puppeteer)
Sam Parker (Joey hind puppeteer)
Becks Chan (puppet technician)
With special thanks to Michael Morpurgo
National Theatre Learning
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About the show
The global phenomenon gallops home to the National Theatre
At the outbreak of the First World War, young Albert’s beloved horse Joey is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France. Too young to enlist, Albert refuses to forget him, embarking on an extraordinary journey from the fields of rural Devon to the trenches of wartime France – determined to bring Joey home.
Based on Michael Morpurgo’s beloved novel, War Horse is a timeless story of love, courage and friendship, brought to life by astonishing life-sized horses from Handspring Puppet Company and a stirring musical score.
Following a sell-out national tour, the Tony Award–winning global sensation returns to where it all began, nearly two decades after its debut at the National Theatre.
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Sir Michael Morpurgo OBE FRSL FKC DL, born Michael Andrew Bridge, is a writer, playwright, performer and librettist.
The author of more than 150 children’s books, he has sold over 35 million copies worldwide in almost 40 languages. The National Theatre adaptation of his most well-known novel War Horse (1982) was first produced in 2007 and has since been seen by more than ten million people in over 100 cities around the world.
A former teacher, Michael Morpurgo is currently the President of Book Trust. Between 2003–05, he was Children’s Laureate.
Alongside his wife Clare Lane, he is co-founder of the charity Farms for City Children.
Theatre
For the National Theatre: War Horse
Awards
In 2018 he was knighted for services to literature and charity.
War Horse – five Tony Awards and two Olivier Awards among others.
https://www.michaelmorpurgo.com/
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
'If It's True' from the smash-hit musical Hadestown performed by Marley Fenton as Orpheus alongside the West End cast.
Welcome to @Hadestown , where a song can change your fate.
The acclaimed Broadway musical phenomenon by singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and director Rachel Chavkin, is now playing at the Lyric Theatre.
‘An epic celebration of music, togetherness and hope’ (Forbes), Hadestown is the winner of 8 Tony Awards® including Best Musical and the Grammy Award® for Best Musical Theatre Album.
Take an unforgettable journey to the underworld and back, intertwining two mythic love stories – that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of King Hades and his wife Persephone.
A deeply resonant and defiantly hopeful theatrical experience, the show invites you to imagine how the world could be.
Book official Hadestown tickets, the acclaimed musical by Anaïs Mitchell, now playing at the Lyric Theatre in London. Produced in association with the National Theatre and currently booking through to June 2027 → nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/hadestown/
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
Playing in the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre in London, with performances this summer, it’s an unforgettable family day out, until 30 July 2026. Experience War Horse, the Tony Award-winning global sensation, based on Michael Morpurgo’s beloved novel.
Find out more about this live theatre show and book tickets on the official website: nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/war-horse/
00:00 A Song for Joey - A War Horse Choir Event
00:03 'Only Remembered'
02:26 'Rolling Home'
04:28 'The Year Turns Round Again'
With thanks to our singers from
The Chelsea Pensioners
Mixed Up Chorus
Sing for Freedom
The Boury Academy
Choir with No Name
National Theatre Staff Choir
Creative Team
Musical Director - Ty Lowe
Pianist - Josh Sneesby
Accordionist - Ben Murray
Soloist - Billy Meechan
Tea Poldervaart (Joey head puppeteer)
Alex Cartuson (Joey heart puppeteer)
Sam Parker (Joey hind puppeteer)
Becks Chan (puppet technician)
With special thanks to Michael Morpurgo
National Theatre Learning
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About the show
The global phenomenon gallops home to the National Theatre
At the outbreak of the First World War, young Albert’s beloved horse Joey is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France. Too young to enlist, Albert refuses to forget him, embarking on an extraordinary journey from the fields of rural Devon to the trenches of wartime France – determined to bring Joey home.
Based on Michael Morpurgo’s beloved novel, War Horse is a timeless story of love, courage and friendship, brought to life by astonishing life-sized horses from Handspring Puppet Company and a stirring musical score.
Following a sell-out national tour, the Tony Award–winning global sensation returns to where it all began, nearly two decades after its debut at the National Theatre.
--
Sir Michael Morpurgo OBE FRSL FKC DL, born Michael Andrew Bridge, is a writer, playwright, performer and librettist.
The author of more than 150 children’s books, he has sold over 35 million copies worldwide in almost 40 languages. The National Theatre adaptation of his most well-known novel War Horse (1982) was first produced in 2007 and has since been seen by more than ten million people in over 100 cities around the world.
A former teacher, Michael Morpurgo is currently the President of Book Trust. Between 2003–05, he was Children’s Laureate.
Alongside his wife Clare Lane, he is co-founder of the charity Farms for City Children.
Theatre
For the National Theatre: War Horse
Awards
In 2018 he was knighted for services to literature and charity.
War Horse – five Tony Awards and two Olivier Awards among others.
https://www.michaelmorpurgo.com/
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
The Playboy of the Western World is out now in cinemas worldwide with National Theatre Live.
Find your local venue: https://www.ntlive.com/plays/the-playboy-of-the-western-world/
Trailer edited by Robin Finetto
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
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About the Production
The Playboy of the Western World by J.M. Synge is one of the great masterpieces of Irish theatre — first performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in January 1907, where it famously caused riots in the audience. Set in County Mayo and soaked in the language, landscape, and folklore of the west of Ireland, it tells the story of Christy Mahon, who arrives at a remote village pub claiming to have killed his father — and promptly becomes a local hero.
Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton) joins Éanna Hardwicke (The Sixth Commandment) and Siobhán McSweeney (Derry Girls) in John Millington Synge’s riveting play of youth and self-discovery.
Pegeen Flaherty’s life is turned upside down when a young man walks into her pub claiming that he’s killed his father. Instead of being shunned, the killer becomes a local hero and begins to win hearts, that is until a second man unexpectedly arrives on the scene…
Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre, Caitríona McLaughlin directs this darkly funny tale full to the brim with secrets.
Stream London Road from 14 July on ntathome.com
Using their own words set to an innovative musical score, London Road is a moving story of ordinary people coming together during an extraordinary time.
Director Rufus Norris (Small Island), writer Alecky Blythe (Our Generation) and composer Adam Cork reunite for this highly anticipated return of the remarkable, award-winning verbatim Musical, filmed live on stage.
A National Theatre production
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
Monica Barbaro — making her stage debut — gives us an exclusive acces backstage to her pre-show routine as she prepares to play Madame de Tourvel on Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses is now on cinemas with National Theatre Live. Get tickets here: ntlive.com/plays/les-liaisons-dangereuses/tickets
Marquise de Merteuil is a master in the art of survival. Alongside the magnetic Vicomte de Valmont, they turn seduction into strategy and weaponise desire. But when their alliance collapses into rivalry, the battle between them threatens to destroy everyone in their path.
Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre, Marianne Elliott (Angels in America) directs this thrilling game of love, lies, and social warfare.
The Production
Marianne Elliott's sweeping staging of the scandalous French classic is characteristic in its mix of sumptuousness and precision — and when its finely tooled pieces start to fall out of place, it's devastating.
From its opening moments, Marianne Elliott's production subtly reconfigures Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses for the MeToo generation — a world where love is a battle of single combat, a hand-to-hand struggle for survival, and women are constantly melding themselves to the shapes and behaviour demanded by the men who still hold all the cards.
Aidan Turner endows Valmont with the conspicuous charm that Merteuil ascribes to him — making him puppyish and almost clownish until he reveals the pure power and malice beneath. He is sexy, but the sex almost doesn't matter. It's the pursuit that counts.
Monica Barbaro — making her stage debut — plays Madame de Tourvel with tremulous directness: a woman genuinely surprised by the strength of her own feelings, and desperate to escape them. She is overcome by shame after falling for Valmont — a woman tragically conflicted, her moral conviction colliding with something she cannot control.
See It in Cinemas
Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre's Lyttelton, Les Liaisons Dangereuses comes to cinemas worldwide with National Theatre Live from 25 June 2026. Directed by Marianne Elliott (Angels in America) and featuring Christopher Hampton's celebrated adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' classic novel — this is your chance to experience one of the most talked-about productions of the year on the big screen.
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
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#LesLiaisonsDangereuses #AidanTurner #MonicaBarbaro #NTLive #NationalTheatre #LesleyManville #MarianneElliott
About Monica Barbaro
Monica Barbaro was born in San Francisco and raised in Mill Valley, Calif. She is classically trained in ballet and has studied modern dance, salsa, flamenco and West African dance. She attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts where she took her first acting classes while getting her bachelor of fine arts degree in dance. After university, Barbaro studied at various acting schools in San Francisco and Los Angeles, including the Beverly Hills Playhouse. (source imdb.com)
Streaming now! Inter Alia on ntathome.com
Jessica Parks is a judge, a mother, a wife, a friend. Her career exists inter alia (among other things). How will one unthinkable event pull into question all aspects of her life?
Following their global phenomenon Prima Facie, the ‘dream creative collaboration’ (Radio Times) of Suzie Miller and Justin Martin reunite with this searing examination of modern motherhood and masculinity. Featuring a ‘gale force performance’ (Time Out) from Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl, Saltburn) and music from Erin Le Count and Jakwob.
Stream the sold-out, critically acclaimed show ‘that we should all be talking about’ (Broadway world), on National Theatre at Home.
Streaming worldwide.
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
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Monica Barbaro — making her stage debut — gives us an exclusive acces backstage to her pre-show routine as she prepares to play Madame de Tourvel on Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses is now on cinemas with National Theatre Live. Get tickets here: ntlive.com/plays/les-liaisons-dangereuses/tickets
Marquise de Merteuil is a master in the art of survival. Alongside the magnetic Vicomte de Valmont, they turn seduction into strategy and weaponise desire. But when their alliance collapses into rivalry, the battle between them threatens to destroy everyone in their path.
Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre, Marianne Elliott (Angels in America) directs this thrilling game of love, lies, and social warfare.
The Production
Marianne Elliott's sweeping staging of the scandalous French classic is characteristic in its mix of sumptuousness and precision — and when its finely tooled pieces start to fall out of place, it's devastating.
From its opening moments, Marianne Elliott's production subtly reconfigures Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses for the MeToo generation — a world where love is a battle of single combat, a hand-to-hand struggle for survival, and women are constantly melding themselves to the shapes and behaviour demanded by the men who still hold all the cards.
Aidan Turner endows Valmont with the conspicuous charm that Merteuil ascribes to him — making him puppyish and almost clownish until he reveals the pure power and malice beneath. He is sexy, but the sex almost doesn't matter. It's the pursuit that counts.
Monica Barbaro — making her stage debut — plays Madame de Tourvel with tremulous directness: a woman genuinely surprised by the strength of her own feelings, and desperate to escape them. She is overcome by shame after falling for Valmont — a woman tragically conflicted, her moral conviction colliding with something she cannot control.
See It in Cinemas
Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre's Lyttelton, Les Liaisons Dangereuses comes to cinemas worldwide with National Theatre Live from 25 June 2026. Directed by Marianne Elliott (Angels in America) and featuring Christopher Hampton's celebrated adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' classic novel — this is your chance to experience one of the most talked-about productions of the year on the big screen.
