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The National Theatre Collection includes an expanding bank of learning resources. These include:
Check back regularly for updates, as we add more resources to this page and the production pages.
The learning resources are available in PDF format.
Download an introduction to the National Theatre Collection for Secondary School teachers. Find out which productions are available, when they were recorded, what genre they fit into and which age group they are best suited to.
Introduction for Secondary School Drama teachers
Introduction for Secondary School English teachers
Age recommendation: 14+ (themes of grief and loss)
Captured on 16th June, 2021 from the National’s Dorfman Theatre in London.
If you could spend eternity with just one precious memory, what would it be? A group of strangers grapple with this impossible question as they find themselves in a bureaucratic waiting room between life and death. Encouraged by enigmatic officials, they must sift through their past lives to choose their forever.
Adapted from Hirokazu Kore-eda's award-winning film, After Life is a new co-production with Headlong.
Age recommendation: 12+
This Old Vic production was recorded through National Theatre Live on 14th May 2019.
America, 1947. Despite hard choices and even harder knocks, Joe and Kate Keller are a success story. They have built a home, raised two sons and established a thriving business.
But nothing lasts forever and their contented lives, already shadowed by the loss of their eldest boy to war, are about to shatter. With the return of a figure from the past, long buried truths are forced to the surface and the price of their American dream is laid bare.
From the Old Vic, Jeremy Herrin directs Sally Field and Bill Pullman in Arthur Miller’s blistering drama.
Age recommendation: 15+ (strong language and adult themes)
Recorded through National Theatre Live on 27th July 2017 from the Lyttelton Theatre in London.
America in the mid-1980s. In the midst of the AIDS crisis and a conservative Reagan administration, six New Yorkers with interconnect lives grapple with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell.
This multi-award-winning revival of Tony Kushner’s two-part play is directed by Marianne Elliott, with a cast including Andrew Garfield, Nathan Lane, Denise Gough and Russell Tovey.
Age recommendation: 14+ (some strong, bloody images)
This archive recording was captured on 4th July, 2012.
In the unstable aftermath of a civil war, Creon, the new King of Thebes, asserts his authority by forbidding anyone from honouring the death of the traitor Polyneices. But Antigone, Polyneices' sister, will not obey.
When Creon's authority is challenged, a gripping conflict emerges between the power of an individual and the state.
Polly Findlay's electric 2012 production brings Sophocles' tragedy into the modern world as a gripping political thriller.
Age recommendation: 12+
Filmed through National Theatre Live on 6th December, 2018.
Caesar and his assassins are dead. General Mark Antony now rules alongside his fellow defenders of Rome. But at the fringes of a war-torn empire the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra and Mark Antony have fallen fiercely in love.
In a tragic fight between devotion and duty, obsession becomes a catalyst for war. Politics and passion are violently intertwined in Shakespeare’s gripping tale of power.
Age recommendation: 12+ (some mild language)
This National Theatre Production was filmed through National Theatre Live on 25 February, 2016.
With her father the Duke in exile, Rosalind and her cousin Celia leave their lives in the court behind them and journey into the Forest of Arden.
There, released from convention, Rosalind experiences the liberating rush of transformation. Disguising herself as a boy, she embraces a different way of living and falls spectacularly in love with Orlando.
Shakespeare’s glorious comedy of love and change, with Rosalie Craig as Rosalind. This fresh, funny and invigorating production of As You Like It, is directed by Polly Findlay.
Age recommendation: 12+
This co-production with Fuel Theatre was captured in the Dorfman Theatre on 20th June, 2017.
One day. Six cities. A thousand stories.
Newsroom, political platform, local hot spot, confession box, preacher-pulpit and football stadium. 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 always telling.
Barber Shop Chronicles is a heart-warming, hilarious and insightful new play that leaps from a barber shop in Peckham to Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos and Accra.
Age recommendation: 12+
This Bridge Theatre Production was filmed through National Theatre Live in January 2022.
With everything at stake, two young people and their dæmons find themselves at the centre of a terrifying manhunt. In their care is a tiny child called Lyra Belacqua, and in that child lies the fate of the future. As the waters rise around them, powerful adversaries conspire for mastery of Dust: salvation to some, and the source of infinite corruption to others.
Eighteen years after his ground-breaking production of His Dark Materials at the National Theatre, Nicholas Hytner returns to Pullman’s parallel universe and directs a gripping adaptation by Bryony Lavery.
Age recommendation: 14+ (contains nudity)
This Young Vic production was recorded through National Theatre Live from the Apollo Theatre in London’s West End on 22nd February, 2018.
On a steamy night in Mississippi, a Southern family gather at their cotton plantation to celebrate Big Daddy’s birthday. The scorching heat is almost as oppressive as the lies they tell. Brick and Maggie dance round the secrets and sexual tensions that threaten to destroy their marriage. With the future of the family at stake, which version of the truth is real – and which will win out?
