Royal National Theatre

The National Theatre, officially the Royal National Theatre and sometimes referred to in international contexts as the National Theatre of Great Britain, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England, adjacent to the Southbank Centre. The theatre was founded by Laurence Olivier in 1963 and many well-known actors have since performed with it.
The company was based at The Old Vic theatre in Waterloo until 1976. The current building is located next to the Thames in the South Bank area of central London. In addition to performances at the National Theatre building, it tours productions at theatres across the United Kingdom. The theatre has transferred numerous productions to Broadway and toured some as far as China, Australia and New Zealand. However, touring productions to European cities were suspended in February 2021 over concerns about uncertainty over work permits, additional costs and delays because of Brexit. Permission to add the "Royal" prefix to the name of the theatre was given in 1988, but the full title is rarely used. The theatre presents a varied programme, including Shakespeare, other international classic drama, and new plays by contemporary playwrights. Each auditorium in the theatre can run up to three shows in repertoire, thus further widening the number of plays which can be put on during any one season. However, the post-2020 covid repertoire model became straight runs, required by the imperatives of greater resource efficiency and financial constraint coupled with the preference of creatives working across stage and screen, thus bringing it in line with that of most theatres.
In June 2009, the theatre began National Theatre Live, a programme of simulcasts of live productions to cinemas, first in the United Kingdom and then internationally. The programme began with a production of Phèdre, starring Helen Mirren, which was screened live in 70 cinemas across the UK. NT Live productions have since been broadcast to over 2,500 venues in 60 countries around the world. In November 2020, National Theatre at Home, a video on demand streaming service, specifically created for National Theatre Live recordings, was introduced. Videos of plays are added every month, and can be "rented" for temporary viewing, or unlimited recordings can be watched through a monthly or yearly subscription programme.
The NT had an annual turnover of approximately £105 million in 2015–16, of which earned income made up 75%. Support from Arts Council England provided 17% of income, 1% from Learning and Participation activity, and the remaining 9% came from a mixture of companies, individuals, trusts and foundations.

Origins

In 1847, a critic using the pseudonym Dramaticus published a pamphlet describing the parlous state of British theatre. Production of serious plays was restricted to the patent theatres, and new plays were subjected to censorship by the Lord Chamberlain's Office. At the same time, there was a burgeoning theatre sector featuring a diet of low melodrama and musical burlesque; but critics described British theatre as driven by commercialism and a "star" system. There was a demand to commemorate serious theatre, with the "Shakespeare Committee" purchasing the playwright's birthplace for the nation demonstrating a recognition of the importance of "serious drama". The following year saw more pamphlets on a demand for a national theatre from London publisher Effingham William Wilson. The situation continued, with a renewed call every decade for a national theatre. Attention was aroused in 1879 when the Comédie-Française took a residency at the Gaiety Theatre, described in The Times as representing "the highest aristocracy of the theatre". The principal demands now coalesced around: a structure in the capital that would form a permanent memorial to Shakespeare; an "exemplary theatre" company producing at the highest level of quality; and a centre from which appreciation of great drama could be spread as part of education throughout the country.
The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre was opened in Stratford upon Avon on 23 April 1879, with the New Shakespeare Company ; then Herbert Beerbohm Tree founded an academy of dramatic art at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1904. This still left the capital without a national theatre. A London Shakespeare League was founded in 1902 to develop a Shakespeare National Theatre and – with the impending tercentenary in 1916 of his death – in 1913 purchased land for a theatre in Bloomsbury. This work was interrupted by World War I.
In 1910, George Bernard Shaw wrote a short comedy, The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, in which Shakespeare himself attempts to persuade Elizabeth I of the necessity of building a national theatre to stage his plays. The play was part of the long-term campaign to build a national theatre.
Finally, in 1948, the London County Council presented a site close to the Royal Festival Hall for the purpose, so the , offering financial support, was passed by Parliament. Ten years after the foundation stone had been laid in 1951, the government declared that the nation could not afford a national theatre; in response, the LCC offered to waive any rent and pay half the construction costs. The government still tried to apply unacceptable conditions to save money, attempting to force the amalgamation of the existing publicly supported companies: the RSC, Sadler's Wells and Old Vic.
Following some initial inspirational steps taken with the opening of the Chichester Festival Theatre in Chichester in June 1962, the developments in London proceeded. In July 1962, with agreements finally reached, a board was set up to supervise construction, and a separate board was constituted to run the proposed National Theatre Company which would lease the Old Vic theatre in the interim. The National Theatre Company opened on 22 October 1963 with Hamlet, starring Peter O'Toole in the title role. The company was founded by Laurence Olivier, who became the first artistic director of the company. As fellow directors, he enlisted William Gaskill and John Dexter. Among the first ensemble of actors of the company were Robert Stephens, Maggie Smith, Joan Plowright, Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Lynn Redgrave, Michael Redgrave, Colin Blakely and Frank Finlay.
Meanwhile, construction of the permanent theatre proceeded with a design by architects Sir Denys Lasdun and Peter Softley and structural engineers Flint & Neill containing three stages, which opened individually between 1976 and 1977. The construction work was carried out by the Sir Robert McAlpine company.
The company remained at the Old Vic until 1976, when construction of the Olivier was complete.