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
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National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
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#LesLiaisonsDangereuses #AidanTurner #MonicaBarbaro #NTLive #NationalTheatre #LesleyManville #MarianneElliott
About Monica Barbaro
Monica Barbaro was born in San Francisco and raised in Mill Valley, Calif. She is classically trained in ballet and has studied modern dance, salsa, flamenco and West African dance. She attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts where she took her first acting classes while getting her bachelor of fine arts degree in dance. After university, Barbaro studied at various acting schools in San Francisco and Los Angeles, including the Beverly Hills Playhouse. (source imdb.com)
From their dressing room windows, the War Horse cast treated the building to a rendition of 'Only Remembered'.
Head to the National Theatre website to book official War Horse tickets for the Tony Award-winning global sensation, based on Michael Morpurgo’s beloved novel. Playing in the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre in London until Thursday 30 July 2026, with performances this summer, it’s an unforgettable family day out.
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ABOUT THE SHOW
The last chance to see the global phenomenon gallop home to the National Theatre.
At the outbreak of the First World War, young Albert’s beloved horse Joey is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France. Too young to enlist, Albert refuses to forget him, embarking on an extraordinary journey from the fields of rural Devon to the trenches of wartime France – determined to bring Joey home.
Based on Michael Morpurgo’s beloved novel, War Horse is a timeless story of love, courage and friendship, brought to life by astonishing life-sized horses from Handspring Puppet Company and a stirring musical score.
Following a sell-out national tour, the Tony® Award–winning global sensation returns to where it all began, nearly two decades after its debut at the National Theatre.
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★★★★★ 5 STAR REVIEWS
‘Remains one of the great achievements of modern theatre. And it just got even better.’ Sunday Express
‘This acclaimed production feels as groundbreaking as ever’ Financial Times
‘Even if you’ve seen it, this revival is still unmissable Mail on Sunday
‘War Horse continues to be a stunning, invincibly spellbinding spectacle’
Daily Mail
‘Twenty years on and the National Theatre’s First World War-set megahit is still shockingly good’ Time Out
‘War Horse still moves me to tears’ Daily Telegraph
‘Theatre at its finest’ Broadway World
‘A theatrical miracle’ What’s On Stage
‘A masterpiece’ The Stage
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ABOUT THE NATIONAL THEATRE
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
Oscar-nominated Rosamund Pike is Jessica in the much-anticipated next play from the director and writer behind Prima Facie, is streaming now on National Theatre at Home → ntathome.com/inter-alia
Jessica Parks is a smart Crown Court Judge at the top of her career. Behind the robe, she is a karaoke fiend, loving wife and a supportive parent. When an event threatens to throw her life completely off balance, can she hold her family upright?
Writer Suzie Miller and director Justin Martin reunite following their global phenomenon Prima Facie, with this searing examination of modern motherhood and masculinity.
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
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About Inter Alia
A searing new play from the team behind Prima Facie
Jessica Parks is smart, compassionate, a true maverick at the top of her career as an eminent London Crown Court Judge. At work she’s changing and challenging the system one case at a time. But behind the robe, Jessica is a karaoke fiend, a loving wife and a supportive parent.
While managing the impossible juggling act faced by every working mother, an event threatens to throw her life completely off balance. Can she hold her family upright?
Rosamund Pike (Saltburn) makes her National Theatre debut as Jessica. Writer Suzie Miller and director Justin Martin reunite following their global phenomenon Prima Facie with this searing examination of modern masculinity and motherhood.
About Suzie Miller
Suzie Miller is a contemporary international playwright, screenwriter and author, drawn to complex human stories often exploring injustice. Her plays have been produced in over 40 productions around the world and won multiple prestigious awards. Her one-woman stage play ‘Prima Facie’ won an Olivier Award for Best New Play and an Olivier and Tony Award for actress Jodie Comer who performed in the West End and Broadway productions. It has been translated into over 20 languages, produced all over the world and also published as a novel in various countries.
Miller is currently under commission with several new plays, alongside film and television projects and ‘Inter Alia’, starring Rosamund Pike.
About NT LIVE
For over 15 years, we’ve given our audience the best seat in the house.
We film unmissable theatre live from Britain’s most exciting stages and screen it in thousands of cinemas around the globe. Our productions have been seen by more than 13 million people worldwide.
We capture the magic of every moment on stage, letting you get closer, delve deeper and take in the spectacle. No wonder is left unseen.
Wherever you are, from Tyneside to Tokyo, you’ll find us in a cinema near you.
#suziemiller #rosamundpike #interalia #nationaltheatre #nationaltheatrelive #livetheater
Rosamund Pike, Michael Sheen, Rakie Ayola and more. Five unmissable productions streaming this summer — Inter Alia, London Road, Our Town, The Authenticator & Summerfolk. Experience gripping dramas, stirring performances and stories that stay with you long after the curtain falls, with five new productions streaming this season on National Theatre at Home. → ntathome.com
00:00 Summer Season coming to National Theatre at Home
00:30 Inter Alia trailer with Rosamund Pike by Suzie Miller, directed by Justin Martin.
01:46 Inter Alia exclusive clip with Rosamund Pike, Jasper Talbot and Jamie Glover
03:39 Summerfolk by Maxim Gorky, directed by Robert Hastie
04:21 London Road exclusive clip 'Everyone Smile' 2025 Cast
Summerfolk | Streaming from 7 July
It’s a hot, beautiful summer in 1905, and Russia’s elite retreat to the countryside to swim, sip champagne and start affairs. As the party continues, how long can they ignore the storm on the horizon?
Robert Hastie directs Maxim Gorky’s razor-sharp portrait of class, privilege and denial, in a new adaptation from Nina Raine and Moses Raine.
Inter Alia | Streaming worldwide from 7 July
A judge, a mother, an unthinkable event – Olivier Award-winning Rosamund Pike is Jessica Parks in Inter Alia, the much-anticipated next play from the director and writer of Prima Facie.
London Road | Streaming from 14 July
Using their own words set to an innovative musical score, London Road is a moving story of ordinary people coming together during an extraordinary time.
Director Rufus Norris, writer Alecky Blythe and composer Adam Cork reunite for this highly anticipated return of the remarkable, award-winning verbatim musical.
Our Town | Streaming from 4 August
Michael Sheen (Nye, Under Milk Wood) leads the cast in the Welsh National Theatre and Rose Theatre production of Our Town, Thornton Wilder’s masterpiece, told through a Welsh lens and bringing new resonance to its timeless story of life, love and community. Directed by Francesca Goodridge.
The Authenticator | Streaming from 11 August
Three women come together to seek the truth, soon realising that secrets at the heart of Fenella Harford’s newly inherited stately home were darker than they could have imagined.
A gripping gothic psychological thriller, The Authenticator reunites writer Winsome Pinnock with director Miranda Cromwell following their acclaimed production, Rockets and Blue Lights.
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
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National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
#NationalTheatreAtHome #InterAlia #LondonRoad #OurTown #TheAuthenticator #Summerfolk #StreamTheatre
BAFTA-winner Rakie Ayola goes backstage at The Authenticator — Winsome Pinnock's gripping gothic thriller at the National Theatre's Dorfman. Ghosts, diaries & a chessboard set. NT.
The Authenticator arrives to stream on National Theatre at Home 11 August → ntathome.com
Rakie Ayola swipes her pass — "I am officially in the building" — and leads us on a warm, candid, and completely disarming tour of her world before curtain. The dressing room, the vocal exercises (the alphabet, as it turns out, done at speed — "I love that you got it"), the skip rope to get the heart pumping, and the moment character arrives: not gradually, not through method rituals or wardrobe vigils, but the instant the music kicks in and she steps on stage.
In The Authenticator, Rakie Ayola plays Abi — a brilliant but overlooked academic who arrives at Harford Hall with her research assistant Marva (Cherrelle Skeete) at the invitation of eccentric artist Fenella Harford (Sylvestra Le Touzel). Their mission: to authenticate a hidden stash of diaries and inventories kept by enslaver Henry Harford during his time on a plantation in Jamaica in the early 1800s.
The Authenticator is a gripping gothic psychological thriller by Winsome Pinnock (Rockets and Blue Lights), directed by Miranda Cromwell (Death of a Salesman) — the acclaimed creative partnership behind Rockets and Blue Lights reunited for a new commission that digs into the buried histories of colonial Britain with intelligence, wit, and suspense.
The creative team includes set designer Jon Bausor, costume designer Kinnetia Isidore, lighting designer Aideen Malone, sound designer Tingying Dong, and composer Benjamin Kwasi Burrell.
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
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#RakieAyola #TheAuthenticator #NationalTheatre #MeetMeAtStageDoor #WinsomePinnock #DorfmanTheatre #BehindTheScenes
BAFTA-winner Rakie Ayola goes backstage at The Authenticator — Winsome Pinnock's gripping gothic thriller at the National Theatre's Dorfman. Ghosts, diaries & a chessboard set. NT.
The Authenticator arrives to stream on National Theatre at Home 11 August → ntathome.com
Rakie Ayola swipes her pass — "I am officially in the building" — and leads us on a warm, candid, and completely disarming tour of her world before curtain. The dressing room, the vocal exercises (the alphabet, as it turns out, done at speed — "I love that you got it"), the skip rope to get the heart pumping, and the moment character arrives: not gradually, not through method rituals or wardrobe vigils, but the instant the music kicks in and she steps on stage.
In The Authenticator, Rakie Ayola plays Abi — a brilliant but overlooked academic who arrives at Harford Hall with her research assistant Marva (Cherrelle Skeete) at the invitation of eccentric artist Fenella Harford (Sylvestra Le Touzel). Their mission: to authenticate a hidden stash of diaries and inventories kept by enslaver Henry Harford during his time on a plantation in Jamaica in the early 1800s.
The Authenticator is a gripping gothic psychological thriller by Winsome Pinnock (Rockets and Blue Lights), directed by Miranda Cromwell (Death of a Salesman) — the acclaimed creative partnership behind Rockets and Blue Lights reunited for a new commission that digs into the buried histories of colonial Britain with intelligence, wit, and suspense.
The creative team includes set designer Jon Bausor, costume designer Kinnetia Isidore, lighting designer Aideen Malone, sound designer Tingying Dong, and composer Benjamin Kwasi Burrell.
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
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#RakieAyola #TheAuthenticator #NationalTheatre #MeetMeAtStageDoor #WinsomePinnock #DorfmanTheatre #BehindTheScenes
Streaming soon on National Theatre at Home, experience stories that stray with you lon after the curtain falls.
Summerfolk
Inter Alia
Our Town
London Road
The Authenticator
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
Tony and Olivier awards-winner Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) joins Aidan Turner (Rivals) and Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unkown) in a striking new staging of Christopher Hampton’s celebrated adaptation of the classic novel, where among the glittering salons of the super-rich, one misstep can mean ruin.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses comes to cinemas from 25 June with National Theatre Live. Get tickets here: ntlive.com/plays/les-liaisons-dangereuses/tickets
Marquise de Merteuil is a master in the art of survival. Alongside the magnetic Vicomte de Valmont, they turn seduction into strategy and weaponise desire. But when their alliance collapses into rivalry, the battle between them threatens to destroy everyone in their path.
Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre, Marianne Elliott (Angels in America) directs this thrilling game of love, lies, and social warfare.