Tennessee Williams’ searing, poetic story of a family’s fight for survival is a twentieth century masterpiece.
Age recommendation: 14+
Recorded through National Theatre Live on 30th June, 2011.
Ranyevskaya returns more or less bankrupt after ten years abroad. Luxuriating in her fading moneyed world and regardless of the increasingly hostile forces outside, she and her brother snub the lucrative scheme of Lopakhin, a peasant turned entrepreneur, to save the family estate. In so doing, they put up their lives to auction and seal the fate of the beloved orchard.
Set at the very start of the twentieth century, Andrew Upton’s new version of Chekhov’s classic captures a poignant moment in Russia's history as the country rolls inexorably towards 1917.
Age recommendation: 14+ (adult themes)
Captured on 17th March, 2014 from the National’s temporary theatre, The Shed, in London.
Meet Tracey Gordon. Friendship, sex, UK garage, school, teachers, periods, emergency contraception, raves, tampons, white boys, God, money. Friendship.
The more she learns about the world the less she understands. Michaela Coel plays Tracey in this one-woman play that recalls the last days of innocence before adulthood.
Originally developed with the Yard Theatre in association with the Bush Theatre, Chewing Gum Dreams is a one-woman play that recalls those last days of innocence before adulthood.
Age recommendation: 14+ (references to rape)
This archive recording was captured on 9th May, 2017.
Why is Justice blind? Is she impartial? Or is she blinkered? Friends take opposing briefs in a rape case. The key witness is a woman whose life seems a world away from theirs. At home, their own lives begin to unravel as every version of the truth is challenged.
Nina Raine’s powerful, painful, funny play sifts the evidence from every side and puts justice herself in the dock.
Consent received its world premiere in a co-production with Out of Joint at the National Theatre in April 2017.
Age recommendation: 12+
This Donmar Warehouse production was recorded through National Theatre Live on 30th January, 2014.
When an old adversary threatens Rome, the city calls once more on her hero and defender: Coriolanus. But he has enemies at home too. Famine threatens the city, the citizens’ hunger swells to an appetite for change, and on returning from the field Coriolanus must confront the march of realpolitik and the voice of an angry people.
Shakespeare’s searing tragedy of political manipulation and revenge, Coriolanus features an Evening Standard Award-winning performance from Tom Hiddleston in the title role, directed by the Donmar's former Artistic Director Josie Rourke.
Age recommendation: 14+ (intolerance of particular groups)
Filmed through National Theatre Live on 12th October 2022.
A witch hunt is beginning in Salem.
Raised to be seen but not heard, a group of young women suddenly find their words hold a terrible power. As a climate of fear spreads through the community, private vendettas fuel public accusations and soon the truth itself is on trial.
Raised to be seen but not heard, a group of young women suddenly find their words hold a terrible power. As a climate of fear spreads through the community, private vendettas fuel public accusations and soon the truth itself is on trial.
Age recommendation: 14+
This archive recording was captured in the Lyttelton Theatre on 17th March, 2015.
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 – and of his emperor father – but younger brother Aurangzeb holds a different vision for India's future. Now they fight ferociously for succession.
Originally performed at the Ajoka Theatre in Pakistan, Shahid Nadeem's epic tale of the dispute that shaped modern-day India and Pakistan is brought to life in Tanya Ronder's adaptation and Nadia Fall's stunning production.
Age recommendation: 14+ (contains references to suicide)
Recorded through National Theatre Live on 1st September, 2016.
A flat in Ladbroke Grove, West London. 1952. When Hester Collyer is found by her neighbours in the aftermath of a failed suicide attempt, the story of her tempestuous affair with a former RAF pilot and the breakdown of her marriage to a High Court judge begins to emerge. With it comes a portrait of need, loneliness and long-repressed passion. Behind the fragile veneer of post-war civility burns a brutal sense of loss and longing.
Terence Rattigan’s devastating masterpiece contains one of the greatest female roles in contemporary drama. Helen McCrory and director Carrie Cracknell reunited following the acclaimed Medea in 2014.
Age recommendation: 15+ (strong adult themes)
This National Theatre Production was filmed through National Theatre at Home on 17th May, 2023.
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) returns to Clean Break (Favour) to direct this powerful story of family and forgiveness by Deborah Bruce (The House They Grew Up In).
Age recommendation: 15+ (contains strong language, drug-taking)
Filmed through National Theatre Live in 2015.
Everyman is successful, popular and riding high.
When Death comes calling, he is forced to abandon his hedonistic life and embark on a frantic search to find a friend that will speak in his defence. But with Death close behind, his time is running out.
