Now seen by more than 8 million people around the world, War Horse is a powerfully moving and imaginative stage drama, a show of phenomenal inventiveness, filled with stirring music and songs. At its heart are astonishing life-size puppets by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company, who bring breathing, galloping, charging horses thrillingly to life on stage. Based on the beloved novel by Michael Morpurgo, adapted for the stage by Nick Stafford.
“Captivating! Nothing can replicate the specific thrill of watching Joey take on substance and soul before our eyes.” — New York Times
“A remarkable achievement… an astonishing piece of theatre.” — Time Out
“Genius isn’t too strong a word to describe this astonishing production.” — Daily Telegraph
Rating: Treat as PG
Runtime: 2 hours, 45 minutes (includes 1 intermission)
Visit the National Theatre’s homepage to view this stream for one week after it premieres
Tom Hiddleston (Betrayal, The Avengers, The Night Manager) plays the title role in Shakespeare’s searing tragedy of political manipulation and revenge.
When an old adversary threatens Rome, the city calls once more on her hero and defender: Coriolanus. But he has enemies at home too.
As 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.
Josie Rourke (Les Liaisons Dangereuses) directs the company including Mark Gatiss (The Madness of George III, League of Gentlemen), Hadley Fraser (Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Young Frankenstein), Alfred Enoch (Tree, Harry Potter film series) and Deborah Findlay (Allelujah!, Top Girls).
Coriolanus was filmed live on stage at the Donmar Warehouse in 2014 by National Theatre Live.
BBFC rating 12A when released in cinema. Contains scenes featuring occasional gore and staged violence.
Visit the National Theatre’s homepage to view this stream for one week after it premieres
Enjoying two sold-out National Theatre runs, filmed live on stage in 2013, and a West End transfer, This House is a timely, moving and funny insight into the workings of British politics by James Graham (Ink, ITV’s Quiz).
It’s 1974, and Britain has a hung Parliament. The corridors of Westminster ring with the sound of infighting and backstabbing as the political parties battle to change the future of the nation.
During this era of chaos, when a staggering number of politicians die and age-old traditions are thrown aside, MPs find they must roll up their sleeves, and bend the rules, to navigate a way through the Mother of all Parliaments.
Jeremy Herrin (People, Places and Things) directs this much-loved production, available to watch on the National Theatre’s YouTube channel from Thursday 28 May.
Visit the National Theatre’s homepage to view this stream for one week after it premieres
I don’t want realism. I want magic!
Gillian Anderson (All About Eve, The X-Files, The Fall, Sex Education) plays Blanche DuBois with Ben Foster (Lone Survivor, Kill Your Darlings) as Stanley and Vanessa Kirby (Julie, The Crown, Mission Impossible) as Stella.
As Blanche’s fragile world crumbles, she turns to her sister Stella for solace – but her downward spiral brings her face to face with the brutal, unforgiving Stanley Kowalski.
This critically acclaimed production was filmed live on stage at the Young Vic in 2014 by National Theatre Live.
BBFC rating 15 when released in cinema. Contains scenes featuring sexual violence and domestic abuse.
Visit the National Theatre’s homepage to view this stream for one week after it premieres
One day. Six cities. A thousand stories.
Following two sell-out runs at the National Theatre, a world tour, and a hugely successful summer residency at London’s Roundhouse, Inua Ellams’ acclaimed Barber Shop Chronicles is now available to watch through National Theatre at Home.
Newsroom, political platform, local hotspot, confession box, preacher-pulpit and football stadium. For generations, African men have gathered in barber shops to discuss the world. These are places where the banter can be barbed and the truth is always telling.
Directed by Olivier award-winning director Bijan Sheibani, Barber Shop Chronicles is a heart-warming, hilarious and insightful new play that leaps from a barber shop in Peckham to Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos and Accra over the course of a single day.
This enhanced archive recording was captured by the National Theatre in January 2018 and features the original cast.
Visit the National Theatre’s homepage to view this stream for one week after it premieres
Ralph Fiennes (The English Patient, James Bond: Spectre) and Sophie Okonedo (Chimerica, Hotel Rwanda) play Shakespeare’s famous fated couple in his great tragedy of politics, passion and power.
Caesar and his assassins are dead. General Mark Antony now rules alongside his fellow defenders of Rome. But at the fringes of a war-torn empire the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra and Mark Antony have fallen fiercely in love. In a tragic fight between devotion and duty, obsession becomes a catalyst for war.
Simon Godwin (Hansard, Twelfth Night) directed this critically acclaimed production at the National Theatre in 2018. You can watch Antony & Cleopatra on the National Theatre’s YouTube channel from 7pm UK time on Thursday 7 May for one week.
This filmed performance was given a BBFC rating of 12A and contains some staged violence and flashing lights.
Visit the National Theatre’s homepage to view this stream for one week after it premieres
Filmed live in 2011 from the stage of the National Theatre in London, this thrilling, sold-out production became an international sensation, experienced by more than 800,000 people in cinemas around the world.
Directed by Academy Award®-winner Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire), this production of Frankenstein sees Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange, Hamlet, Sherlock) and Jonny Lee Miller (Elementary, Trainspotting) alternating between the roles of Victor Frankenstein and his creation.
Childlike in his innocence but grotesque in form, Frankenstein’s bewildered creature is cast out into a hostile universe by his horror-struck maker. Meeting with cruelty wherever he goes, the increasingly desperate and vengeful Creature determines to track down his creator and strike a terrifying deal.
This filmed performance is recommended for ages 12 and up. This recording has been adjusted for YouTube.
Visit the National Theatre’s homepage to view this stream for one week after it premieres
Make a date with Shakespeare’s whirlwind comedy of mistaken identity, featuring Tamsin Greig as a transformed Malvolia.
A ship is wrecked on the rocks: Viola is washed ashore but her twin brother Sebastian is lost. Determined to survive on her own, she steps out to explore a new land.
Where music is the food of love, and nobody is quite what they seem, anything proves possible.
Simon Godwin (Man and Superman, The Beaux’s Stratagem, Hansard) directs this joyous production, captured on-stage by National Theatre Live.