The Production
Marianne Elliott's sweeping staging of the scandalous French classic is characteristic in its mix of sumptuousness and precision — and when its finely tooled pieces start to fall out of place, it's devastating.
From its opening moments, Marianne Elliott's production subtly reconfigures Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses for the MeToo generation — a world where love is a battle of single combat, a hand-to-hand struggle for survival, and women are constantly melding themselves to the shapes and behaviour demanded by the men who still hold all the cards.
Aidan Turner endows Valmont with the conspicuous charm that Merteuil ascribes to him — making him puppyish and almost clownish until he reveals the pure power and malice beneath. He is sexy, but the sex almost doesn't matter. It's the pursuit that counts.
Monica Barbaro — making her stage debut — plays Madame de Tourvel with tremulous directness: a woman genuinely surprised by the strength of her own feelings, and desperate to escape them. She is overcome by shame after falling for Valmont — a woman tragically conflicted, her moral conviction colliding with something she cannot control.
See It in Cinemas
Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre's Lyttelton, Les Liaisons Dangereuses comes to cinemas worldwide with National Theatre Live from 25 June 2026. Directed by Marianne Elliott (Angels in America) and featuring Christopher Hampton's celebrated adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' classic novel — this is your chance to experience one of the most talked-about productions of the year on the big screen.
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
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#LesLiaisonsDangereuses #AidanTurner #MonicaBarbaro #NTLive #NationalTheatre #LesleyManville #MarianneElliott
A summer of pleasure. A storm on the horizon. Summer folk streaming from 7 July on National Theatre at Home → ntathome.com
It’s a hot, beautiful summer in 1905, and Russia’s elite retreat to the countryside to swim, sip champagne and start affairs.
When they’re having this much fun, why care about anything else? But Varvara just can’t shake the feeling that their holiday idyll is built on borrowed time.
As the party continues, how long can they ignore the storm on the horizon?
Deputy Artistic Director Robert Hastie (Standing at the Sky’s Edge) directs Maxim Gorky’s razor-sharp portrait of class, privilege and denial, revived for 2026 in a new adaptation from Nina Raine (Consent) and Moses Raine (Donkey Heart).
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
From Rome's bloodiest battlefield to the Forest of Arden — five Shakespeare plays, five world-class casts, one unmissable compilation.
Populism. Desire. Betrayal. Joy. Five Shakespeare plays as urgent as today's headlines — performed by the finest actors in Britain.
00:00 Romeo and Juliet
Currently streaming on National Theatre at Home → ntathome.com/romeo-juliet
Jessie Buckley and Josh O'Connor play Juliet and Romeo. Romeo and Juliet risk everything to be together. In defiance of their feuding families, they chase a future of joy and passion as violence erupts around them. This bold film brings to life the remarkable backstage spaces of the National Theatre in which desire, dreams and destiny collide to make Shakespeare's romantic tragedy sing in an entirely new way. The award-winning cast includes Tamsin Greig, Fisayo Akinade, Adrian Lester, Lucian Msamati, and Deborah Findlay.
02:56 Julius Caesar
Currently streaming on National Theatre at Home → ntathome.com/julius-caesar
Nicholas Hytner stages Shakespeare's play as a promenade production, with standing tickets and the audience forming the Roman mob itself — starring David Morrissey, Ben Whishaw, David Calder, and Michelle Fairley. It starts with a rock band at a political rally. Merch stands flog cheap red "CAESAR" caps to the crowd and posters show the man himself staring sternly out of the shadows. Ben Whishaw's Brutus is a charismatic but fatally flawed liberal thinker, and Fairley's Cassius is equally powerful — both giving detailed, insightful performances.
04:55 A Midsummer Night´s Dream
Nicholas Hytner's Midsummer Night's Dream at the Bridge Theatre transformed the space once again into a promenade playground — a forest of chaos, desire, and mischief in which the audience moved through the action, surrounded by fairies, lovers, and the gloriously chaotic mechanicals. One of the most physically inventive Shakespeare productions in recent London theatrical memory, and one of the most joyful.
with Gwendoline Christie, Hammed Animashaun, Oliver Chris, Jay Webb and Chipo Kureya.
06:34 Coriolanus
Currently streaming on National Theatre at Home → ntathome.com/coriolanus
David Oyelowo (Selma, Lawmen: Bass Reeves) made his National Theatre debut in the title role, directed by Lyndsey Turner in a thrilling new production of Shakespeare's timeless political tragedy, performed in the Olivier Theatre in 2024. The creative team includes set designer Es Devlin, costume designer Annemarie Woods, lighting designer Tim Lutkin, and composer Angus MacRae. Who should lead in a land where political rules are rapidly shifting, class revolt is raging, and basic food has become unaffordable? Is there a place for Coriolanus — a noble war hero and uncompromising aristocrat, both admirable and detestable, who refuses to hide his contempt for the newly empowered plebeian citizens?
07:58 Much Ado About Nothing
Currently streaming on National Theatre at Home → ntathome.com/videos/much-ado-about-nothing-full-play
Director Simon Godwin and designer Anna Fleischle relocated the action to an Art Deco hotel in 1930s Italy — the legendary, family-run Hotel Messina — with Katherine Parkinson as Beatrice and John Heffernan as Benedick. Witty, warm, and irresistibly charming, this is Shakespeare's greatest romantic comedy.
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
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National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
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#Shakespeare #NationalTheatre #BridgeTheatre #TomHiddleston #JoshOConnor #JessieBuckley #NTatHome
Hannah van der Westhuysen and Darragh Hand take control and share exclusive behind the scene access with the cast of Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
Tony and Olivier awards-winner Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) joins Aidan Turner (Rivals) in a striking new staging of Christopher Hampton’s celebrated adaptation of the classic novel, where among the glittering salons of the super-rich, one misstep can mean ruin.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses comes to cinemas from 25 June with National Theatre Live. Get tickets here:https://www.ntlive.com/plays/les-liaisons-dangereuses/tickets/
Marquise de Merteuil is a master in the art of survival. Alongside the magnetic Vicomte de Valmont, they turn seduction into strategy and weaponise desire. But when their alliance collapses into rivalry, the battle between them threatens to destroy everyone in their path.
Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre, Marianne Elliott (Angels in America) directs this thrilling game of love, lies, and social warfare.
The Production
Marianne Elliott's sweeping staging of the scandalous French classic is characteristic in its mix of sumptuousness and precision — and when its finely tooled pieces start to fall out of place, it's devastating.
From its opening moments, Marianne Elliott's production subtly reconfigures Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses for the MeToo generation — a world where love is a battle of single combat, a hand-to-hand struggle for survival, and women are constantly melding themselves to the shapes and behaviour demanded by the men who still hold all the cards.
Aidan Turner endows Valmont with the conspicuous charm that Merteuil ascribes to him — making him puppyish and almost clownish until he reveals the pure power and malice beneath. He is sexy, but the sex almost doesn't matter. It's the pursuit that counts.
Monica Barbaro — making her stage debut — plays Madame de Tourvel with tremulous directness: a woman genuinely surprised by the strength of her own feelings, and desperate to escape them. She is overcome by shame after falling for Valmont — a woman tragically conflicted, her moral conviction colliding with something she cannot control.
See It in Cinemas
Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre's Lyttelton, Les Liaisons Dangereuses comes to cinemas worldwide with National Theatre Live from 25 June 2026. Directed by Marianne Elliott (Angels in America) and featuring Christopher Hampton's celebrated adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' classic novel — this is your chance to experience one of the most talked-about productions of the year on the big screen.
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
--
#LesLiaisonsDangereuses #AidanTurner #MonicaBarbaro #NTLive #NationalTheatre #LesleyManville #MarianneElliott #behindthescenes
Lesley Manville and Aidan Turner share their experience filming Les Liaisons Dangereuses for National Theatre Live.
Tony and Olivier awards-winner Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) joins Aidan Turner (Rivals) in a striking new staging of Christopher Hampton’s celebrated adaptation of the classic novel, where among the glittering salons of the super-rich, one misstep can mean ruin.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses is on cinemas with National Theatre Live. Get tickets here: ntlive.com/plays/les-liaisons-dangereuses/tickets/
Marquise de Merteuil is a master in the art of survival. Alongside the magnetic Vicomte de Valmont, they turn seduction into strategy and weaponise desire. But when their alliance collapses into rivalry, the battle between them threatens to destroy everyone in their path.
Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre, Marianne Elliott (Angels in America) directs this thrilling game of love, lies, and social warfare.
The Production
Marianne Elliott's sweeping staging of the scandalous French classic is characteristic in its mix of sumptuousness and precision — and when its finely tooled pieces start to fall out of place, it's devastating.
From its opening moments, Marianne Elliott's production subtly reconfigures Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses for the MeToo generation — a world where love is a battle of single combat, a hand-to-hand struggle for survival, and women are constantly melding themselves to the shapes and behaviour demanded by the men who still hold all the cards.
Aidan Turner endows Valmont with the conspicuous charm that Merteuil ascribes to him — making him puppyish and almost clownish until he reveals the pure power and malice beneath. He is sexy, but the sex almost doesn't matter. It's the pursuit that counts.
Monica Barbaro — making her stage debut — plays Madame de Tourvel with tremulous directness: a woman genuinely surprised by the strength of her own feelings, and desperate to escape them. She is overcome by shame after falling for Valmont — a woman tragically conflicted, her moral conviction colliding with something she cannot control.
See It in Cinemas
Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre's Lyttelton, Les Liaisons Dangereuses comes to cinemas worldwide with National Theatre Live from 25 June 2026. Directed by Marianne Elliott (Angels in America) and featuring Christopher Hampton's celebrated adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' classic novel — this is your chance to experience one of the most talked-about productions of the year on the big screen.
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
--
#LesLiaisonsDangereuses #AidanTurner #MonicaBarbaro #NTLive #NationalTheatre #LesleyManville #MarianneElliott
A play within a play - from the National Theatre's Hamlet with Olivier Award-winner Hiran Abeysekera and Francesca Mills. Stream Hamlet on ntathome.com
‘The play’s the thing’
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Are you watching closely?
Olivier Award-winner Hiran Abeysekera (The Father and the Assassin, Life of Pi) is Hamlet in this fearless, contemporary take on Shakespeare’s famous tragedy.
Trapped between duty and doubt, surrounded by power and privilege, young Prince Hamlet dares to ask the ultimate question–you know the one.
National Theatre Deputy Artistic Director, Robert Hastie (Standing at the Sky’s Edge, Operation Mincemeat) directs this ‘sharp, stylish and darkly funny’ (All that Dazzles) reimagining.
Stream the ★★★★★ (Broadway World) contemporary take on Shakespeare’s famous tragedy on National Theatre at Home.
A production from National Theatre.
Set and Costume Designer: Ben Stones
Photography: Sam Taylor
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
--
About the Author
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" or simply "the Bard". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted
#williamshakespeare #theatre #nationaltheatre #nationaltheatreathome #london ##WestEnd #shakespeare #ranking #compilation
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
A group of community choirs performed songs from War Horse to celebrate its return to our Olivier Theatre.
Author Sir Michael Morpurgo and life-sized horse puppet Joey joined in!
Book official War Horse tickets for the Tony Award-winning global sensation, based on Michael Morpurgo’s beloved novel. Playing in the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre in London from Saturday 16 May to Thursday 30 July 2026, with performances this summer, it’s an unforgettable family day out.
