National Theatre Live is an initiative operated by the

Royal National Theatre The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. I ...

in London, which broadcasts live via satellite, performances of their productions (and from other theatres) to cinemas and arts centres around the world.

About

I grew up in Manchester in the 60s. If I had been able to see Olivier's National Theatre at my local cinema, I would have gone all of the time. :— Nicholas Hytner, director of the
Royal National Theatre The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. I ...
.

The programme began its pilot season in June 2009 with a production of '' Phèdre'', starring

Helen Mirren Dame Helen Mirren (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. ...

, which screened live in 70 cinemas across the UK. Two hundred more venues eventually showed the production internationally, resulting in a combined audience of around 50,000 people for this one performance. The second production, ''

All's Well That Ends Well ''All's Well That Ends Well'' is a play by William Shakespeare, published in the ''First Folio'' in 1623, where it is listed among the comedies. There is a debate regarding the dating of the composition of the play, with possible dates rangin ...

'', showed at a total of around 300 screens, and today, the number of venues that show NT Live productions has grown to around 700. With the exception of a Saturday matinee for ''Nation'', a Monday evening showing for '' London Assurance'', and a Tuesday evening showing for '' A Streetcar Named Desire'', all National Theatre Live productions have been broadcast on a Thursday evening, to avoid conflicting with cinemas' weekend schedules. Most venues screen the productions live as they are broadcast, but because of the time differences in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States venues in those countries show the recorded production some days later. Many venues also offer repeat screenings of popular productions which they term 'Encores'. Most productions broadcast are plays performed in repertory at the

, but works by other companies have been included. ''A Disappearing Number'' by Complicite was broadcast live from the Theatre Royal, Plymouth on 14 October 2010. The Donmar Warehouse's production of '' King Lear'', starring Derek Jacobi was broadcast live from Covent Garden on 3 February 2011. In the summer of 2013, a broadcast of ''Macbeth'' starring Kenneth Branagh and Alex Kingston was broadcast live from the Manchester International Festival on 20 July 2013. '' A Streetcar Named Desire'' starring Gillian Anderson was broadcast live from the

Young Vic The Young Vic Theatre is a performing arts venue located on The Cut, near the South Bank, in the London Borough of Lambeth. The Young Vic was established by Frank Dunlop in 1970. Kwame Kwei-Armah has been Artistic Director since February 201 ...

on 16 September 2014.

Live broadcasts

Live performances are broadcast live from the National Theatre (unless noted). They are certified differently from feature films.

Season 1

*'' Phedre'' – 25 June 2009 *''

'' – 1 October 2009 *''Nation'' – 30 January 2010 *''

The Habit of Art ''The Habit of Art'' is a 2009 play by English playwright Alan Bennett, centred on a fictional meeting between W. H. Auden and Benjamin Britten while Britten is composing the opera ''Death in Venice''. It premiered on 5 November 2009 at the Lytte ...

'' – 22 April 2010 *'' London Assurance'' – 28 June 2010

Season 2

*''

A Disappearing Number ''A Disappearing Number'' is a 2007 play co-written and devised by the Théâtre de Complicité company and directed and conceived by English playwright Simon McBurney. It was inspired by the collaboration during the 1910s between the pure mathe ...

'' – 14 October 2010 *'' Hamlet'' – 9 December 2010 *'' Fela!'' – 13 January 2011 *'' King Lear'' – 3 February 2011 *'' Frankenstein'' – 17 & 24 March 2011 *'' The Cherry Orchard'' – 30 June 2011

Season 3

*'' One Man, Two Guvnors'' – 15 September 2011 *'' The Kitchen'' – 6 October 2011 *'' Collaborators'' – 1 December 2011 *''Travelling Light'' – 9 February 2012 *'' The Comedy of Errors'' – 1 March 2012 *'' She Stoops to Conquer'' – 29 March 2012

Season 4

*'' The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'' – 6 September 2012 *''The Last of the Haussmans'' – 11 October 2012 *'' Timon of Athens'' – 1 November 2012 *'' The Magistrate'' – 17 January 2013 *'' People'' – 21 March 2013 *'' This House'' – 16 May 2013 *'' The Audience'' – 13 June 2013 (broadcast from the Gielgud Theatre in the West End) *''

Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...

