Taking a group to see a production at the NATIONAL THEATRE on the Southbank means they experience London’s largest theatre complex.
As well as productions in three internationally renowned theatre spaces, in addition, backstage tours are available. The theatres are just a fifteen minute walk from TATE MODERN and a couple more minutes walk will bring you to Shakespeare’s GLOBE THEATRE.
The National Theatre building houses three separate theatres.
Olivier Theatre
Named after the theatre’s first artistic director, Laurence Olivier, this is the main auditorium, modelled on the ancient Greek theatre at Epidaurus. It has an open stage and a fan-shaped audience seating area for 1160 people.
Lyttelton Theatre
Named after Oliver Lyttleton, the National Theatre’s first board chairman, it has a proscenium arch design and can accommodate an audience of 890.
Dorfman Theatre
Named after philanthropist Lloyd Dorfman, the Dorfman is “the smallest, the barest and the most potentially flexible of the National Theatre houses . . . a dark-walled room” with an audience capacity of 400.
Dancing At Lughnasa by Brian Friel. From 6 April 2023
Harvest time in County Donegal, 1936.
Outside the village of Ballybeg, the five Mundy sisters battle poverty to raise seven-year-old Michael and care for their Uncle Jack.
During the Festival of Lughnasa, Pagan and Christian meet and collide. The sisters fight each other, love each other, dance, yearn and survive.
Brian Friel’s Olivier Award-winning play is an astonishing evocation of a family’s world on the brink of change.
The Motive & The Cue. A New Play By Jack Thorne. From 20th April 2023.
Sam Mendes directs a startling new play on the making of Burton and Gielgud’s Hamlet.
Why would the most famous movie star in the world choose to do a play which everyone already knows? And what lures us back to the same plays, year after year?
Richard Burton, newly married to Elizabeth Taylor, is to play the title role in an experimental new production of Hamlet under John Gielgud’s exacting direction.
But as rehearsals progress, two ages of theatre collide and the collaboration between actor and director soon threatens to unravel.
This fierce and funny new play by Jack Thorne offers a glimpse into the politics of a rehearsal room and the relationship between art and celebrity.
Dixon & Daughters. A New Play by Deborah Bruce. From 15th April 2023
If this house could speak
Mary has just been released from prison. She wants to come home and forget all about it but Briana has other ideas.
Over a tumultuous two days a family is forced to confront not just their past but themselves. Because even if you refuse to hear the truth, the truth doesn’t go away.
Róisín McBrinn (Artistic Director, Gate Theatre, Dublin, directs this powerful story of family and forgiveness by Deborah Bruce (The House They Grew Up In).
Dear England. A New Play by James Graham. From 10 June 2023.
It’s time to change the game.
The country that gave the world football has since delivered a painful pattern of loss. Why can’t England’s men win at their own game?
With the worst track record for penalties in the world, Gareth Southgate knows he needs to open his mind and face up to the years of hurt to take team and country back to the promised land.
Joseph Fiennes (The Handmaid’s Tale, The Mother) plays Gareth Southgate in this new play by James Graham (Best of Enemies, Sherwood). Following their acclaimed productions, Tammy Faye and Ink, he reunites with director Rupert Goold (Spring Awakening, Judy) for this gripping examination of both nation and game.