Find out more about this live theatre show and book tickets on the official website: https://nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/war-horse/
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About the show
The global phenomenon gallops home to the National Theatre
At the outbreak of the First World War, young Albert’s beloved horse Joey is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France. Too young to enlist, Albert refuses to forget him, embarking on an extraordinary journey from the fields of rural Devon to the trenches of wartime France – determined to bring Joey home.
Based on Michael Morpurgo’s beloved novel, War Horse is a timeless story of love, courage and friendship, brought to life by astonishing life-sized horses from Handspring Puppet Company and a stirring musical score.
Following a sell-out national tour, the Tony Award–winning global sensation returns to where it all began, nearly two decades after its debut at the National Theatre.
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Sir Michael Morpurgo OBE FRSL FKC DL, born Michael Andrew Bridge, is a writer, playwright, performer and librettist.
The author of more than 150 children’s books, he has sold over 35 million copies worldwide in almost 40 languages. The National Theatre adaptation of his most well-known novel War Horse (1982) was first produced in 2007 and has since been seen by more than ten million people in over 100 cities around the world.
A former teacher, Michael Morpurgo is currently the President of Book Trust. Between 2003–05, he was Children’s Laureate.
Alongside his wife Clare Lane, he is co-founder of the charity Farms for City Children.
Theatre
For the National Theatre: War Horse
Awards
In 2018 he was knighted for services to literature and charity.
War Horse – five Tony Awards and two Olivier Awards among others.
https://www.michaelmorpurgo.com/
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
Tony and Olivier awards-winner Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) joins Aidan Turner (Rivals) in a striking new staging of Christopher Hampton’s celebrated adaptation of the classic novel, where among the glittering salons of the super-rich, one misstep can mean ruin.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses comes to cinemas from 25 June with National Theatre Live. Get tickets here:https://www.ntlive.com/plays/les-liaisons-dangereuses/tickets/
Marquise de Merteuil is a master in the art of survival. Alongside the magnetic Vicomte de Valmont, they turn seduction into strategy and weaponise desire. But when their alliance collapses into rivalry, the battle between them threatens to destroy everyone in their path.
Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre, Marianne Elliott (Angels in America) directs this thrilling game of love, lies, and social warfare.
The Production
Marianne Elliott's sweeping staging of the scandalous French classic is characteristic in its mix of sumptuousness and precision — and when its finely tooled pieces start to fall out of place, it's devastating.
From its opening moments, Marianne Elliott's production subtly reconfigures Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses for the MeToo generation — a world where love is a battle of single combat, a hand-to-hand struggle for survival, and women are constantly melding themselves to the shapes and behaviour demanded by the men who still hold all the cards.
Aidan Turner endows Valmont with the conspicuous charm that Merteuil ascribes to him — making him puppyish and almost clownish until he reveals the pure power and malice beneath. He is sexy, but the sex almost doesn't matter. It's the pursuit that counts.
Monica Barbaro — making her stage debut — plays Madame de Tourvel with tremulous directness: a woman genuinely surprised by the strength of her own feelings, and desperate to escape them. She is overcome by shame after falling for Valmont — a woman tragically conflicted, her moral conviction colliding with something she cannot control.
See It in Cinemas
Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre's Lyttelton, Les Liaisons Dangereuses comes to cinemas worldwide with National Theatre Live from 25 June 2026. Directed by Marianne Elliott (Angels in America) and featuring Christopher Hampton's celebrated adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' classic novel — this is your chance to experience one of the most talked-about productions of the year on the big screen.
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
--
#LesLiaisonsDangereuses #AidanTurner #MonicaBarbaro #NTLive #NationalTheatre #LesleyManville #MarianneElliott
First look at Sandra Oh and Paul Chahidi in rehearsal for The Misanthrope by Martin Crimp after Molière, directed by Indhu Rubasingham.
Playing at the National Theatre in London's South Bank from 16 June 2026, ideal for those looking for things to do in London.
Head to the National Theatre website more info and tickets: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/the-misanthrope/
In this exclusive first-look clip, Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winner Sandra Oh (Killing Eve, Grey's Anatomy) and Paul Chahidi open up the rehearsal room for The Misanthrope — Martin Crimp's razor-sharp new version of Molière's dark comedy, directed by National Theatre Director Indhu Rubasingham.
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About the show
Sandra Oh takes the title role in a razor-sharp reimagining of Molière’s classic
Alice, a brilliant novelist, despises the hollow contemporary mantras of kindness and respect. But the bolder she becomes in speaking out, the more colleagues avoid her, and the more her personal relationships begin to fracture.
As she challenges fashionable ideas and lends her voice to causes others are afraid to touch, she faces intense criticism and backlash. Alice will soon learn the price she must pay as an artist and as a woman for daring to speak her mind.
Award-winner Sandra Oh (Killing Eve) is the Misanthrope in Martin Crimp’s (Cyrano de Bergerac) cutting new version of Molière’s dark comedy, directed by National Theatre Director Indhu Rubasingham (The Father and the Assassin).
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Indhu Rubasingham became Director of the National Theatre in spring 2025. Previously, she was Artistic Director of the Kiln Theatre (formerly the Tricycle Theatre) from 2012 to 2023, where she led a major capital redevelopment and championed unheard voices with a bold programme. Her mission was to create theatre for all, with a local heart and international reach.
Theatre
For the National Theatre: The Misanthrope, Bacchae, The Father and the Assassin, The Great Wave and The Motherf*cker with the Hat
As Artistic Director of the Kiln: The Wife of Willesden (also in A.R.T Boston and BAM, NY), The Invisible Hand, Pass Over, When the Crows Visit, Wife, White Teeth, Holy Sh!t, Red Velvet (also in New York and in the West End as part of the Kenneth Branagh Season), Handbagged (also West End, UK tour, Washington DC and New York), A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes, Multitudes, The House That Will Not Stand, Paper Dolls, Women, Power and Politics, Stones in His Pockets, Detaining Justice, The Great Game: Afghanistan, Fabulation and Starstruck
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Sandra Oh
Training
Sandra Oh trained at the National Theatre School of Canada and currently works with Kim Gillingham.
Theatre
For the National Theatre: The Misanthrope
Other productions include: La fille du régiment at the Metropolitan Opera, NYC; Twelfth Night at the Delacorte Theater for the Public; The Welkin at the Atlantic Theatre; Office Hour at South Coast Rep; The House of Bernarda Alba at the Mark Taper Forum; and Stop Kiss at the Public Theater
TV
The Sympathizer, The Chair, Eve Polastri in Killing Eve, Dr Cristina Yang in Grey’s Anatomy, Rita Wu in Arli$$ and The Diary of Evelyn Lau
Film
Good Fortune, Can I Get a Witness?, Quiz Lady, Umma, Meditation Park, Catfight, Sideways, Under the Tuscan Sun, The Princess Diaries and Double Happiness
Voice work
Invincible, The Sandman, Turning Red, Raya and the Last Dragon and Window Horses
Awards
Killing Eve – Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice and SAG Awards, BAFTA and Emmy nominations
Grey’s Anatomy – Golden Globe and SAG Awards, Emmy nominations
Arli$$ – Cable Ace Award
The Diary of Evelyn Lau – FIPA d’Or Award, Gemini nomination
Quiz Lady – Emmy Award
Sideways – Critics’ Choice and SAG Awards
Double Happiness – Genie Award
In 2019, Sandra Oh was recognised with the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. In 2022, she was named an officer of the Order of Canada.
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
3 iconic moments from the National Theatre's Hamlet with Olivier Award-winner Hiran Abeysekera and Francesca Mills. Stream Hamlet on ntathome.com
‘The play’s the thing’
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Are you watching closely?
Olivier Award-winner Hiran Abeysekera (The Father and the Assassin, Life of Pi) is Hamlet in this fearless, contemporary take on Shakespeare’s famous tragedy.
Trapped between duty and doubt, surrounded by power and privilege, young Prince Hamlet dares to ask the ultimate question–you know the one.
National Theatre Deputy Artistic Director, Robert Hastie (Standing at the Sky’s Edge, Operation Mincemeat) directs this ‘sharp, stylish and darkly funny’ (All that Dazzles) reimagining.
Stream the ★★★★★ (Broadway World) contemporary take on Shakespeare’s famous tragedy on National Theatre at Home.
A production from National Theatre.
Set and Costume Designer: Ben Stones
Photography: Sam Taylor
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
--
About the Author
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" or simply "the Bard". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted
#williamshakespeare #theatre #nationaltheatre #nationaltheatreathome #london ##WestEnd #shakespeare #ranking #compilation
Stream Hamlet on ntathome.com
‘The play’s the thing’
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Are you watching closely?
Olivier Award-winner Hiran Abeysekera (The Father and the Assassin, Life of Pi) is Hamlet in this fearless, contemporary take on Shakespeare’s famous tragedy.
Trapped between duty and doubt, surrounded by power and privilege, young Prince Hamlet dares to ask the ultimate question–you know the one.
National Theatre Deputy Artistic Director, Robert Hastie (Standing at the Sky’s Edge, Operation Mincemeat) directs this ‘sharp, stylish and darkly funny’ (All that Dazzles) reimagining.
Set and Costume Designer: Ben Stones
Sam Taylor was the photographer for the production photography
A production from National Theatre.
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
--
About National Theatre Live
For over 15 years, we’ve given our audience the best seat in the house.
We film unmissable theatre live from Britain’s most exciting stages and screen it in thousands of cinemas around the globe. Our productions have been seen by more than 13 million people worldwide.
We capture the magic of every moment on stage, letting you get closer, delve deeper and take in the spectacle. No wonder is left unseen.
Wherever you are, from Tyneside to Tokyo, you’ll find us in a cinema near you.
--
About the Author
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" or simply "the Bard". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted
#williamshakespeare #theatre #nationaltheatre #nationaltheatrelive #london #fullshow #trailer #trailers #teaser #Broadway #WestEnd #shakespeare
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
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Helen Mirren stars as Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience, the Olivier and Tony Award-winning production directed by Stephen Daldry. Now available to stream on National Theatre at Home → ntathome.com
For 60 years, Queen Elizabeth II met with each of her 12 prime ministers in a private weekly meeting. This meeting is known as The Audience. From Winston Churchill to Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron, the Queen advised her prime ministers on matters both public and personal. Through these private audiences, we see glimpses of the woman behind the crown and witness the moments that shaped a monarch.
Peter Morgan's Netflix phenomenon The Crown was based on this hit play — captured live from London's West End in 2013, it went on to become one of the most-watched NT Live productions ever broadcast. And now, for the first time, it is available to watch again — for audiences inside the UK on National Theatre at Home, and for international audiences in select cinemas via NT Live.
Helen Mirren: A Performance for the Ages
There are roles that define careers. And then there are roles that define eras. Helen Mirren's Queen Elizabeth II — for which she won both the Olivier Award for Best Actress and the Tony Award on Broadway — is one of those performances: nuanced, funny, deeply human, and possessed of a stillness and authority that commands every scene she is in.
The production is directed by Stephen Daldry, with design by Bob Crowley, lighting by Rick Fisher, and sound design by Paul Arditti — a creative team at the very height of their collective powers, working in service of a script and a performance that remain, more than a decade on, completely electrifying.