Chiwetel Ejiofor is Everyman, directed by Rufus Norris.
Age recommendation: 15+ (contains nudity and one scene of sexual violence)
Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller each play Victor Frankenstein and his creation in these two performances of Danny Boyle's smash-hit production. Written by Mary Shelley and adapted by Nick Dear.
Childlike in his innocence but grotesque in form, Frankenstein’s bewildered Creature is cast out into a hostile universe by his horror-struck maker. Meeting with cruelty wherever he goes, the friendless Creature, increasingly desperate and vengeful, determines to track down his creator and strike a terrifying deal.
Urgent concerns of scientific responsibility, parental neglect, cognitive development and the nature of good and evil are embedded within this thrilling and deeply disturbing classic gothic tale.
The production was a sell-out hit at the National Theatre in 2011, and the broadcast has since become an international sensation, experienced by almost half a million people in cinemas around the world.
Lesson Plan: Putting Frankenstein in Context
Lesson Plan: Comparing Different Performances
Lesson Plan: Analysing Theatre Craft in Frankenstein
Lesson Plan: Adapting a Novel for the Stage
Lesson Plan: Adapting Victorian Language
Age recommendation: 12+ (strong language and adult themes)
This National Theatre and Kiln Theatre (formerly known as Tricycle Theatre) co-production was filmed for the NT Archive in 2018.
On a Japanese beach, teenage sisters Hanako and Reiko are caught up in a storm. Reiko survives while Hanako is lost to the sea. Their mother, however, can’t shake the feeling her missing daughter is still alive, and soon family tragedy takes on a global political dimension.
Set in Japan and North Korea, Francis Turnly’s epic new thriller The Great Wave is directed by Indhu Rubasingham in a co-production with the Kiln Theatre.
Age recommendation: 12+
Recorded through National Theatre Live on 9th December, 2010.
Director Nicholas Hytner offers a detailed political, social and psychological context to Hamlet's dilemma: whether or not to avenge the death of his father.
Rory Kinnear plays Hamlet in this dynamic production of Shakespeare’s complex and profound play about the human condition. His performance earned him an Evening Standard Award.
Lesson Plan: Contrasting Hamlet's Soliloquies
Lesson Plan: Understanding Theatre Craft in the Play within the Play
Lesson Plan: Rewriting Ophelia's Soliloquy
Lesson Plan: Truth and Performance in the Play within the Play
Age recommendation: 8+ (mild threat)
This National Theatre Production was filmed for the National Theatre Archive in November 2022.
‘To be or not to be…’
Hamlet’s dad is dead. His uncle has taken over the kingdom and married Hamlet’s mum. The whole world feels like it’s turned upside down.
A ghostly encounter reveals a dreadful deed has been done. Should Hamlet take revenge?
‘That is the question.’
Join us for this energetic and engaging retelling of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedy.
Age recommendation: 14+
Recorded through National Theatre Live on 9th March, 2017.
Just married. Bored already. Hedda longs to be free…
Hedda and Tesman have just returned from their honeymoon and the relationship is already in trouble. Trapped but determined, Hedda tries to control those around her, only to see her own world unravel.
Ivo van Hove, one of the world’s most exciting directors, made his National Theatre debut with a modern production of Ibsen’s masterpiece. This vital new version by Patrick Marber features Ruth Wilson in the title role and Rafe Spall as Brack.
Age recommendation: 12+ (mild threat and some adult themes)
This National Theatre Production was filmed through NTAH in January 2023.
Deep in the wood, a lonely fairy longs for someone to bless.
When she is summoned to the palace to help the princess sleep, her dream turns into a nightmare and her blessing becomes a curse. Soon, she is plunged into a frantic, hundred-year quest to somehow make everything right.
Rufus Norris directs this vividly original retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale with music by Jim Fortune, book by Tanya Ronder, designs by Katrina Lindsay and choreography by Jade Hackett.
Age recommendation: 14+
Captured on 7th August, 2013 from the National’s temporary theatre, The Shed, in London.
Bullet doesn’t want to call a hostel home. Eritrean Girl was smuggled here in a lorry. Singing Boy dreams of seeing his name in lights and Garden Boy just wants to feel safe.
Homelessness amongst young people in the UK is at a record high, so when the big society doesn’t work – where do you go? An inner-city high-rise hostel, TargetEast, offers a roof.
Nadia Fall’s verbatim play used more than 30 hours of interviews to give a blistering insight into life inside a homeless hostel.
Age recommendation: 3+
Recording from the National Theatre Archive, 2015.
Bear's hat is gone. He loves his hat. He wants it back. He asks all the animals in the forest, but no one has seen it. WAIT! He has seen it somewhere...
Based on Jon Klassen’s children’s picture book classic, I Want My Hat Back features music by Arthur Darvill and a book and lyrics by Joel Horwood.