'' – 20 July 2013 (broadcast from the Manchester International Festival)

Season 5

*''

Othello ''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...

'' – 26 September 2013 *'' Coriolanus'' – 30 January 2014 (broadcast from the Donmar Warehouse) *'' War Horse'' – 27 February 2014 – (National Theatre production broadcast from the New London Theatre in the West End) *'' King Lear'' – 1 May 2014 *'' A Small Family Business'' – 12 June 2014 *''

Skylight A skylight (sometimes called a rooflight) is a light-permitting structure or window, usually made of transparent or translucent glass, that forms all or part of the roof space of a building for daylighting and ventilation purposes. History Open ...

'' – 17 July 2014 (broadcast from Wyndham's Theatre in the West End)

Season 6

*'' Medea'' – 4 September 2014 *'' A Streetcar Named Desire'' – 16 September 2014 *''JOHN'' – 9 December 2014 *''Treasure Island'' – 22 January 2015 *'' Behind the Beautiful Forevers'' – 12 March 2015 *''

A View from the Bridge ''A View from the Bridge'' is a play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It was first staged on September 29, 1955, as a one-act verse drama with ''A Memory of Two Mondays'' at the Coronet Theatre on Broadway. The run was unsuccessful, and M ...

'' – 26 March 2015 ( The Young Vic production broadcast from Wyndham's Theatre in the West End) *'' The Hard Problem'' – 16 April 2015 *'' Man and Superman'' – 14 May 2015 *'' Everyman'' – 16 July 2015

Season 7

*'' The Beaux' Stratagem'' – 3 September 2015 *'' Hamlet'' – 15 October 2015 (broadcast from the Barbican Theatre) *'' Of Mice and Men'' – 19 November 2015 (broadcast from the Longacre Theatre on Broadway,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

) *''Jane Eyre'' – 8 December 2015 *'' Les Liaisons Dangereuses'' – 28 January 2016 (broadcast from the Donmar Warehouse) *''

As You Like It ''As You Like It'' is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has b ...

'' – 25 February 2016 *'' Hangmen'' – 3 March 2016 ( Royal Court production broadcast from Wyndham's Theatre in the West End)

Season 8

*'' The Deep Blue Sea'' – 1 September 2016 *'' The Threepenny Opera'' – 22 September 2016 *''

No Man's Land No man's land is waste or unowned land or an uninhabited or desolate area that may be under dispute between parties who leave it unoccupied out of fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dump ...

'' – 15 December 2016 (broadcast from Wyndham's Theatre in the West End) *'' Amadeus'' – 2 February 2017 *'' Saint Joan'' – 16 February 2017 (broadcast from the Donmar Warehouse) *'' Hedda Gabler'' – 9 March 2017 *'' Twelfth Night'' – 6 April 2017 *'' Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'' – 20 April 2017 (broadcast from The Old Vic) *''Obsession'' – 11 May 2017 (broadcast from the Barbican Theatre) *'' Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' – 18 May 2017 (broadcast from the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End) *'' Peter Pan'' – 10 June 2017 (performance was captured during its run at the National Theatre over the Christmas 2016/17 season) *''Salomé'' – 22 June 2017 *'' Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches'' – 20 July 2017 *'' Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika'' – 27 July 2017 *'' Yerma'' – 31 August 2017 (broadcast from The Young Vic)

Season 9

*'' Follies'' – 16 November 2017 * '' Young Marx'' – 7 December 2017 (production broadcast from the Bridge Theatre) * ''

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' is a three-act play written by Tennessee Williams. An adaptation of his 1952 short story "Three Players of a Summer Game", the play was written by him between 1953 and 1955. One of Williams's more famous works and his p ...

'' – 22 February 2018 ( The Young Vic production broadcast from the Apollo Theatre) * ''

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...

