National Theatre

Tried and Tested

Theatre 

London Tide, a sprawling play with songs adapted for the National Theatre from Dickens’s last novel, drags on and fails to grip

Tried and Tested

Theatre 

In Nye, an epic play which resonates deeply today, Michael Sheen prowls the Olivier Theatre stage as the visionary father of the NHS, the Labour politician Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan

We love

Theatre 

Playwright Chris Bush, with former Pulp and The Longpigs band member Richard Hawley, has written a vital musical about Sheffield's giant housing estate, Park Hill

Tried and Tested

Theatre 

Lindsay Duncan leads a fine ensemble in the National Theatre’s revival of Dear Octopus, Dodie Smith’s pean to the family

Tried and Tested

Theatre 

Harriet Walter is fittingly terrifying in Alice Birch and Rebecca Frecknall's revival of suffocating family drama The House of Bernarda Alba

Tried and Tested

Musicals 

Lucy Kirkwood, Dave Malloy and Lyndsey Turner turn The Witches into a please-all musical with memorable songs, exceptional performances and clever magic

Preview

Dance 

Contemporary visual theatre returns to London this winter with a new collaborative project between MimeLondon and a number of venues in the capital

Tried and Tested

Theatre 

The Father and the Assassin tells the story of Nathuram Godse, the man who murdered Gandhi, within a compelling historical sweep through the run-up to India’s independence

Tried and Tested

Theatre 

Gillian Slovo’s verbatim play recounting the experiences of survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire is thorough, absorbing and sensitively handled at the National Theatre

Tried and Tested

Theatre 

Brid Brennan is compelling as the central character in Dixon and Daughters, a play about the consequences of male violence against women now at the Dorfman Theatre

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Theatre 

From the National Theatre to the West End: Lyndsey Turner's production of The Crucible is back on stage with a new cast including Milly Alcock and Brian Gleeson

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Theatre 

Fuelled by TV talent, Josie Rourke’s timely revival of Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa finds fresh relevance in our post-pandemic landscape

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Theatre 

Writer-director Simon Stone (Yerma), with a top-notch cast led by Janet McTeer, transposes the Greek myth of Phaedra to contemporary Britain

In the Know

Theatre 

Fay Ripley from Cold Feet fame adds sparkle to an otherwise ill-thought through class comedy at the National Theatre

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Theatre 

Clint Dyer’s slick production of Othello at the National Theatre starkly illuminates the systemic racism and misogyny in society

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Theatre 

Based on BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week, this stage adaptation of The Boy with Two Hearts details the heartrending struggle of Afghan refugees

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Theatre 

Samira Wiley (Orange Is the New Black) and Giles Terera (Hamilton) star in Lynette Linton’s mesmeric revival of Blues for an Alabama Sky at the National Theatre

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Theatre 

Director Simon Godwin teams up with designer Anna Fleischle to present a loud and glitzy Much Ado About Nothing, set in an Art Deco beachside hotel

Preview

Theatre 

In Middle, the second instalment of playwright David Eldridge's trilogy on love and relationships, attempts at relatability become distancing

In the Know

Theatre 

A moody, folky take on Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights comes to the National’s Lyttelton Theatre in the hands of Emma Rice’s Wise Children

Tried and Tested

Theatre 

Andrea Levy's epic tale of love, hope and sacrifice between Britain and Jamaica in the 40s returns after sold out premiere in 2019

Tried and Tested

Theatre 

Trouble in Mind, Alice Childress's cutting satire of racism in 1950s America, proves a play for the here and now in the National Theatre's engaging production

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Theatre 

Playwright Moira Buffini returns to the National Theatre with Manor, a thriller-esque state-of-the-nation drama starring Nancy Carroll and Shaun Evans

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Theatre 

Larry Kramer’s political and largely autobiographical Aids drama The Normal Heart is revived at the National Theatre in a production directed by Dominic Cooke

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Theatre 

East is East, Ayub Khan Din’s culture-clash comedy about a British-Pakistani family, comes to the National Theatre to mark its 25th anniversary

Preview

Theatre 

Award-winning playwright Winsome Pinnock provides poignancy and fury in her epic on slavery, legacy and representation

Essential

Theatre 

Kae Tempest’s Paradise, showing at the National Theatre under the direction of Ian Rickson, lends contemporary relevance to the Greek myth of Philoctetes

Essential

Theatre 

Dylan Thomas’s ‘play for voices’ is reframed and revived in a vibrant medley of poetry and memory with a shining performance from Michael Sheen

Essential

Theatre 

Writer Jack Thorne, director Jeremy Herrin and designer Bunny Christie join forces to bring Hirokazu Kore-eda’s tender movie After Life to the National Theatre’s Dorfman stage

In the Know

Theatre 

The National Theatre will reopen in June with Jack Thorne's adaptation of After Life and a Michael Sheen-led production of Under Milk Wood

We love

Theatre 

Clint Dyer and Roy Williams return to the National Theatre with Death of England: Delroy, an unflinching examination of being a black working-class man in Britain

In the Know

Kids 

For one year only, the National Theatre is staging a panto for Christmas. Dick Whittington is being performed live to a socially distanced audience