Twelve Prime Ministers. One Remarkable Woman.
What makes The Audience so extraordinary is what it asks — and answers — about power, duty, and the private self behind the public role. Each prime minister arrives in the same gilded room with the same agenda: to be advised, questioned, and occasionally, quietly, redirected. And each time, the Queen listens, watches, considers — and then speaks. The play builds, audience by audience, into a portrait of a woman who gave her entire life to a role she never asked for, and who discharged that role with a dedication and intelligence that few of her prime ministers could match.
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
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#TheAudience #HelenMirren #NationalTheatre #QueenElizabeth #NTatHome #PeterMorgan #TheCrown
Lesley Manville, Aidan Turner and Monica Barbaro delve into Tom Jackson Greaves choreography and how it's woven into the narrative of the show.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses is in cinemas with National Theatre Live from 25 June. Find your venue on ntlive.com
Tony and Olivier awards-winner Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) joins Aidan Turner (Rivals) in a striking new staging of Christopher Hampton’s celebrated adaptation of the classic novel, where among the glittering salons of the super-rich, one misstep can mean ruin.
Marquise de Merteuil is a master in the art of survival. Alongside the magnetic Vicomte de Valmont, they turn seduction into strategy and weaponise desire. But when their alliance collapses into rivalry, the battle between them threatens to destroy everyone in their path.
Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre, Marianne Elliott (Angels in America) directs this thrilling game of love, lies, and social warfare.
The Production
Marianne Elliott's sweeping staging of the scandalous French classic is characteristic in its mix of sumptuousness and precision — and when its finely tooled pieces start to fall out of place, it's devastating.
From its opening moments, Marianne Elliott's production subtly reconfigures Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses for the MeToo generation — a world where love is a battle of single combat, a hand-to-hand struggle for survival, and women are constantly melding themselves to the shapes and behaviour demanded by the men who still hold all the cards.
Aidan Turner endows Valmont with the conspicuous charm that Merteuil ascribes to him — making him puppyish and almost clownish until he reveals the pure power and malice beneath. He is sexy, but the sex almost doesn't matter. It's the pursuit that counts.
Monica Barbaro — making her stage debut — plays Madame de Tourvel with tremulous directness: a woman genuinely surprised by the strength of her own feelings, and desperate to escape them. She is overcome by shame after falling for Valmont — a woman tragically conflicted, her moral conviction colliding with something she cannot control.
See It in Cinemas
Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre's Lyttelton, Les Liaisons Dangereuses comes to cinemas worldwide with National Theatre Live from 25 June 2026. Directed by Marianne Elliott (Angels in America) and featuring Christopher Hampton's celebrated adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' classic novel — this is your chance to experience one of the most talked-about productions of the year on the big screen.
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
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#LesLiaisonsDangereuses #AidanTurner #MonicaBarbaro #NTLive #NationalTheatre #LesleyManville #MarianneElliott #cinema
Tony and Olivier awards-winner Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) joins Aidan Turner (Rivals) in a striking new staging of Christopher Hampton’s celebrated adaptation of the classic novel, where among the glittering salons of the super-rich, one misstep can mean ruin.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses comes to cinemas from 25 June with National Theatre Live. Get tickets here:https://www.ntlive.com/plays/les-liaisons-dangereuses/tickets/
Marquise de Merteuil is a master in the art of survival. Alongside the magnetic Vicomte de Valmont, they turn seduction into strategy and weaponise desire. But when their alliance collapses into rivalry, the battle between them threatens to destroy everyone in their path.
Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre, Marianne Elliott (Angels in America) directs this thrilling game of love, lies, and social warfare.
The Production
Marianne Elliott's sweeping staging of the scandalous French classic is characteristic in its mix of sumptuousness and precision — and when its finely tooled pieces start to fall out of place, it's devastating.
From its opening moments, Marianne Elliott's production subtly reconfigures Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses for the MeToo generation — a world where love is a battle of single combat, a hand-to-hand struggle for survival, and women are constantly melding themselves to the shapes and behaviour demanded by the men who still hold all the cards.
Aidan Turner endows Valmont with the conspicuous charm that Merteuil ascribes to him — making him puppyish and almost clownish until he reveals the pure power and malice beneath. He is sexy, but the sex almost doesn't matter. It's the pursuit that counts.
Monica Barbaro — making her stage debut — plays Madame de Tourvel with tremulous directness: a woman genuinely surprised by the strength of her own feelings, and desperate to escape them. She is overcome by shame after falling for Valmont — a woman tragically conflicted, her moral conviction colliding with something she cannot control.
See It in Cinemas
Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre's Lyttelton, Les Liaisons Dangereuses comes to cinemas worldwide with National Theatre Live from 25 June 2026. Directed by Marianne Elliott (Angels in America) and featuring Christopher Hampton's celebrated adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' classic novel — this is your chance to experience one of the most talked-about productions of the year on the big screen.
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
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National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
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#LesLiaisonsDangereuses #AidanTurner #MonicaBarbaro #NTLive #NationalTheatre #LesleyManville #MarianneElliott
Ncuti Gatwa, Andrew Scott, James Corden & Hammed Animashaun, relive some funny moments from British theatre — in one unmissable comedy compilation.
This irresistible compilation gathers laugh-out-loud moments from five of Britain's finest comedy productions — from Ncuti Gatwa calmly eating muffins in a crisis, to Bottom consulting an iPhone for a calendar, to James Corden desperately trying to serve soup to two tables at once. Five shows. Five entirely different kinds of funny. One very good reason to remember why live comedy theatre is like nothing else in the world.
00:00 The Importance of Being Earnest — National Theatre
Streaming on National Theatre at Home → ntathome.com/the-importance-of-being-earnest
"I can't eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs." Ncuti Gatwa as Algernon Moncrieff delivers Oscar Wilde's greatest comic argument — a sustained, completely committed debate about the correct emotional conditions under which a gentleman may eat a muffin — with a perfectly deadpan serenity that has audiences beside themselves. The logic is impeccable. The muffins are non-negotiable.
01:33 Till the Stars Come Down — National Theatre
Streaming on National Theatre at Home → ntathome.com/videos/till-the-stars-come-down-full-play
A wedding dress that won't zip. Forty minutes until the ceremony. No sewing machine. And a very frank Northern assessment of the situation that climaxes in one of the great single-line laughs of recent British theatre. Beth Steel's brilliantly observed comedy captures exactly the precise, specific, glorious chaos of a family getting ready for a wedding — and the audience response is the sound of every person in the room recognising their own family entirely.
02:59 Present Laughter — Old Vic
Andrew Scott as Garry Essendine wakes up from a deep, deep sleep to discover a stranger in his spare room — and nobody will tell him who she is, where she came from, or why the staff are being quite so evasive. Noël Coward's comedy of self-obsession, household chaos, and impeccably timed revelation is in the safest possible hands — Scott and Indira Varma sparring with the kind of comic precision that makes it look effortless and is anything but.
04:22 A Midsummer Night's Dream — Bridge Theatre
Nick Bottom, artisan weaver of Athens, needs to know if the moon will shine on the night of the play. The solution? Someone consults their iPhone. "Unlock your calendar, I beseech you." The Bridge Theatre's production updates Shakespeare's most glorious comic scene for the twenty-first century — and the audience's reaction is the particular eruption of laughter that only happens when something is both completely absurd and completely inevitable.
05:57 One Man, Two Guvnors — National Theatre
Streaming on National Theatre at Home → ntathome.com/videos/one-man-two-guvnors-full-play
James Corden as Francis Henshall, the hungriest man in British theatre, attempting to serve two tables with one bowl of soup — and the soup winning. Richard Bean's riotous Commedia dell'Arte-inspired comedy, directed by Nicholas Hytner, is one of the National Theatre's most celebrated productions, and this scene is its chaotic, physical, belly-laugh heart.
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
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Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
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#TheatreComedy #NationalTheatre #NcutiGatwa #AndrewScott #OneManTwoGuvnors #MidsummerNightsDream #FunnyTheatre
The greatest unexpected casting story in cinema Vin Diesel inviting Judi Dench to act with him on a backstage visit and enormous flowers, told live at the National Theatre with Ian McKellen & Jim Carter.
"He brought me some flowers. And they stretched from there — that cross-arch there — to Jim. And they couldn't get up the stairs to my dressing room. Well, not Vin. The flowers."In this utterly delightful clip, Dame Judi Dench — one of the most decorated actors in British history — tells Ian McKellen and Jim Carter exactly how she ended up starring alongside Vin Diesel in a sci-fi action blockbuster. And the answer, it turns out, involves a backstage visit, the most enormous bouquet of flowers and a response to being asked to join one of his films.
Filmed at the National Theatre as part of the In Conversation with Judi Dench, Ian McKellen and Jim Carter series, this clip captures the exact moment the conversation turns to Dame Judi's somewhat unexpected film credit: the role of Aereon — an enigmatic, ethereal prophet of the Elemental race — in David Twohy's 2004 sci-fi epic The Chronicles of Riddick, starring Vin Diesel. Judi Dench, it should be noted, is very proud of this. Ian McKellen and Jim Carter cannot entirely hide their delight.The story she tells — of Vin Diesel coming to see her at the Haymarket, arriving with a bouquet so vast it could not fit up the stairs, sitting in her dressing room, and asking, with what she describes as "absolutely charming" courtesy, whether she'd like to be in his film — is one of those anecdotes that belongs permanently to the canon of great theatre stories. That she said yes without hesitation, and has never watched the film, makes it entirely perfect.
Now streaming on National Theatre at Home https://www.ntathome.com/videos/judi-dench-and-ian-mckellen-in-conversation-with-jim-carter
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
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About the Speakers
Sir Ian McKellen is one of the most celebrated stage and screen actors of his generation, with a career spanning six decades and encompassing landmark Shakespeare roles, West End and Broadway productions, and iconic film performances.
Dame Judi Dench is one of the most decorated actors in British history — winner of an Academy Award, eight BAFTA Awards, and nine Olivier Awards — whose love of the stage has never dimmed despite a glittering screen career.
Jim Carter, best known as Carson in Downton Abbey, is himself a distinguished theatre actor and the perfect host for a conversation this good. Together on the National Theatre stage, the three of them are unstoppable.
#JudiDench #VinDiesel #NationalTheatre #IanMcKellen #ChroniclesOfRiddick #JimCarter #BritishTheatre-
Marley Fenton performs 'Epic III' as Orpheus — live in the @vamuseum Medieval Gallery. @Hadestown booking through 27 June 2027 at the Lyric Theatre on the West End.
Head to the National Theatre website for more info and tickets. → nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/hadestown/
"Terrible things breed in broken hearts." Michaela Coel opening monologue from Medea with Helen McCrory at the National Theatre.
"Listen. There's a story that has to be told."
And in the hands of Helen McCrory, it is a story you will never forget.
In this exclusive clip, Michaela Coel — acclaimed creator and star of I May Destroy You — introduces the opening of the National Theatre's landmark production of Medea, before the Nurse's devastating opening monologue unfolds: a woman standing at the edge of catastrophe, unable to stop what she already knows is coming. Set against a world of exile, betrayal, and a grief that has curdled, quietly and inevitably, into fury, this is one of the greatest openings in all of Greek theatre — and one of the greatest performances in the National Theatre.
