National Theatre Archive: Faith, Hope & Charity

For generations, African men have gathered in barber shops to discuss the world. These are places where the banter can be barbed and the truth is...

Owen, the prodigal son, returns to rural Donegal from Dublin. With him are two British army officers. Their ambition is to create a map of the area,...

An African country teeters on the edge of civil war. A society prepares to drive out its colonial present and claim an independent future. Racial...

Wild and newly single, Julie throws a late night party. In the kitchen, Jean and Kristina clean up as the celebration heaves above them. Crossing the...

Considered by many to be the greatest tragedy ever written, King Lear sees two ageing fathers – one a King, one his courtier – reject the...

It’s 1786 and King George III is the most powerful man in the world. But his behaviour is becoming increasingly erratic as he succumbs to fits...

Playwright Clifford Odets' portrait of the Great Depression unfolds in the modest two-family home of Leo and Clara Gordon as misfortune strikes them...

A new version for younger audiences by Bijan Sheibani and Ben Power. Originally staged as part of the National Theatre’s Shakespeare for...

A perceptive and funny study about the fantasies, inhibitions and dreams of two frustrated and lonely middle-class matrons who set up competing...

For sixty years, Elizabeth II has met each of her twelve Prime Ministers in a weekly audience at Buckingham Palace, a meeting like no other in...

Graduate student Myrrha, upset that her professor refers to Ovid's Metamorphoses as "being about love", pushes him and suddenly he transforms into a...

In 1968 America, as two men fight to become the next president, all eyes are on the battle between two others: the cunningly conservative William F....

An ageing monarch. A kingdom divided. A child’s love rejected. As Lear’s world descends into chaos, all that he once believed is brought...

A new English adaptation of the classic French tragedy Phèdre by Jean Racine (1639-1699). It retells the ancient Greek tale of the wife of the...

Widowed Welsh mother Anna Loenowens becomes a governess and English tutor to the wives and many children of the stubborn King Mongkut of Siam. Anna...

Inspired by Lewis Carroll's iconic story, this coming-of-age adventure explores the blurred boundaries between our online and offline lives....

1659 Mughal, India. Two brothers, Dara and Aurangzeb, are both heirs to the Muslim empire. Dara, the crown prince, has the love of the people –...

Set in modern upper-crust Manhattan, an exploration of love and commitment as seen through the eyes of a charming perpetual bachelor questioning his...

A screenwriter gets conned out of selling a script to a Hollywood producer by his brother, who pitches his own idea for a movie. The damaged...

Perdita is a brave, intelligent and much-loved girl, but something is not quite right in her world. Join her on a journey through magic and mayhem as...