National Theatre
Katie Mitchell is an English theatre director and an Associate of the National Theatre. She has been described as "the closest thing the British theatre has to an auteur". Her career started at the Kings Head Theatre, progressing to Paines Plough and the RSC. Her productions have been described...
The National Theatre is the largest theatre-producing complex in the world. It stages over 20 productions a year to audiences of more than 600,000 people. Home to a vast range of activity, both on and offstage, we reach people around the world in many ways, including extensive education and...
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...
Acting requires a wide range of skill, from the ability to control your voice to adopting physical attributes. A stage actor will often be required to research a period of history or particular topic to bring a character to life. This collection aims to give an insight into what it is like to be...
There are references in some Shakespeare's plays to the vocal exercising of an actor before performance and the importance of enunciation and volume. In ancient Greek times, it was the greatest orators, those with the physical gift of a beautiful voice and a strong diaphragm, that were the actors...
War Horse is a thrilling and spectacular production based on the celebrated novel by Michael Morpurgo. The First World War is the backdrop for this tale of bravery, loyalty, and the extraordinary bond between a young recruit and his horse. Actors, working with astonishing life-sized puppets...
Western theatre has its roots in the theatre of Ancient Greece and the plays that originated there. This collection features videos and workpacks about Greek theatre and productions of Greek plays staged at the National Theatre, including a series of videos on the 2012 production of Antigone...
In this collection, leading playwrights explain some of the key elements of a well-written play, and discuss how they approach them in their own work. Simon Stephens, David Hare, Katori Hall, Matt Charman, Nell Leyshon, James Graham, Alia Bano, Richard Bean, Anders Lustgarten and Roy Williams...
Costumes are crucial to any production. They can be sewn from scratch, bought on the high street, or made by altering other clothes. In the National Theatre's Costume Department, a staff of designers, dyers, tailors and buyers work together to produce outfits for every character in every show.
The National Theatre Company gave it's first ever performance in 1963 of Hamlet, directed by Laurence Olivier and starring Peter O'Toole. Hamlet is one of the most performed, filmed and reinterpreted plays ever written. The Hamlet collection includes interviews with the artists from Nicholas...
A curated collection of audio and video content about British playwright Sarah Kane.
A cornerstone of European theatre, Anton Chekhov’s last play captures the dawn of a new era in its portrayal of the social and economic upheaval in Russia at the turn of the 20th Century. This collection contains resources about Howard Davies’ 2011 production of the play, including interviews...
This is a collection of films on the 2003 National Theatre production of His Dark Materials, based on the books by Philip Pullman. The collection includes videos on fight direction, set design and costume design as well as an audio recording of platform event with Philip Pullman and an...
Handspring created the puppets for National Theatre productions War Horse and Or You Could Kiss Me. The company (run by Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones) was founded in South Africa in 1981, and is today arguably one of the greatest puppetry companies in the world. The National Theatre has a...
Scenic art describes the painted backdrops, murals and other created elements of a set. Scenic artists work with set designers, and are responsible for translating their vision into reality. Scenic artists are highly trained and posses many skills including traditional fine arts skills of...
A theatre set is constructed by a team of highly skilled tradesmen such as carpenters, plasterers and metal workers. They work with the set designer to replicate to scale the original model box and create the surfaces to be worked on by the scenic artists. Styles in scenery have evolved and it is...
First performed in 1977 at the Royal Festival Hall, Tom Stoppard and André Previn’s Every Good Boy Deserves Favour is a play for six actors and an orchestra. It focuses on Alexander Ivanov, a dissident falsely imprisoned in a Soviet mental hospital, and his roomate there, a schizophrenic...
The Silver Tassie is Sean O'Casey's anti-war play set during World War I. It starts in a Dublin tenement and follows Harry Hegan as he goes to war and has his life changed forever. This collection includes two films, one on Sean O'Casey and another on the Abbey Theatre's original rejection of the...
The Light Princess is a dark fairytale about grief, rebellion and the power of love. Once, in opposing kingdoms lived a princess and a prince who had lost their mothers. Althea, unable to cry, became light with grief and floated, and so was locked away. Digby became so heavy-hearted that he could...
This is a collection for the National Theatre's 2012 production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, based on the novel by Mark Haddon and adapted by Simon Stephens. Included in this collection is an interview with director Marianne Elliott and a short making of documentary.
To coincide with the National Theatre's production of 'The Light Princess' we partnered with IdeasTap invited teams of young filmmakers to create a short film in response to the show. Each team watched a preview performance, developed their ideas in a workshop and were mentored by professional...
Hair and makeup provide the finishing touches to the creation of a character. A team of makeup artists and wig makers take care of the actors' heads and bodies before and during every show. Capable of creating burns or scars, dreadlocks or beards, the wig and makeup team at the National Theatre...
A collection of five films exploring the key themes of Jane Eyre for GCSE students, with the director, cast and crew of the 2015 production.
Two sets of twins separated at birth collide in the same city but without meeting. Mistaken identities lead to confusion on a grand scale particularly for Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant Dromio. Consistently recognised by strangers, the visitors question their very selves as the turmoil...
Actors aren't the only way to portray characters on stage. A great deal of variety can be achieved through puppetry, which can represent and be made out of almost anything. Explore some of the key ideas behind puppetry with our Gyre & Gimble masterclasses.
This collection of films is the result of a creative collaboration between the National Theatre and the Royal College of Art. Students on the MA Visual Communications course at the Royal College of Art were given a variety of stimuli by the National Theatre, including attending a performance of...