The Opening Monologue
The play begins not with Medea herself, but with the woman who serves her — who has watched everything, who knows everything, and who can already feel the temperature of what is about to happen. The Nurse's opening speech is a masterpiece of dramatic architecture: a story told backwards, beginning with the present catastrophe and spiralling back through Medea's journey from her homeland — the betrayal of her father, the murder of her brother, the stolen golden fleece, exile in Corinth — and arriving, finally, at this terrible morning.
Jason has left. He remarries today. And Medea, who gave up everything — country, family, blood — for a man who has now discarded her, is locked in her room. Not eating. Not sleeping. Snarling like a lioness. And the Nurse, who knows her, who has nursed her sons, can only whisper what she fears the most: "She will turn a bloody hand to her own house."
It is, in five words, the entire play. And it lands like a stone dropped into still water — the ripples spreading outward to the audience, who suddenly understand, with a cold and sickening clarity, exactly where this is going.
Helen McCrory's Medea was the National Theatre's first ever production of the play in its fifty-year history — a historic milestone, and one that generated some of the most rapturous critical responses in recent memory. Her performance as Medea — full of fury, intelligent analytical insight, and soul-tearing, howling rage — was described by The Daily Telegraph as "thrilling and merciless — the performance of her career."
But it is this opening — before Medea herself appears, before the rage fully ignites — that sets the entire production on its course. The Nurse's monologue is a masterpiece of dread: the story of a woman who loved too much, gave too much, and is now standing at the edge of something no one can pull her back from.
Michaela Coel — herself a writer and performer who has explored betrayal, fury, and female agency with shattering directness — is the perfect guide into this world.
About the Production
The National Theatre's Medea, directed by Carrie Cracknell, is the first ever NT production of the play in the company's fifty-year history. The production features music by Will Gregory and Alison Goldfrapp. It is available to stream in full on National Theatre at Home.
Design by Tom Scutt.
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
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#HelenMcCrory #Medea #MichaelaCoel #NationalTheatre #NTatHome #GreekTheatre #EuripidesModern
Director Anthony Lau, designer Georgia Lowe & choreographer Aline David reveal how Man and Boy came to life at the National Theatre.
Stream now on National Theatre at Home on ntathome.com/man-and-boy
In his National Theatre debut, director Anthony Lau (The Crucible,) brings a sharp, contemporary interpretation to Terence Rattigan’s tale of paternity and corruption.
Featuring Ben Daniels (The Normal Heart) and Laurie Kynaston (Long Day’s Journey into Night) as father and son, in what Time Out describes as ‘the performance of the year’, this critically acclaimed production is available to stream online on National Theatre at Home.
A production from National Theatre.
Photography: Manuel Harlan
Set and Costume Designer: Georgia Lowe
The Creative Team
Anthony Lau directs in his National Theatre debut, bringing a sharp contemporary edge to Rattigan's razor-sharp play set against the glamour and impending collapse of 1930s New York. Joining Daniels and Kynaston are Phoebe Campbell as Carol Penn, Isabella Laughland as Countess Antonescu, Malcolm Sinclair as Mark Herries, Leo Wan as David Beeston, and Nick Fletcher as Sven Johnson. The creative team includes set and costume designer Georgia Lowe, lighting designer Elliot Griggs, composer Angus MacRae, and sound designer Giles Thomas.
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
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About the author
Terrence Rattigan was a British dramatist and screenwriter. He was one of England's most popular mid-20th-century dramatists. He wrote The Winslow Boy (1946), The Browning Version (1948), The Deep Blue Sea (1952) and Separate Tables (1954), among many others.
In 1990, the British Library acquired Rattigan's papers consisting of 300 volumes of correspondence and papers relating to his prose and dramatic works.
There was a revival of The Deep Blue Sea in 1993, at the Almeida Theatre, London, directed by Karel Reisz and starring Penelope Wilton. A string of successful revivals followed, including The Winslow Boy at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2001 (with David Rintoul, and subsequently on tour in 2002 with Edward Fox), Man and Boy at the Duchess Theatre, London, in 2005, with David Suchet as Gregor Antonescu, and In Praise of Love at Chichester, and Separate Tables at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, in 2006. His play on the last days of Lord Nelson, A Bequest to the Nation, was revived on Radio 3 for Trafalgar 200, starring Janet McTeer as Lady Hamilton, Kenneth Branagh as Nelson, and Amanda Root as Lady Nelson.
Thea Sharrock directed his rarely seen After the Dance in the summer of 2010 at London's Royal National Theatre. She directed a major new production of Rattigan's final and also rarely seen play Cause Célèbre at The Old Vic in March 2011 as part of The Terence Rattigan Centenary year celebrations. As well as this, Trevor Nunn marked the occasion with a West End revival of Flare Path at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, between March and June 2011, starring Sienna Miller, James Purefoy and Sheridan Smith.
In 2011, the BBC presented The Rattigan Enigma by Benedict Cumberbatch, a documentary on Rattigan's life and career presented by actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who, like Rattigan, attended Harrow.
A new screen version of The Deep Blue Sea, directed by Terence Davies, was released in 2011, starring Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston. In 2026, London's Royal National Theatre staged a revival of Man and Boy, directed by Anthony Lau and starring Ben Daniels and Laurie Kynaston.
#ManAndBoy #NationalTheatre #NTatHome #TerenceRattigan #BenDaniels
Ncuti Gatwa. Silk jacquard. Green carnations. The NT's costume department unpacks the queer joy, Victorian codes & stunning craft behind The Importance of Being Earnest, streaming on ntathome.com
A Trivial Comedy for Serious People
Being sensible can be excessively boring. At least Jack thinks so.
While assuming the role of dutiful guardian in the country, he lets loose in town under a false identity. Meanwhile, his friend Algy takes on a similar facade.
Unfortunately, living a double life has its drawbacks, especially when it comes to love.
Hoping to impress two eligible ladies, the gentlemen find themselves caught in a web of lies they must carefully navigate.
Max Webster (Donmar’s Macbeth; Life of Pi) directs a joyful and flamboyant reimagining of Oscar Wilde’s most celebrated comedy. Olivier Award-winner Sharon D Clarke (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; Doctor Who) is joined by Ncuti Gatwa (Doctor Who; Sex Education) and Hugh Skinner (W1A; Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again) in this hilarious story of identity, impersonation and romance.
A production from National Theatre.
Ten metres of silk jacquard. Eighty to ninety hours of hand craftsmanship. A shade of pink and a green carnation carrying a secret message that Oscar Wilde himself would have recognised immediately. This is what it takes to dress Algernon Moncrieff — and in this intimate behind-the-scenes film, the National Theatre's costume department opens its workrooms to reveal exactly how one of the most talked-about costumes of the season came to life.
The Vision: Queer Joy, Victorian Codes & Sensuality Over Structure
The production's guiding principle is pleasure — and the costume team have taken that mandate with joyful seriousness. "We want to give our actors and our audience as much delicious pleasure as possible in what we're making," says the design team. "It's storytelling, really."
From the very first scene, the production announces itself boldly: Ncuti Gatwa appears in a gorgeous flowing pink dress — a dream sequence costume that sits somewhere between the late Victorian era and an entirely imagined world of beauty and desire. "It's more like an expressive or emotional kind of outfit," explains the costume supervisor. "It's designed specially for his body — to work with his femininity, to play with the currents in his persona."
The colour alone — that specific, luminous shade of "Barbie popping pink" — required the full resources of the NT's in-house textile studio. Beginning with white silk jacquard, the team worked through multiple dye samples before landing on exactly the right tone for Ncuti's skin. The result: ten metres of custom-dyed silk, hand-cut, boned, bustled, and adorned with silk organza, tiny crystals, and hand-made silk flowers that catch the light at a distance and glow from across the Olivier stage.
The Craft: 80 Hours, Pattern by Pattern
The film takes viewers inside the workroom at every stage of the process — from the first cutting of pattern pieces to the final fitting. The dress is, in construction, four separate elements: bodice, skirt, petticoat, and bum roll, all eventually joined together. The bodice is boned with spiral bones to follow the slightly curved boning channels. The silk organza lining gives lift to the bustle without adding weight, while hidden net ensures the silhouette will survive the rigours of a long run.
Every seam, every pocket, every pattern match has been considered with extraordinary care. The jacket — in a gorgeous vivid green fabric inspired by Victorian aniline dyes, the revolutionary pigments that brought electric colour to the 19th century — is pad-stitched by hand at the lapels, drafted from scratch to a late 19th-century silhouette and then modernised.
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0:00 Intro
0:28 Four Weeks Before Opening
5:24 Two Weeks Before Opening
8:58 One Week Before Opening
10:24 The Language of Flowers
11:30 Ending
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
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#ImportanceOfBeingEarnest #NcutiGatwa #NationalTheatre #CostumeDesign #OscarWilde #TheatreCraft #BehindTheScenes
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Sophie Okonedo, Francesca Mills, Indira Varma & Madeleine Worrall. Five iconic women. Five unforgettable performances. The National Theatre's greatest leading ladies — all in one place.
This compilation celebrates five of the most extraordinary women to have taken centre stage at the National Theatre — five performances, five characters, five utterly different ways of being alive in front of an audience. From Greek tragedy to Gothic romance, from a one-woman comedy that broke box office records to Shakespeare's most complex heroines, this is a love letter to the leading lady in all her forms.
The Performances
00:00 Phoebe Waller-Bridge - Fleabag
Written and performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and directed by Vicky Jones, Fleabag is a rip-roaring look at some sort of woman living her sort of life — witty, filthy, and supreme. Following a box-office record-breaking run in cinemas in 2019, the one-woman show became a global phenomenon — and at its centre, Waller-Bridge's performance: confessional, funny, heartbroken, and utterly, dangerously direct. The New York Times called her "a name to reckon with". They were not wrong.
01:30 Indira Varma as Lady Macbeth
Indira Varma brought her formidable stage presence to the role of Lady Macbeth in a production that placed the audience inside the minds of the Macbeths, asking: are we ever really responsible for our actions? One of the most psychologically complex female roles in the Shakespeare canon — and in Varma's hands, one of the most human.
03:20 Francesca Mills as Ophelia in Hamlet
Francesca Mills won the Ian Charleson Award for her performance as Hermia at Shakespeare's Globe before being cast as Ophelia in Robert Hastie's Hamlet at the National Theatre in 2025. Her Ophelia provides the heart of an insightful production — a performance of extraordinary warmth, physical intelligence, and devastating emotional truth. A woman who feels everything too deeply, played by an actor who holds nothing back.
4:24 Sophie Okonedo as Cleopatra in Antony & Cleopatra
Simon Godwin directs Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo as Shakespeare's famous fated couple in his great tragedy of politics, passion, and power. Sophie Okonedo is electrifying as Cleopatra — playing her like a larger-than-life force of nature, yet also an extremely flawed individual: temperamental, jealous, and prone to histrionics. Okonedo makes it work — playing the most complex female character in Shakespeare's entire output. A performance that, in the words of the Evening Standard, has "a simmering chemistry and an air of danger."