Age recommendation: 14+ (contains strong language)
Filmed through National Theatre Live in September 2022.
July 1940. After an aerial dog fight, Pilot Officer Jack Absolute flies home to win the heart of his old flame, Lydia Languish.
Back on British soil, Jack’s advances soon turn to anarchy when the young heiress demands to be loved on her own, very particular, terms.
Jack Absolute is a rollicking new comedy by Richard Bean (One Man, Two Guvnors) and Oliver Chris (Twelfth Night) and features a cast including Caroline Quentin (Jonathan Creek), Laurie Davidson (Guilty Party), Natalie Simpson (Three Sisters) and Kelvin Fletcher (Emmerdale).
Age recommendation: 12+ (occasional swearing)
Recorded through National Theatre Live on 8th December, 2015 as a co-production with the Bristol Old Vic.
Born into a life of struggle, the spirited Jane Eyre tackles life's obstacles head-on as she seeks to pursue her own path in the world. Faced with poverty, injustice and a bitter betrayal, the trailblazing Jane follows her heart to fight for freedom and fulfillment on her own terms.
Devised by the Company, Sally Cookson's adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's masterpiece is a vivid and breathtaking spectacle.
Age recommendation: 15+ (contains adult themes and drug misuse)
Recorded through National Theatre Live on 6th September, 2018.
Wild and single, Julie throws a huge party in her luxurious London house which rapidly descends into a fight for her own survival.
Fuelled by social division, August Strindberg’s masterpiece Miss Julie remains shocking and fiercely relevant in this new version by Polly Stenham set in contemporary London.
Age recommendation: 12+
This Bridge Theatre production was recorded through National Theatre Live on 22nd March, 2018.
Caesar returns in triumph to Rome and the people pour out of their homes to celebrate. Alarmed by the autocrat’s popularity, the educated élite conspire to bring him down. After his assassination, civil war erupts on the streets of the capital.
Nicholas Hytner’s production thrusts the audience into the street party that greets Caesar’s return, the congress that witnesses his murder, the rally that assembles for his funeral and the chaos that explodes in its wake.
Age recommendation: 12+
This Donmar Warehouse production was recorded through National Theatre Live on 3rd February, 2011.
An aged king decides to divide his kingdom between his three daughters, according to which of them is most eloquent in praising him. His favourite, Cordelia, says nothing. As Lear’s world descends into chaos, all that he once believed is brought into question. One of the greatest works in western literature, King Lear explores the very nature of human existence: love and duty, power and loss, good and evil.
The acclaimed Donmar Warehouse production of Shakespeare’s most harrowing tragedy, starring Sir Derek Jacobi and directed by Tony Award winning Michael Grandage (Red).
Age recommendation: 14+ (contains mature themes and references to racism)
This production is an archival recording captured in 2016.
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 tensions boil over. Tshembe, returned home from England for his father’s funeral, finds himself in the eye of the storm.
A family and a nation fall apart under the pressure to determine their own identity as this brave, illuminating and powerful play confronts the hope and tragedy of revolution.
Les Blancs marked the National Theatre debut of the multi-award-winning director Yaël Farber, whose productions include The Crucible (Old Vic) and the internationally-acclaimed Mies Julie and Nirbhaya.
Written eleven years after A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry’s final drama is an unknown masterpiece of the American stage and a highly theatrical search for the soul of post-colonial Africa.
Age recommendation: 12+
Recorded through National Theatre Live on 28th June, 2010.
Grace has agreed to marry Sir Harcourt in return for his financial support of her family. At a house party in her father's place, Harcourt's son Charles also falls in love with Grace. When his father appears on the scene, he has to convince him that there is a case of mistaken identity and he is somebody else. Then Lady Gay Spanker, a married woman also visiting at the house, is persuaded by Charles to seduce his father and thus divert his attention from Grace. Much confusion and scheming ensues.
Originally written by Dion Boucicault, Nicholas Hytner directs Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw in this a new version by Richard Bean about life, love and mistaken identity in 19th Century London.
Age recommendation: 12+
A new version by Justin Audibert and the company.
Originally staged as part of the National Theatre’s Shakespeare for younger audiences programme. This archival recording was captured in 2017.
Amid bloody rebellion and the deafening drums of war, Macbeth and his wife will stop at nothing to fulfil their ambition. Witchcraft, murder, treason and treachery are all at play in this murky world.
A bold contemporary retelling of one of Shakespeare’s darkest plays.
Age recommendation: 12+ (some gory imagery)
Recorded through National Theatre Live on 10th May, 2018.
Sleep no more...
The ruined aftermath of a bloody civil war. Ruthlessly fighting to survive, the Macbeths are propelled towards the crown by forces of elemental darkness.
