
Lloyd Hutchinson
2021National Theatre Live: King Lear
Ross MacGibbon, Jonathan Munby
Ian McKellen, Sinéad Cusack
Considered by many to be the greatest tragedy ever written, King Lear sees two ageing fathers – one a King, one his courtier – reject the children who truly love them. Their blindness unleashes a tornado of pitiless ambition and treachery, as family and state are plunged into a violent power struggle with bitter ends.
National Theatre Live: King Lear
Harold Pinter: A Celebration
Ian Rickson, Martin Rosenbaum
Stephen Rea, Henry Woolf
In June 2009, a group Britain's leading actors gathered for one night only to perform a celebration of the work of Harold Pinter at the National Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson. The team who made the acclaimed Harold Pinter documentaries for BBC's Arena was there to record this unique performance.
Harold Pinter: A Celebration
National Theatre Live: The Beaux Stratagem
Simon Godwin
Lloyd Hutchinson, Amy Morgan
The ‘Beaux’: Mr Aimwell and Mr Archer, two charming, dissolute young men who have blown their fortunes in giddy London. Shamed and debt-ridden, they flee to provincial Lichfield. Their ‘Stratagem’: to marry for money. Lodged at the local inn, posing as master and servant, they encounter a teeming variety of human obstacles: a crooked landlord, a fearsome highwayman, a fervent French Count, a maid on the make, a drunken husband, a furious butler, a natural healer and a strange, turbulent priest. But their greatest obstacle is love. When the Beaux meet their match in Dorinda and Mrs Sullen they are most at risk, for in love they might be truly discovered.
National Theatre Live: The Beaux Stratagem
National Theatre Live: Salomé
Yaël Farber
Isabella Nefar, Raad Rawi
The story has been told before, but never like this. An occupied desert nation. A radical from the wilderness on hunger strike. A girl whose mysterious dance will change the course of the world. This charged retelling turns the infamous biblical tale on its head, placing the girl we call Salomé at the centre of a revolution. Internationally acclaimed theatre director Yaël Farber (Les Blancs) draws on multiple accounts to create her urgent, hypnotic production on the stage of the National Theatre. ‘Epic. A near-perfect production.’ Guardian (on Les Blancs)
National Theatre Live: Salomé
Slapper
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Nathaniel Gleed, Kieran Bew
A young boy watches a fight in a crowded bar: a masked man versus the people’s champ. But rather than boxing, this is an adult, brutal version of ‘Slaps’ – slaps that can break a man’s hand. Three years ago, James’ alcoholic father Michael left him and his mother, but promised he’d be back to make them proud – now, James believes the man in the mask is his father, returning as a hero, but things are not what they seem...
Slapper
With or Without You
Michael Winterbottom
Christopher Eccleston, Dervla Kirwan
Rosie and Vincent know each other for ten years, and are married for five. She doesn't like her job, he isn't too pleased working with her dad. They're trying to have a baby. One morning Benoit, a Frenchman and former pen pal of Rosie, whom she never met, comes to visit. Did Rosie love him? Does she love him now?
With or Without You
The Little Stranger
Lenny Abrahamson
Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson
In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house is now in decline. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life?
The Little Stranger
Gladiatress
Brian Grant
Doon Mackichan, Fiona Allen
Offbeat sword-and-sandals comedy-adventure about three unlikely heroines (Doon Mackichan, Fiona Allen and Sally Phillips) who set out to thwart a Roman invasion and save Celtic Britain in their own unique and outrageous style.
Gladiatress