Theatre building and architecture

Theatres

The National Theatre building houses three separate theatres. Additionally, a temporary structure was added in April 2013 and closed in May 2016.

Olivier Theatre

Named after the theatre's first artistic director, Laurence Olivier, this is the main auditorium. Modelled on the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, it has an open stage and a fan-shaped audience seating area for 1160 people. A "drum revolve" extends eight metres beneath the stage and is operated by a single staff member. The drum has two rim revolves and two platforms, each of which can carry ten tonnes, facilitating dramatic and fluid scenery changes. Its design ensures that the audience's view is not blocked from any seat, and that the audience is fully visible to actors from the stage's centre. Designed in the 1970s by Richard Brett and Richard Pilbrow and a prototype of current technology, the drum revolve and a multiple "sky hook" flying system were initially very controversial and required ten years to commission, but seem to have fulfilled the objective of functionality with high productivity.

Lyttelton Theatre

Named after Oliver Lyttelton, the National Theatre's first board chairman, it can accommodate an audience of 890 and has a proscenium arch design with flat side walls and seating arranged in long straight rows on two raked tiers. The proscenium arch is adjustable in width and there is an orchestra pit lift. The Lyttelton has been criticised for its lack of warmth, partly arising from the fact that the upper level audience is invisible to those on the lower level.

Dorfman Theatre

Named after Lloyd Dorfman, the Dorfman is "the smallest, the barest and the most potentially flexible of the National Theatre houses... a dark-walled room" with a capacity of 400. It was formerly known as the Cottesloe Theatre. The Cottesloe was the smallest of the National's three theatres and, but for pressure exerted by Peter Brook and Peter Hall, might easily have been omitted. It sits below the stage of the Olivier in a space initially planned for a third theatre which had been cancelled earlier in the design process. It was designed by Iain Mackintosh and Theatre Projects Consultants. It was the most influential of the modern 'courtyard' theatres, with its extremely simple, rectangular form and the audience on three shallow tiers, it could be readily adapted to proscenium, end stage, thrust, in-the-round, traverse or promenade form. The Cottesloe closed on 23 February 2013 to undergo major refurbishment and reopened as the Dorfman Theatre on 30 September 2014 as part of the National's [|NT Future] redevelopment.
The enhanced theatre was renamed upon its 2014 reopening.

Temporary Theatre

The Temporary Theatre, formerly called The Shed, was a 225-seat black box theatre which opened in April 2013 and featured new works. It closed in May 2016, following the refurbishment of the Dorfman Theatre.
In 2015 British artist Carl Randall painted a portrait of actress Katie Leung standing in front of The Shed as part of the artist's "London Portraits" series, where he asked various cultural figures to choose a place in London for the backdrop of their portraits. Leung explained she chose The Shed as her backdrop because she performed there in the 2013 play The World of Extreme Happiness, and also because "... it's a temporary theatre, it's not permanent, and I wanted to make it permanent in the portrait".