Shakespeare’s most intense and terrifying tragedy is directed by Rufus Norris. Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
Age recommendation: 14+
Recorded through National Theatre Live on 4th September, 2014.
Terrible things breed in broken hearts. Medea is a wife and a mother, stricken with grief. For the sake of her husband, Jason, she’s left her home and borne two sons in exile. But when he abandons his family for a new life, Medea faces banishment and separation from her children. Cornered, she begs for one day’s grace.
It’s time enough. She exacts an appalling revenge and destroys everything she holds dear.
Helen McCrory takes the title role in Euripides’ powerful tragedy, in a new version by Ben Power, directed by Carrie Cracknell, with music written by Will Gregory and Alison Goldfrapp.
Age recommendation: 12+
Filmed through National Theatre Live on 8th September 2022.
Since the 1930s, the legendary family-run Hotel Messina has been visited by artists, celebrities and royalty.
When the current owner’s daughter falls for a dashing young soldier, the hallways are ringing with the sound of wedding bells.
However, not all of the guests are in the mood for love, and a string of deceptions soon surround not only the young couple, but also the steadfastly single Beatrice and Benedick...
Escape to the Italian Riviera with a cast including Katherine Parkinson (Home, I’m Darling, The IT Crowd) and John Heffernan (Dracula, She Stoops to Conquer).
Age recommendation: 12+
Recorded through National Theatre Live on 15th September, 2011.
Fired from his skiffle band, Francis Henshall becomes minder to Roscoe Crabbe, a small time East End hood, now in Brighton to collect £6,000 from his fiancée’s dad. But Roscoe is really his sister Rachel posing as her own dead brother, who’s been killed by her boyfriend Stanley Stubbers.
Holed up at The Cricketers’ Arms, the permanently ravenous Francis spots the chance of an extra meal ticket and takes a second job with one Stanley Stubbers, who is hiding from the police and waiting to be re-united with Rachel. To prevent discovery, Francis must keep his two guvnors apart. Simple.
Tony Award-winning James Corden plays Francis Henshall in the hilarious West End and Broadway hit.
Age recommendation: 12+
Recorded through National Theatre Live on 26th September, 2013.
Othello, newly married to Desdemona – who is half his age – is appointed leader of a major military operation. Iago, passed over for promotion by Othello in favour of the young Cassio, persuades Othello that Cassio and Desdemona are having an affair.
This acclaimed production of William Shakespeare’s play about the destructive power of jealousy was nominated for Best Revival at the 2013 Olivier Awards. Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear jointly won the Evening Standard Best Actor Award for their performances in the iconic roles of Othello and Iago.
Lesson Plan: Understanding Persuasion
Lesson Plan: Writing a Final Soliloquy for Iago
Age recommendation: 12+ (some strong language and adult themes)
This National Theatre Production was filmed through National Theatre Live in December 2022.
A bright, headstrong daughter of a senator; elevated by her status but stifled by its expectations. A refugee of slavery; having risen to the top of a white world, he finds that love across racial lines has a cost.
Wed in secret, Desdemona and Othello crave a new life together. But as unseen forces conspire against them, they find their future is not theirs to decide.
Clint Dyer (Death of England: Parts I, II and III; Get Up Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical) directs an extraordinary new vision for one of Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedies, with a cast that includes Giles Terera (Death of England: Face to Face), Rosy McEwen (The Alienist) and Paul Hilton (The Inheritance).
Age recommendation: 12+
This archive recording was captured at the National’s Dorfman Theatre on 8th and 9th March, 2022.
Alecky Blythe follows the success of London Road with her astonishing new verbatim play that tells the stories of a generation.
Created from 5 years of interviews with 12 young people from across the UK, Our Generation is a captivating portrait of their journey into adulthood.
Often too extraordinary to be fiction, this funny and moving play is for anyone who is – or has ever been – a teenager.
Age recommendation: 14+
This archive recording was captured from the National Theatre’s Olivier Theatre on 2nd September, 2021.
A new version of Philoctetes by Sophocles.
Philoctetes: once a celebrated wartime hero, now a wounded outcast on a desolate island.
When a young soldier appears, his hope of escape comes with suspicion. And as an old enemy also emerges, he is faced with an even greater temptation: revenge.
Kae Tempest, the astonishing writer, recording artist and performer, forges an epic new take on Greek legend.
Age recommendation: 7+
Recorded through National Theatre Live on 10th June, 2017 as a co-production with Bristol Old Vic Theatre.
All children grow up, except one.
When Peter Pan loses his shadow, headstrong Wendy helps him reattach it. In return, she is invited to Neverland, where Tinker Bell the fairy, Tiger Lily and the vengeful Captain Hook await. A riot of music, magic and make-believe ensues.