5:18 Madeleine Worrall as Jane Eyre
Directed by Sally Cookson, Jane Eyre at the National Theatre starred Madeleine Worrall in the title role — staunch, fiery, tracing the character from uncontrolled childhood passion to adult interiority. The production was a total thrill-ride — an incredibly inventive staging on a bare-bones stage, with Worrall carrying the entire production with enormous emotional range, playing Jane from newborn baby through to adulthood.
Theatre has always belonged to the women who refuse to be small. Fleabag. Lady Macbeth. Ophelia. Cleopatra. Jane Eyre. Five characters from wildly different worlds, united by the same irreducible quality: a refusal to be defined, contained, or silenced by the world around them. And five actors who brought them to life on one of the world's greatest stages with courage, intelligence, and complete, unguarded commitment.
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
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Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
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#LeadingLadies #NationalTheatre #PhoebeWallerBridge #SophieOkonedo #FrancescaMills #NTatHome #WomenInTheatre
Look a little closer. Rachel Adedeji performs 'Our Lady of the Underground' in @Hadestown — the 8x Tony Award-winning musical. West End's Lyric Theatre, booking to June 2027.
Head to the National Theatre website for more info and tickets. → nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/hadestown/
Write what you've never told anyone." David Eldridge reveals the inspiration, craft & secrets behind END at the National Theatre — and the trilogy of a lifetime. Writer's Portrait.
"I wanted it to be almost cosmic — to really be about some of the brass tacks of what it is to be human." David Eldridge has spent 30 years writing plays. And END, the final instalment of his trilogy for the National Theatre, is his most ambitious, most personal, and most profoundly felt work yet. In this intimate Writer's Portrait, he talks with extraordinary candour about the birth of the trilogy, the 18 months it took to find the idea for End, the devastating simplicity of its starting point — and what drove him to write a play about dying that is, above all else, about living.
The Trilogy: Beginning, Middle, End
END is the third play in a trilogy that has unfolded over years, each one examining a key crunch moment in a long-term relationship. Beginning opens with a woman at a party's end saying to a man she has just met: "I wanted you to stay." Middle opens ten years later with a wife saying to her husband: "I'm not sure I love you anymore." And End — ten years further still — opens with a man saying to his long-term partner: "I don't want any more treatment."
Each play, Eldridge explains, can be experienced individually. But together, they work like a triptych — three panels of a single painting, each incomplete without the others. He knew he couldn't write Middle until he had an idea for End. And finding that idea took eighteen months. "When I had it," he says, "I thought — oh, thank God. Now I can write the other one."
The Challenge of End
The central difficulty was this: Eldridge did not want to write a deathbed play. The other two plays, he says, are so full of life — and End had to be full of life too. The breakthrough came when he found the right starting place: not how you die, but how you choose to live the rest of your life. And in a marriage, who that life belongs to.
Clive Owen plays Alfie — and Eldridge's favourite moment in the play is not a line of dialogue, but an action. Alfie hears news from his wife that is totally devastating. And he lets his walking stick fall. It hits the floor with a small clatter. "When I watched that in the theatre," Eldridge says quietly, "it's a devastating moment. You can feel the ripple of it."
On Becoming a Writer
Eldridge traces his path to playwriting back to a GCSE drama class, a teacher called Ruth Pryor, and an improvisation exercise he had never tried before — and discovered he was good at. Overnight, he went from being a history and politics person to someone who wanted to do drama and nothing else. The school play that year was The Crucible. He would never have gone near it otherwise.
Now a part-time lecturer at Birkbeck, he returns year after year to the same question from students: "I don't know what to write about." His answer is always the same: "What do you know that you have never told someone?" The thing you have kept secret — for a good reason. Write that. "There's something about telling a secret, about being unburdened," he says. "When you finally have the opportunity to come out with it — it's very liberating."
On Craft and Belief
Thirty years in, the blank page is still terrifying — and rightly so, he says. He describes himself as an actor's writer: someone who writes in three dimensions, trusting that the text will only fully reveal itself when actors are on their feet in a real space. And his most consistent piece of advice to himself and to others is the hardest to hear: write the best thing you can, because you believe in it. Not for money. Not for recognition. Just: write the best thing you bloody can. "I wish someone had told me that," he says. "And I wish, when people did, that I'd listened."
#DavidEldridge #WritersPortrait #NationalTheatre #Playwriting #END #NewWriting #TheatreEducation #nationaltheatreathome
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
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Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
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About David Eldridge
Hamlet is streaming worldwide from 18 June on ntathome.com
'The play's the thing'
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Are you watching closely?
Olivier Award-winner Hiran Abeysekera (The Father and the Assassin, Life of Pi) is Hamlet in this fearless, contemporary take on Shakespeare’s famous tragedy.
Trapped between duty and doubt, surrounded by power and privilege, young Prince Hamlet dares to ask the ultimate question–you know the one.
National Theatre Deputy Artistic Director, Robert Hastie (Standing at the Sky’s Edge, Operation Mincemeat) directs this sharp, stylish and darkly funny reimagining.
A production from National Theatre.
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
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Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
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About the Author
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" or simply "the Bard". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted
#williamshakespeare #theatre #nationaltheatre #nationaltheatrelive #london #fullshow #trailer #trailers #teaser #Broadway #WestEnd #shakespeare
Inter Alia is currently streaming internationally on ntathome.com. Streaming from 7 July in the UK.
Jessica Parks is a judge, a mother, a wife, a friend. Her career exists inter alia (among other things). How will one unthinkable event pull into question all aspects of her life?
Following the global phenomenon, Prima Facie, Suzie Miller and Justin Martin reunite with this searing examination of modern motherhood and masculinity. This ‘simply superb’ (Financial Times) play features Olivier award-winning Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl, Saltburn) and music from Erin Le Count and Jakwob.
This ★★★★★ ‘raw, nuanced must-see' (Radio Times) is available to stream internationally. It will be streaming from 7 July in the UK.
Currently playing a strictly limited West End run at the Wyndham's Theatre until 20 June.
A production from National Theatre.
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
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Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
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About Inter Alia
A searing new play from the team behind Prima Facie
Jessica Parks is smart, compassionate, a true maverick at the top of her career as an eminent London Crown Court Judge. At work she’s changing and challenging the system one case at a time. But behind the robe, Jessica is a karaoke fiend, a loving wife and a supportive parent.
While managing the impossible juggling act faced by every working mother, an event threatens to throw her life completely off balance. Can she hold her family upright?
Rosamund Pike (Saltburn) makes her National Theatre debut as Jessica. Writer Suzie Miller and director Justin Martin reunite following their global phenomenon Prima Facie with this searing examination of modern masculinity and motherhood.
About Suzie Miller
Suzie Miller is a contemporary international playwright, screenwriter and author, drawn to complex human stories often exploring injustice. Her plays have been produced in over 40 productions around the world and won multiple prestigious awards. Her one-woman stage play ‘Prima Facie’ won an Olivier Award for Best New Play and an Olivier and Tony Award for actress Jodie Comer who performed in the West End and Broadway productions. It has been translated into over 20 languages, produced all over the world and also published as a novel in various countries.
Miller is currently under commission with several new plays, alongside film and television projects and ‘Inter Alia’, starring Rosamund Pike.
#suziemiller #rosamundpike #interalia #nationaltheatre #nationaltheatrelive #livetheater
Watch now, Tom Hiddleston, Kate Fleetwood, Asa Butterfield & more read poetry live on the National Theatre stage, Allie Esiri hosts and Chris Riddell draws.
This event was performed on the Olivier stage, National Theatre, London on Friday 17 March 2023.
Words have always been one of humanity's most powerful tools — for beauty, for solidarity, for refusing to look away. In this extraordinary evening of poetry on the stage of the National Theatre, some of Britain's most beloved actors gather to read poems that speak to the enduring strength of the human spirit, in a night of live performance that is as moving as anything the NT's stages have witnessed.
Hosted by anthologist and poet Allie Esiri — compiler of the celebrated A Poem for Every Day of the Year — the evening brings together Tom Hiddleston, Helena Bonham Carter, Asa Butterfield, Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, Kate Fleetwood, and Dária Plahtíy for an hour of poetry that reminds us, above all else, why words matter. While the poets read, illustrator and Children's Laureate Chris Riddell drew live on stage — creating artwork in real time as each poem filled the air.
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Text POETRY to 70150 to donate £10.
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Or visit DEC.org.uk/Ukraine to donate online. *
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
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Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
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About the National Theatre Archive
The National Theatre’s Archive holds all the organisation’s creative, technical and business records. It covers the movement to found the theatre and documents every production from opening night in 1963 right up to the present day.
About Allie Esiri
Allie Esiri is one of Britain's most passionate and imaginative advocates for poetry — the curator behind some of the most loved poetry anthologies of recent years.
#nationaltheatre #nationaltheatreathome #poetryfroverydayoftheyear #learning #artsed #artseducation #poetry #poetrylovers #poetry #poem #poems #TomHiddleston #HelenaBonhamCarter #NationalTheatre #Poetry #AllieEsiri
1930s New York. An empire crumbling. A father with nowhere left to run. Ben Daniels & Laurie Kynaston in Terence Rattigan's Man and Boy. Stream now on National Theatre at Home on ntathome.com/man-and-boy
In his National Theatre debut, director Anthony Lau (The Crucible,) brings a sharp, contemporary interpretation to Terence Rattigan’s tale of paternity and corruption.
Featuring Ben Daniels (The Normal Heart) and Laurie Kynaston (Long Day’s Journey into Night) as father and son, in what Time Out describes as ‘the performance of the year’, this critically acclaimed production is available to stream online on National Theatre at Home.
A production from National Theatre.
Photography: Manuel Harlan
Set and Costume Designer: Georgia Lowe
The Creative Team
Anthony Lau directs in his National Theatre debut, bringing a sharp contemporary edge to Rattigan's razor-sharp play set against the glamour and impending collapse of 1930s New York. Joining Daniels and Kynaston are Phoebe Campbell as Carol Penn, Isabella Laughland as Countess Antonescu, Malcolm Sinclair as Mark Herries, Leo Wan as David Beeston, and Nick Fletcher as Sven Johnson. The creative team includes set and costume designer Georgia Lowe, lighting designer Elliot Griggs, composer Angus MacRae, and sound designer Giles Thomas.
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
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About the author
Terrence Rattigan was a British dramatist and screenwriter. He was one of England's most popular mid-20th-century dramatists. He wrote The Winslow Boy (1946), The Browning Version (1948), The Deep Blue Sea (1952) and Separate Tables (1954), among many others.
In 1990, the British Library acquired Rattigan's papers consisting of 300 volumes of correspondence and papers relating to his prose and dramatic works.
There was a revival of The Deep Blue Sea in 1993, at the Almeida Theatre, London, directed by Karel Reisz and starring Penelope Wilton. A string of successful revivals followed, including The Winslow Boy at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2001 (with David Rintoul, and subsequently on tour in 2002 with Edward Fox), Man and Boy at the Duchess Theatre, London, in 2005, with David Suchet as Gregor Antonescu, and In Praise of Love at Chichester, and Separate Tables at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, in 2006. His play on the last days of Lord Nelson, A Bequest to the Nation, was revived on Radio 3 for Trafalgar 200, starring Janet McTeer as Lady Hamilton, Kenneth Branagh as Nelson, and Amanda Root as Lady Nelson.
