National Theatre Live: Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

The Night of Nights

December 1939 •English

A playwright has his career ruined when he is drunk on the first night. His wife dies having left him, and when his daughter triumphs in the revival of the play he dies contented.

National Theatre Live: Best of Enemies

May 2023 •English

In 1968 America, as two men fight to become the next president, all eyes are on the battle between two others: the cunningly conservative William F. Buckley Jr., and the unruly liberal Gore Vidal. During a new nightly television format, they debate the moral landscape of a shattered nation.

Monty Comes Back

September 2016 •English

After fighting with his boss and losing his job, Monty, a semi-successful thespian, flees back home to live with his parents under false pretenses. His old friends and family are left to deal with his inflated ego, while he comes to terms with the fact he isn't as 'great' as he may believe.

Children of Paradise

March 1945 •French

In a chaotic 19th-century Paris teeming with aristocrats, thieves, psychics, and courtesans, theater mime Baptiste is in love with the mysterious actress Garance. But Garance, in turn, is loved by three other men: pretentious actor Frederick, conniving thief Lacenaire, and Count Edouard of Montray.

A Poem and a Mistake

February 2023 •English

Graduate student Myrrha, upset that her professor refers to Ovid's Metamorphoses as "being about love", pushes him and suddenly he transforms into a mirror version of herself. As she recollects her relationship with music, sex, and sexual violence, he is transported into Ovid's stories to come to a new understanding.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel: Live from Lincoln Center

April 2013 •English

Transferring the setting of a brooding Hungarian play, Carousel, to a remote fishing village, shaping their vision around themes of brutality, poverty and disappointment, Rodgers and Hammerstein composed some of the most glorious music ever written for the stage.

Hairspray Live!

December 2016 •English

A teenage girl living in Baltimore in the early 1960s dreams of appearing on a popular TV dance show.

LOVE

December 2018 •English

In the communal area of a block of temporary accommodation, the residents go about their day-to-day routines in the run-up to Christmas. The bonds of love that keep people together are put to the test.

If I Forget

September 2017 •English

A play about the stories we choose to believe, the compromises we can't avoid and the hurt only our nearest and dearest can inflict. In the final months before 9/11, a liberal professor has reunited with his two sisters to celebrate their father's 75th birthday. Each having their own version of family history, the siblings clash over everything. Destructive secrets and long-held resentments surface as the three negotiate—with biting humor and razor-sharp insight—how much of the past they’re willing to sacrifice for a chance at a new beginning.

National Theatre Live: Life of Pi

March 2023 •English

Puppetry, magic and storytelling combine in a unique, Olivier Award-winning stage adaptation of the best-selling novel. After a cargo ship sinks in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, a 16-year-old boy named Pi is stranded on a lifeboat with four other survivors – a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a Royal Bengal tiger. Filmed live in London’s West End and featuring state-of-the-art visuals, the epic journey of endurance and hope is bought to life in a breath-taking new way for cinemas screens.

Death of a Salesman

May 1966 •English

Adaptation of Arthur Miller's play.

National Theatre Live: Coriolanus

January 2014 •English

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.

Who Said Macbeth

December 2021 •English

Although the past two years have been challenging for the Theatre industry, they also showed its incredible strength and resilience. Through interviews with West End performers and creatives, this documentary outlines the difficulties presented to our industry over the course of the pandemic, as well as highlighting changes - both positive and negative - that have come from it. An emotional reflection on a battle it was worth fighting for. All profits will be going to 'Acting for Others', an organisation that provides support to all theatre workers through 14 member charities. We hope these stories full of passion for Theatre inspire you just as much as they inspired us!

Sister

December 2008 •Czech

Alibi

April 1929 •English

Chick Williams, a prohibition gangster, rejoins his mob soon after being released from prison. When a policeman is murdered during a robbery, he falls under suspicion. The gangster took Joan, a policeman's daughter, to the theater, sneaked out during the intermission to commit the crime, then used her to support his alibi. The detective squad employs its most sophisticated and barbaric techniques, including planting an undercover agent in the gang, to bring him to justice.

National Theatre Live: Small Island

June 2019 •English

Embark on a journey from Jamaica to Britain, through the Second World War to 1948 – the year the HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury, England. The play 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.

National Theatre Live: All About Eve

March 2019 •English

The story of Margo Channing. Legend. True star of the theatre. The spotlight is hers, always has been. But now there’s Eve. Her biggest fan. Young, beautiful Eve. The golden girl, the girl next door. But you know all about Eve…don’t you…?

Miss Saigon : 25th Anniversary Performance

September 2016 •English

The epic love story tells the tragic tale of young Vietnamese bar girl Kim, orphaned by war, who falls in love with American GI Chris — but their lives are torn apart by the fall of Saigon.

High School Musical

January 2006 •English

A popular high school athlete and an academically gifted girl get roles in the school musical and develop a friendship that threatens East High's social order.

Racek

June 1997 •Czech