'' – 22 March 2018 (production broadcast from the Bridge Theatre) * ''

'' – 10 May 2018

Season 10

* ''

Julie Julie may refer to: * Julie (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the name Film and television * ''Julie'' (1956 film), an American film noir starring Doris Day * ''Julie'' (1975 film), a Hindi film by K. S. Sethumadhava ...

'' – 6 September 2018 * '' King Lear'' – 27 September 2018 ( Chichester Festival Theatre production broadcast from the Duke of York's Theatre) *''Allelujah!'' - 1 November 2018 * '' The Madness of George III'' – 20 November 2018 (broadcast from the

Nottingham Playhouse Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in 1948 when it operated from a former cinema in Goldsmith Street. Directors during this period included Val May and Fr ...

) *''

Antony & Cleopatra ''Antony and Cleopatra'' (First Folio title: ''The Tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The play was first performed, by the King's Men, at either the Blackfriars Theatre or the Globe Theatre in around ...

'' – 6 December 2018 *'' The Tragedy of King Richard the Second'' – 15 January 2019 (broadcast from the Almeida Theatre) *''I'm Not Running'' – 31 January 2019 *'' All About Eve'' – 11 April 2019 (broadcast from the Noël Coward Theatre) *''

All My Sons ''All My Sons'' is a three-act play written in 1946 by Arthur Miller. It opened on Broadway at the Coronet Theatre in New York City on January 29, 1947, closed on November 8, 1949, and ran for 328 performances. It was directed by Elia Kazan (t ...

'' – 14 May 2019 (broadcast from The Old Vic; due to a competing Broadway production then under way, North American streaming was postponed until a later date) * ''Small Island'' – 27 June 2019 *'' The Lehman Trilogy'' – 25 July 2019

Season 11

*'' Fleabag –'' 12 September 2019 (a Soho Theatre production, broadcast from the Wyndham's Theatre) *''

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...

'' – 17 October 2019 (broadcast from the Bridge Theatre) *''Hansard'' – 7 November 2019 *'' Present Laughter'' – 28 November 2019 (broadcast from The Old Vic) *'' Cyrano de Bergerac –'' 20 February 2020 (broadcast from Playhouse Theatre) *''The Welkin'' – Cancelled due to UK Theatre closures relating to the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic *'' Leopoldstadt'' – Cancelled due to UK Theatre closures relating to the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic *''Jack Absolute Flies Again'' – Cancelled due to UK Theatre closures relating to the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic

Season 12

*'' Leopoldstadt'' ''–'' 27 January 2022 (broadcast from the Wyndham's Theatre) *''

The Book of Dust ''The Book of Dust'' is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman, which expands his trilogy ''His Dark Materials''. The books further chronicle the adventures of Lyra Belacqua and her battle against the theocratic organisation known as the ...

'' – 17 February 2022 (broadcast from the Bridge Theatre) *'' Henry V'' – 21 April 2022 (broadcast from the Donmar Warehouse) *''

Straight Line Crazy ''Straight Line Crazy'' is a play written by David Hare. The first production, directed by Nicholas Hytner, opened in previews at the Bridge Theatre in London on 16 March 2022 before officially premiering on 23 March 2022. The play is set in the ...

'' – 26 May 2022 (broadcast from the Bridge Theatre) *''

Prima Facie ''Prima facie'' (; ) is a Latin expression meaning ''at first sight'' or ''based on first impression''. The literal translation would be 'at first face' or 'at first appearance', from the feminine forms of ''primus'' ('first') and ''facies'' (' ...

'' – 21 July 2022 (broadcast from the Harold Pinter Theatre) *'' Much Ado About Nothing'' – 8 September 2022 *'' Jack Absolute Flies Again'' – 6 October 2022 *'' The Seagull'' - 3 November 2022 (broadcast from the Harold Pinter Theatre)

Season 13

*'' The Crucible'' - 26 January 2023 *''

'' - 23 February 2023

References

{{reflist, colwidth=30em

External links

Official website
Theatre in the United Kingdom Royal National Theatre