A delight for children and adults alike, Sally Cookson directs this wondrously inventive devised production of JM Barrie's classic.
Lesson Plan: Designing Neverland
Lesson Plan: Character Posters
Age recommendation: 15+ (contains strong language)
This National Theatre Production was filmed in March 2023.
After years of fierce focus on her political career, a politician turns her attention to her personal life.
The reappearance of a figure from her past shakes the foundations of her house and the beliefs that have underpinned her power.
As buried lust and loneliness surge to the surface, her actions threaten to destroy everything she has built.
Writer-Director Simon Stone (Yerma, Young Vic) reimagines Seneca’s famous tragedy in this striking new play, featuring Janet McTeer (Ozark, The Menu) and Assaad Bouab (Call My Agent, Bad Sisters) in his London stage debut.
Age recommendation: 14+
A co-production with the Royal Exchange Theatre, this archive recording was captured at the National Theatre’s Dorfman Theatre on 6th October, 2021.
On the set of a new film about Victorian artist JMW Turner, young actress Lou is haunted by an unresolved history. Meanwhile, in 1840 Londoners Lucy and Thomas try to come to terms with the meaning of freedom.
Moving between London past and present, we embark on a powerfully personal voyage through time.
Directed by Miranda Cromwell, this astonishing and fiercely political new play by Winsome Pinnock was named winner of the 2018 Alfred Fagon Award.
Age recommendation: 12+ (strong language and adult themes)
Filmed for NT Collection in March 2023 and available with English and Welsh subtitles.
Following their critically acclaimed productions Iphigenia in Splott and Killology, director Rachel O’Riordan reunites with Gary Owen to deliver his new play.
Romeo is a single dad hanging on tight. Julie is fighting to follow her dream of studying at Cambridge.
Two Welsh teens raised a few streets apart – but from entirely different worlds – crash into first love and are knocked off their feet. But at the crossroads to the rest of their lives, Julie’s family fears the worst in a world of unequal opportunity.
Age recommendation: 8+
A new version for younger audiences by Bijan Sheibani and Ben Power.
Originally staged as part of the National Theatre’s Shakespeare for younger audiences programme. This archival recording was captured in 2017.
This contemporary production sees a company of eight tell the most famous love story of all time, set against a vivid urban backdrop bursting with excitement, colour, dance and song.
A swift, contemporary celebration of Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Bijan Sheibani’s thrilling production brings Romeo and Juliet to life for a new generation.
Age recommendation: 12+
This film was captured in the empty Lyttelton Theatre, over seventeen days, during a global pandemic in November and December 2020.
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 new 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.
Age recommendation: 12+
The Seagull is part of the Young Chekhov trilogy of the playwright’s early work, adapted by David Hare. The trilogy opened to overwhelming acclaim at the Chichester Festival in 2015 and transferred to the National Theatre in 2016.
On a summer’s day in a makeshift theatre by a lake, Konstantin’s cutting-edge new play is performed, changing the lives of everyone involved forever.
Chekhov’s masterly meditation on how the old take revenge on the young is both comic and tragic, and marks the birth of the modern stage.
Age recommendation: 12+
Recorded through National Theatre Live on 29th March, 2012.
Hardcastle, a man of substance, looks forward to acquainting his daughter with his old pal's son, with a view to marriage. But thanks to playboy Lumpkin, he's mistaken by his prospective son-in-law Marlowe for an innkeeper, and his daughter for a local barmaid.
But while Marlowe can barely speak to a woman of quality, he's a charmer with those of a different stamp. And so, as Hardcastle's indignation intensifies, Miss Hardcastle's appreciation for her misguided suitor soars. Misdemeanours multiply, love blossoms, and mayhem ensues.
One of the great, generous-hearted and ingenious comedies of the English language, Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer offers a celebration of chaos, courtship and the dysfunctional family.
Age recommendation: 12+
This recording was filmed in 2023.
Shut Up, I’m Dreaming leans into the hopes and feelings we hold, and those we are forced to squash. Full of laughter, joy, grief and silliness, this is The PappyShow‘s love letter to a new generation.
Throughout 2022, artists from The PappyShow spent time with 100 students across 3 schools in Sunderland, Wakefield and Walsall to have conversations about dreams and ambition in an uncertain world.
The tour was directed by Kane Husbands and was based on the views, ideas and experiences of teenagers across England.
Age recommendation: 14+ (strong language and racist terms)
Recorded through National Theatre Live on 30th May, 2019.
Adapted for the stage by Helen Edmundson, Small Island follows three intricately connected stories. Hortense yearns for a new life away from rural Jamaica, Gilbert dreams of becoming a lawyer, and Queenie longs to escape her Lincolnshire roots. Hope and humanity meet stubborn reality as the play traces the tangled history of Jamaica and the UK.