Thea Sharrock directed his rarely seen After the Dance in the summer of 2010 at London's Royal National Theatre. She directed a major new production of Rattigan's final and also rarely seen play Cause Célèbre at The Old Vic in March 2011 as part of The Terence Rattigan Centenary year celebrations. As well as this, Trevor Nunn marked the occasion with a West End revival of Flare Path at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, between March and June 2011, starring Sienna Miller, James Purefoy and Sheridan Smith.
In 2011, the BBC presented The Rattigan Enigma by Benedict Cumberbatch, a documentary on Rattigan's life and career presented by actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who, like Rattigan, attended Harrow.
A new screen version of The Deep Blue Sea, directed by Terence Davies, was released in 2011, starring Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston. In 2026, London's Royal National Theatre staged a revival of Man and Boy, directed by Anthony Lau and starring Ben Daniels and Laurie Kynaston.
#ManAndBoy #NationalTheatre #NTatHome #TerenceRattigan #BenDaniels
Hugh Jackman, Audra McDonald, Sara Bareilles & more. Six show-stopping musical theatre vocals — all streaming now on National Theatre at Home. This is what world-class sounds like.
Stream these hit musicals now at ntathome.com
What does world-class musical theatre sound like? It sounds like this. This compilation brings together six of the most extraordinary vocal performances available to stream right now on National Theatre at Home — spanning Oklahoma!, Waitress, My Fair Lady, Next to Normal, Hex, and The Little Big Things — performed by some of the biggest names in musical theatre on both sides of the Atlantic. A love letter to the human voice, and to the art form that uses it better than any other.
Where to Watch These Shows
Every production featured in this compilation is available to stream in full on National Theatre at Home — the NT's streaming platform bringing world-class theatre directly to your screen. New titles are added monthly.
#NationalTheatreAtHome #MusicalTheatre #HughJackman #AudraMcDonald #NationalTheatre
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
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Director Anthony Lau, designer Georgia Lowe & choreographer Aline David reveal how Man and Boy came to life at the National Theatre.
Stream now on National Theatre at Home on ntathome.com/man-and-boy
In his National Theatre debut, director Anthony Lau (The Crucible,) brings a sharp, contemporary interpretation to Terence Rattigan’s tale of paternity and corruption.
Featuring Ben Daniels (The Normal Heart) and Laurie Kynaston (Long Day’s Journey into Night) as father and son, in what Time Out describes as ‘the performance of the year’, this critically acclaimed production is available to stream online on National Theatre at Home.
A production from National Theatre.
Photography: Manuel Harlan
Set and Costume Designer: Georgia Lowe
The Creative Team
Anthony Lau directs in his National Theatre debut, bringing a sharp contemporary edge to Rattigan's razor-sharp play set against the glamour and impending collapse of 1930s New York. Joining Daniels and Kynaston are Phoebe Campbell as Carol Penn, Isabella Laughland as Countess Antonescu, Malcolm Sinclair as Mark Herries, Leo Wan as David Beeston, and Nick Fletcher as Sven Johnson. The creative team includes set and costume designer Georgia Lowe, lighting designer Elliot Griggs, composer Angus MacRae, and sound designer Giles Thomas.
--
We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre
National Theatre TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nationaltheatre
National Theatre Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalTheatre
National Theatre Live Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ntlive
National Theatre Live Twitter: https://twitter.com/NTLive
About the author
Terrence Rattigan was a British dramatist and screenwriter. He was one of England's most popular mid-20th-century dramatists. He wrote The Winslow Boy (1946), The Browning Version (1948), The Deep Blue Sea (1952) and Separate Tables (1954), among many others.
In 1990, the British Library acquired Rattigan's papers consisting of 300 volumes of correspondence and papers relating to his prose and dramatic works.
There was a revival of The Deep Blue Sea in 1993, at the Almeida Theatre, London, directed by Karel Reisz and starring Penelope Wilton. A string of successful revivals followed, including The Winslow Boy at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2001 (with David Rintoul, and subsequently on tour in 2002 with Edward Fox), Man and Boy at the Duchess Theatre, London, in 2005, with David Suchet as Gregor Antonescu, and In Praise of Love at Chichester, and Separate Tables at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, in 2006. His play on the last days of Lord Nelson, A Bequest to the Nation, was revived on Radio 3 for Trafalgar 200, starring Janet McTeer as Lady Hamilton, Kenneth Branagh as Nelson, and Amanda Root as Lady Nelson.
Thea Sharrock directed his rarely seen After the Dance in the summer of 2010 at London's Royal National Theatre. She directed a major new production of Rattigan's final and also rarely seen play Cause Célèbre at The Old Vic in March 2011 as part of The Terence Rattigan Centenary year celebrations. As well as this, Trevor Nunn marked the occasion with a West End revival of Flare Path at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, between March and June 2011, starring Sienna Miller, James Purefoy and Sheridan Smith.
In 2011, the BBC presented The Rattigan Enigma by Benedict Cumberbatch, a documentary on Rattigan's life and career presented by actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who, like Rattigan, attended Harrow.
A new screen version of The Deep Blue Sea, directed by Terence Davies, was released in 2011, starring Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston. In 2026, London's Royal National Theatre staged a revival of Man and Boy, directed by Anthony Lau and starring Ben Daniels and Laurie Kynaston.
#ManAndBoy #NationalTheatre #NTatHome #TerenceRattigan #BenDaniels
Siobhán McSweeney takes us backstage at Playboy of the Western World at the National Theatre Meet Me at Stage Door gives exclusive access to actors' dressing rooms and pre-show routines — filmed in the final moments before the call to start the show.
Balaclavas, beatled linen, bog oak jewellery, a hag stone, frankincense, a champagne club on Saturday nights, and a dedication to Clive Owen — this is Siobhán McSweeney's pre-show routine, and it is absolutely, completely, gloriously her own. In this irresistible episode of the National Theatre's Meet Me at Stage Door series, we follow Siobhán McSweeney — playing the Widow Quinn in J.M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World at the National Theatre — from the Yellow Brick Road corridor to the wings, via the best dressing room view in the building, a costume that looks like Vivienne Westwood but isn't, and a very firm position on lucky objects.Funny, frank, fiercely intelligent, and with a story about Olivia Colman wandering into the communal dressing room on England People Very Nice that you will not soon forget — this is backstage theatre at its absolute best.
About the show: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/the-playboy-of-the-western-world/
Meet Me at Stage Door is a compelling and intimate documentary series from the National Theatre that pulls back the curtain on one of theatre's most charged and private spaces — the dressing room. Going beyond the polished performances seen from the auditorium, this unique series offers exclusive access to actors in the final, unguarded moments before they step into the lights, capturing the rituals, nerves, focus, and humanity that live just out of sight of the audience.
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We believe that great theatre sparks imagination and brings people together.
Every day we strive to make the world a better place through theatre; entertaining and inspiring audiences around the world, using our creativity, expertise and unique reach.
You’ll find us in theatres. In cinemas. In schools. And online.
--
Discover our work: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Broadcast to cinemas worldwide: https://www.ntlive.com/
Streaming online: https://www.ntathome.com/
Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NationalTheatre
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About The Playboy of the Western World at the National Theatre
J.M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World is one of the great masterpieces of Irish theatre, first performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1907 — where it famously caused riots. The National Theatre's production brings together an exceptional Irish cast including Siobhán McSweeney and Nicola Coughlan, and has been celebrated for its wit, its visual invention, and its fearless reimagining of the play's female characters.
This Meet Me at Stage Door film captures Siobhán McSweeney in the hour before curtain in a film that is as entertaining as anything on stage.
#SiobhanMcSweeney #MeetMeAtStageDoor #NationalTheatre #BackstageAccess #BehindTheScenes
Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear - the Musical
Who likes bears? Everyone likes bears! Well, not quite everyone... Mr Gum is a complete horror who hates children, animals and fun of any kind – so when a big bear called Padlock strolls into town, trouble can’t be far off. Can nine-year-old Polly and her band of misfit friends help Padlock escape the vill...
Follies
Follies is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The story concerns a reunion in a crumbling Broadway theatre, scheduled for demolition, of the past performers of the "Weismann's Follies", a musical revue (based on the Ziegfeld Follies), that played in that theatre between the world wars.
Creat...
Hadestown
In the warmth of summertime, songwriter Orpheus and his muse Eurydice are living it up and falling in love. But as winter approaches, reality sets in: these young dreamers can’t survive on songs alone. Tempted by the promise of plenty, Eurydice is lured to the depths of industrial Hadestown. On a quest to save her, Orpheus journeys to th...
Pinocchio
On a quest to be truly alive, Pinocchio leaves Geppetto’s workshop with Jiminy Cricket in tow. Their electrifying adventure takes them from alpine forests to Pleasure Island to the bottom of the ocean. This spectacular new production brings together the director of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and the writer of Matilda the Musical.
...
Follies
Follies is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The story concerns a reunion in a crumbling Broadway theatre, scheduled for demolition, of the past performers of the "Weismann's Follies", a musical revue (based on the Ziegfeld Follies), that played in that theatre between the world wars.
Creat...
A PACIFIST'S GUIDE TO THE WAR ON CANCER
A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer is an all-singing, all-dancing examination of life with a cancer diagnosis. This brand new musical takes you on a whistle-stop tour through five unconventional stories about cancer, confronting the highs and lows of the scariest word we know.
Bryony Kimmings creates ...
London scrubs up for the coronation. The thieves are on the make, the whores on the pull, the police cutting deals to keep it all out of sight.
Mr and Mrs Peachum are looking forward to a bumper day in the beggary business, but their daughter didn’t come home last night.
Mack the Knife is back in town.
A landmark of twentieth century musical the...
Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour
From the creator of Billy Elliot (Lee Hall) comes the uplifting and moving story of six Catholic school girls from Oban, let loose in Edinburgh for the day. Funny, raucous and heart-breaking, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour is adapted from Alan Warner’s brilliant novel about six young friends on the cusp of change. ...
A new musical inspired by Lewis Carroll’s iconic story,wonder.land is a coming-of-age adventure that explores the blurred boundaries between our online and offline lives.
Aly is struggling with all the pressures of being a teenager: family, school, friends and her own insecurities. Then she discovers wonder.land – a mysterious online world where, ...
When will be able to see our fave West End musicals again? The rolling cancellations continue as the National Theatre artistic director Rufus Norris and Nimax Theatres' owner Nica Burns warn that many theatres may not survive...
After the success of its transfer of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, still running in the West End, Sheffield Crucible will bring another award-winning musical premiere to London next year. Standing at the Sky’s Edge will transfer to the National Theatre’s Olivier in January 2021, following a return to Sheffield this autumn.
The battle is on for your votes in the run up to West End Eurovision 2019 including ‘The Best ident Movie’. From previous winner The Phantom of the Opera to new kid on the block Only Fools and Horses – The Musical, #StageFaves has brought together several of the video contenders to help you make up your mind.
There will be many a musical theatre fan secretly listening to the National Theatre cast recording of Stephen Sondheim’s legendary musical Follies at work today. Plus, it’s not long before the production returns to the venue on 12 February 2019. Here they come, those beautiful girls…
What originally started as a concept album, then a community project, has over the passing of many years, found itself a record-breaking New York production, currently playing at the National Theatre ahead of a Broadway run! HADESTOWN is taking the musical theatre world by storm and if these reviews are anything to go by, it's got a long life ahead of it!
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