Hamlet

The production of Shakespeare's Hamlet with František Němec in the title role (premiered at the Smetana Theatre in 1982) was far from enthusiastic at first. To some viewers, it seemed superficially unimpressive. On the spare stage of J. Svoboda, director M. Macháček focused on thinking through the relationships between the characters and their motivations, and cast great actors of the National Theatre in the roles. Macháček gradually revealed the story, like a detective story - from the message from the ghost of Hamlet's father about the manner of his death, through the play of the theatre company as proof of the murderer's guilt, to the final murderous finale... The production eventually became a Prague theatre hit and could certainly have been performed for a long time if it had not been withdrawn from the repertoire in 1988.

1986-01-01 | cs

Nora

1956-11-11 | cs

Oidipus vladař

1956-12-16 | cs

National Theatre Live: Of Mice and Men

A powerful portrait of the American spirit and a heartbreaking testament to the bonds of friendship.

2014-11-06 | en

Billy Elliot: The Musical Live

In County Durham, England, 1984, a talented young dancer, Billy Elliot, stumbles out of the boxing ring and onto the ballet floor. He faces many trials and triumphs as he strives to conquer his family’s set ways, inner conflict, and standing on his toes in a musical that questions masculinity, gender norms and conformity.

2014-09-28 | en

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

In 1846, Anthony Hope sails into London with the mysterious Sweeney Todd, a once-naive barber whose life and marriage was uprooted by a corrupt justice system. Todd confides in Nellie Lovett, the owner of a local meat pie shop, and the two become partners, as Todd swears revenge on those that have wronged him and decides to take up his old profession.

2014-09-26 | en

Romeo a Julie

1985-12-15 | cs

Le Jeu de la vérité 2

2007-07-16 | fr

National Theatre Live: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Christopher, fifteen years old, has an extraordinary brain – exceptional at maths while ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. When he falls under suspicion of killing Mrs Shears' dog Wellington, he records each fact about the event in the book he is writing to solve the mystery of the murder. But his detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a frightening journey that upturns his world.

2012-09-06 | en

The Taste of Others

Unpolished and ultra-pragmatic industrialist Jean-Jacques Castella reluctantly attends Racine's tragedy "Berenice" in order to see his niece play a bit part. He is taken with the play's strangely familiar-looking leading lady Clara Devaux. During the course of the show, Castella soon remembers that he once hired and then promptly fired the actress as an English language tutor. He immediately goes out and signs up for language lessons. Thinking that he is nothing but an ill-tempered philistine with bad taste, Clara rejects him until Castella charms her off her feet.

2000-03-01 | fr

Henry V

In the midst of the Hundred Years War, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France in 1415.

1989-10-05 | en

The Black Monk

Based on the short story by Anton Chekhov, Kama Ginkas’ astounding reimagining highlights and builds off of the Chekhovian tension between the beauty of life and the tragedy of how it is lived. The story tells the the tale of philosophy student Andrey Vasil'ich Kovrin. On the verge of a nervous breakdown, Kovrin decides to visit his childhood friend Tanya Pesotsky at the estate of her father. As he and Tanya develop a relationship and eventually marry, a black monk of legend begins appearing to Kovrin in visions. Though these hallucinations at first imbue the young man with joy and energy, they eventually lead to his ruin.

2017-02-20 | ru

Übü király

The Empty King created a mythical figure and a whole world from grotesque, archetypal images. The drama was originally conceived as a student tirade against a teacher at Jarry's school, the Lyceum of Rennes. This teacher, Hébert, was the target of public ridicule. In 1888, at the age of 15, Jarry wrote a puppet play about the exploits of the Woolly Tartar and staged it to the amusement of his friends. The figure of Übü is a crude, cruel caricature of the foolish, selfish bourgeoisie as seen through the unrelenting gaze of a schoolboy; but this Rabelaisian figure, in all his falstaffian greed and cowardice, is more than a mere social satire. It is a terrifying picture of man's animal nature, his evil and cruelty. The Katona József Theatre in Budapest premiered Jarry's play in 1984, and it ran continuously for more than 10 years.

1989-03-24 | hu

Iphigénie

On the shores of Aulis, the Greeks prepare to attack Troy. But their ships are unable to set sail because the gods are holding back the winds necessary for departure. Agamemnon consults the oracle. The solution is tragic. To appease the goddess Artemis, whom he had offended, he must sacrifice his own daughter.

1968-07-23 | fr

Marta

The life story of Marta Kubišová as a musical, broadcast live from the Summer Stage of the Kampa Museum in Prague, based on real events in the life of Marta Kubišová. On stage, we meet not only the two remaining Golden Kids, but also Jan Němec, Jan Moravec, Alexander Dubček, and Václav Havel.

2024-09-02 | cs

Oedipus Rex

The story of Oedipus' gradual discovery of his primal crime, killing his father and marrying his mother, filmed by the famed British theatrical director Sir Tyrone Guthrie. This elegant version of Sophocles' play adds a brilliant stroke: the actors wear masks just as the Greeks did in the playwright's day.

1957-01-06 | en

National Theater Live: The Crucible

A witch hunt is beginning in Arthur Miller's captivating parable of power with Erin Doherty (The Crown) and Brendan Cowell (Yerma). Raised to be seen but not heard, a group of young women in Salem suddenly find their words have an almighty power. As a climate of fear, vendetta and accusation spreads through the community, no one is safe from trial. Lindsey Turner (Hamlet) directs this contemporary new staging, design by Tony award winner Es Devlin. Captured live from the Olivier stage of the national theater.

2023-01-26 | en

As You Like It

Witty, playful and utterly magical, the story is a compelling romantic adventure in which Rosalind and Orlando's celebrated courtship is played out against a backdrop of political rivalry, banishment and exile in the Forest of Arden - set in 19th-century Japan.

2006-09-01 | en

Kaaviya Thalaivan

The two best disciples of Sivadas Swamigal, the earnest owner of a Drama school, are by design pitted against each other by the guru himself and this create multiple calamities ending in the duo's separation. Years pass by as one finds a good holding and the other wobbles away as a drunk loser only for them to cross paths again when the ongoing Indian Independence Movement gives another chance for the tables to turn!

2014-11-07 | ta

Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway

Set in New York City's gritty East Village, the revolutionary rock opera RENT tells the story of a group of bohemians struggling to live and pay their rent. "Measuring their lives in love," these starving artists strive for success and acceptance while enduring the obstacles of poverty, illness and the AIDS epidemic.

2008-11-21 | en