Andrea Levy’s epic, Orange Prize-winning novel bursts to new life on the Olivier stage. A company of 40 tells a story which journeys from Jamaica to Britain, through the Second World War to 1948 – the year the HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury.
Age recommendation: 14+
This Young Vic production was recorded through National Theatre Live on 16th September, 2014.
As Blanche’s fragile world crumbles, she turns to her sister Stella for solace – but her downward spiral brings her face to face with the brutal, unforgiving Stanley Kowalski.
The fastest-selling production in Young Vic's history, Tennessee Williams’ timeless masterpiece is brought to life on the modern stage with an outstanding cast and creative team.
Age recommendation: 15+ (very strong language)
Recorded through National Theatre Live on 16th May, 2013.
It’s 1974, and Britain has a hung Parliament. The corridors of Westminster ring with the sound of infighting and backstabbing as the political parties battle to change the future of the nation.
During this era of chaos, when a staggering number of politicians die and age-old traditions are thrown aside, MPs find they must roll up their sleeves, and bend the rules, to navigate a way through the Mother of all Parliaments.
Enjoying two sold-out National Theatre runs, a NT Live broadcast in 2013, plus a West End transfer and UK tour, This House is a timely, moving and funny insight into the workings of British politics.
Age recommendation: 15+ (strong language & adult themes)
Recorded through National Theatre Live on 22nd September, 2016 from the Olivier Theatre in London.
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 theatre, The Threepenny Opera comes to the National Theatre in a bold new production.
Age recommendation: 12+
This co-production with Fuel Theatre was captured on 4th December 2019.
Nigeria, 1967. Lolo, Nne Chukwu and Udo are grieving the loss of their father. Months before, two ruthless military coups plunged the country into chaos.
Fuelled by foreign intervention, the conflict encroaches on their provincial village, and the sisters long to return to their former home in Lagos.
Anton Chekhov’s iconic characters are relocated to 1960s Nigeria on the brink of the Biafran Civil War in this bold adaptation by Inua Ellams.
Age recommendation: 14+ (strong language)
This archive recording was captured on 8th April, 2019 from the Lyttelton Theatre in London.
Now hiring: top girls wanted for prestige positions. Must be self-motivated go-getters with an appetite for success. No timewasters.
Marlene is the first woman to head the Top Girls employment agency. But she has no plans to stop there. With Maggie in at Number 10 and a spirit of optimism consuming the country, Marlene knows that the future belongs to women like her.
For the first time, the National Theatre stages Caryl Churchill’s wildly innovative play about a country divided by its own ambitions.
Age recommendation: 14+
This archive recording was captured on 31st July, 2018.
What happens when a land is robbed of its language?
Brian Friel’s modern classic is a powerful account of nationhood, which sees the turbulent relationship between England and Ireland play out in one quiet community.
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, replacing the Gaelic names with English. It is an administrative act with radical consequences.
Age recommendation: 9+
Recorded through National Theatre Live on 22nd January, 2015.
It's a dark and stormy night. The stars are out. Jim, the inn-keeper's granddaughter, opens the door to a terrifying stranger. At the old sailor's feet sits a huge sea-chest, full of secrets. Jim invites him in – and her dangerous voyage begins.
Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure of mutiny, money and murder is brought to life on the Olivier stage in a thrilling new adaptation by Bryony Lavery and directed by Polly Findlay.
Lesson Plan: Bringing Historical Characters to Life
Lesson Plan: Designing a Poster for Treasure Island
Lesson Plan: Making Treasure Maps
Lesson Plan: Time Travelling Pirate's Debate Club
Lesson Plan: Eating on Board a Pirate Ship
Lesson Plan: Roles of Women in the 18th Century
Age recommendation: 12+ (Some strong language and adult themes)
This National Theatre Production was filmed through National Theatre at Home in 2021.
In 1950s America, protests for racial equality erupt in the face of voter suppression.
On Broadway, Wiletta Mayer, a talented Black actress, begins rehearsals for a new play about racism – written and directed by two white men.
When Wiletta finds that her arguments to tell the truth of the story are dismissed, she decides to take action.
First staged over 60 years ago, Trouble in Mind is widely considered the masterpiece of actress and playwright Alice Childress. Nancy Medina directs Tanya Moodie in this wry and radical satire of racism in theatre.
Age recommendation: 12+
Recorded through National Theatre Live on 6th April, 2017.
A ship is wrecked on the rocks. Viola is washed ashore but her twin brother Sebastian is lost. Determined to survive on her own, she steps out to explore a new land. So begins a whirlwind of mistaken identity and unrequited love.
The nearby households of Olivia and Orsino are overrun with passion. Even Olivia's upright housekeeper Malvolia is swept up in the madness. Where music is the food of love, and nobody is quite what they seem, anything proves possible.
Simon Godwin directs this joyous new production with Tasmin Greig as a transformed Malvolia, in a new twist on Shakespeare’s classic comedy of mistaken identity.
Age recommendation: 12+ (some adult themes)
This Production was filmed through National Theatre at Home in 2021 and it is available with English and Welsh subtitles.
The retired sea captain yearning for his lost love. The landlady living in terror of her guests. A father who can no longer access his memories. A son in search of redemption.
As they awake to boiled eggs and the postman, the residents of a small Welsh village juggle old secrets and new realities.
Michael Sheen, Karl Johnson and Siân Philips feature in the acting company breathing new life into Dylan Thomas’ poetic masterpiece. Lyndsey Turner directs.
Age recommendation: 14+
This Young Vic production was captured from London’s West End on 26th March, 2015.
In Brooklyn, longshoreman Eddie Carbone welcomes his Sicilian cousins to the land of freedom. But when one of them falls for his beautiful niece, they discover that freedom comes at a price. Eddie’s jealous mistrust exposes a deep, unspeakable secret – one that drives him to commit the ultimate betrayal.
The visionary Ivo van Hove directs this stunning production of Arthur Miller’s tragic masterpiece about the American dream.
Age recommendation: 15+ (strong language and adult themes)
This Kiln Theatre Production was filmed for National Theatre at Home, on the 8 February, 2023.
A proper local legend. Married five times. Mother. Lover. Aunt. Friend. Alvita will tell her life story to anyone in the pub – there’s no shame in her game. The question is: are you ready to hear it? Because this woman’s got the gift of the gab: she can rewrite mistakes into triumphs, turn pain into parables, and her love life’s an epic poem. They call her The Wife of Willesden…
A play that celebrates the human knack for telling elaborate tales, especially about our own lives. Critically acclaimed, multi-award winning, best-selling author Zadie Smith‘s ‘irresistibly rambunctious’ (The Telegraph) The Wife of Willesden transports Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath to 21st Century Northwest London.
This bawdy, beautiful comedy which celebrates free expression and the human urge both to live stories and share them, is directed by Kiln Theatre Artistic Director Indhu Rubasingham, with an ensemble cast starring Clare Perkins in gives a ‘tour de force performance’ (New York Stage Review).
Age recommendation: 8+
A new version for young audiences by Justin Audibert.
Originally staged as part of the National Theatre’s Shakespeare for younger audiences programme. This archival recording was captured in 2018.
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 she uncovers her story – the girl who was once lost and then found.
This exciting new version of The Winter's Tale is the perfect introduction to Shakespeare: using colour, song and puppetry to tell this magical tale.
Age recommendation: 11+
This archive recording was captured on 9th May, 2017.
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. Combining live theatre and digital technology in dazzling new ways, wonder.land is brought to life on stage by an extraordinary creative team.
With stunning sets, costumes, video projection and lighting, and a score by Blur’s Damon Albarn, this is a musical like no other: an Alice for the online generation.
Age recommendation: 10+
This Wise Children Production was filmed at the Bristol Old Vic in 2022.
The epic story of love, revenge and redemption.
Rescued from the Liverpool docks as a child, Heathcliff is adopted by the Earnshaws and taken to live at Wuthering Heights. In their daughter Catherine, Heathcliff finds a kindred spirit and a fierce love ignites. But, when forced apart, a brutal chain of events is unleashed.
Shot through with music and dance, Emma Rice (Bagdad Cafe, Wise Children, Brief Encounter) transforms Emily Brontë’s masterpiece into a passionate, powerful and uniquely theatrical experience.
Age recommendation: 14+ (very strong language and sexual references)
This Young Vic production was recorded through National Theatre Live on 31st August, 2017.
A young woman is driven to the unthinkable by her desperate desire to have a child in Lorca’s classic tragedy about honour, family and female empowerment. Set in contemporary London, Piper’s portrayal of a woman in her thirties desperate to conceive builds with elemental force to a staggering, shocking, climax.
The theatre phenomenon sold out at the Young Vic and critics called it ‘an extraordinary theatrical triumph’ (The Times) and ‘stunning, searing, unmissable’ (Mail on Sunday). Billie Piper’s lead performance was described as ‘spellbinding’ (The Evening Standard), ‘astonishing’ (iNews) and ‘devastatingly powerful’ (The Daily Telegraph).
Billie Piper won an Evening Standard Best Actress award for her performance in Simon Stone’s radical production of Lorca’s achingly powerful masterpiece.
These activities are designed to support Key Stage 3 students as they watch National Theatre productions and include research, discussion, writing and creative tasks, most of which can be carried out in isolation if required. Some resources in the Productions section of this page are also appropriate for students in Key Stage 3.
