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The National Theatre is delighted to make the very best of British theatre available to students in state-funded schools and FE colleges in the United Kingdom, free of charge. Here on Drama Online students can watch a range of extraordinary productions from Shakespeare and Greek tragedy to literary adaptations and classic comedies, all made by world-class theatre-makers.
We hope the National Theatre Collection will be a valuable classroom resource. We also hope that it will encourage students and teachers to visit your local theatre, see National Theatre productions in cinemas via NT Live or on tour, and feel inspired to make your own theatre.
The internationally acclaimed National Theatre production is available for free to all UK state schools for 2 months until the end of the winter school term, 23rd December.
Coming soon: alongside the full recording are new learning resources. These packs have been created to support students in Key Stage 2, 3 and 4 as they watch the production, with opportunities to engage in drama, design, literacy and history activities. The Key Stage 4 pack is designed to directly support students carrying out a practice live theatre review for GCSE drama.
The collection features a broad range of productions which will support teaching and learning across the curriculum:
For suggestions on age and subject suitability and how the productions can be used across the curriculum, please see individual show pages.
We offer a tailored set of recordings and learning resources for UK state primary schools. You can find out more information here:
Registration is via the online form found here. Only one registration request per institution is required and should, if possible, be completed by the Head of Drama or Head of English.
Please note UK independent schools and sixth form colleges worldwide can request a trial and purchase the collection through JCS Online Resources: info@jcsonlineresources.org
The National Theatre Collection includes an expanding bank of learning resources, which can be accessed here. These include:
If you could spend eternity with just one precious memory, what would it be? Adapted from Hirokazu Kore-eda's award-winning film.
From the Old Vic, Jeremy Herrin directs Sally Field and Bill Pullman in Arthur Miller’s blistering drama.
Angels in America Part One: Millennium Approaches
In the midst of the AIDS crisis and a conservative Reagan administration, six New Yorkers with interconnected lives grapple with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell.
Angels in America Part Two: Perestroika
Prior, Joe, Belize, Louis, Harper and Roy continue their journeys through love, loss and loneliness to overcome abandonment and ultimately discover forgiveness.
Polly Findlay’s electric 2012 production brings Sophocles’ tragedy into the modern world as a gripping political thriller. Adapted by Don Taylor with a cast including Jodie Whittaker and Christopher Eccleston.
Directed by Olivier award-winning director Bijan Sheibani. 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.
Sienna Miller stars alongside Jack O’Connell and Colm Meaney in Tennessee Williams’ searing, poetic story of a family’s fight for survival directed by Benedict Andrews.
Set at the very start of the twentieth century, Andrew Upton’s new version of Chekhov’s classic captures a poignant moment in Russia's history as the country rolls inexorably towards 1917.
Written and performed by Michaela Coel, this award-winning, one-woman play recalls the last days of innocence before adulthood.
Nina Raine’s powerful, painful, funny play which sifts the evidence from every side and puts justice herself in the dock.
Originally performed at the Ajoka Theatre in Pakistan, Shahid Nadeem’s epic tale of the dispute that shaped modern-day India and Pakistan is brought to life in Nadia Fall’s stunning production.
Starring Helen McCrory and directed by Carrie Cracknell, Terence Rattigan’s devastating masterpiece contains one of the greatest female roles in contemporary drama.
Frankenstein (2 films)
Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller each play Victor Frankenstein and his creation in these two performances of Danny Boyle's smash-hit production. Written by Mary Shelley and adapted by Nick Dear.
Hedda GablerWhatsOnStage described this production, with Ruth Wilson in the title role, as ‘A Hedda unlike any I have ever seen. Devastating.’
Nadia Fall’s vital verbatim play about people living on the margins of society features performances from Michaela Coel, Antonia Thomas and Kadiff Kirwan.
Based on Jon Klassen's children's picture book classic, this production will support courses in theatre for young audiences as well as musical theatre.
First staged at the Bristol Old Vic and devised by the Company, Sally Cookson's adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's classic novel is a vivid and breathtaking spectacle.
Carrie Cracknell directs a cast including Vanessa Kirby and Eric Kofi Abrefa in this ‘superlative production’ (Time Out) set in contemporary London.
Written 11 years after A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry’s final drama is an unknown masterpiece of the American stage. This theatrical search for the soul of post-colonial Africa features Danny Sapani as Tshembe.
Nicholas Hytner directs Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw in this new version of Dion Boucicault’s classic comedy about life, love and mistaken identity in 19th Century London.
Helen McCrory takes the title role in Euripides’ powerful tragedy, in a new version by Ben Power, directed by Carrie Cracknell, with music written by Will Gregory and Alison Goldfrapp.
Tony Award-winning James Corden plays Francis Henshall in the hilarious West End and Broadway hit. Written by Richard Bean and directed by Nicholas Hytner, the play is an update of Goldoni’s classic farce A Servant of Two Masters.
Kae Tempest's epic new take on Greek legend is directed by Ian Rickson and performed by an all-female company including Lesley Sharp as Philoctetes
A delight for children and adults alike, Sally Cookson directs this wondrously inventive devised production of JM Barrie’s classic. Originally staged at the Bristol Old Vic theatre.
Directed by Miranda Cromwell, this fiercely political play by Winsome Pinnock won the 2018 Alfred Fagon Award.
The SeagullChekhov’s masterly meditation on how the old take revenge on the young is both comic and tragic, and marks the birth of the modern stage. ‘Land-mark brilliant’, The Independent.
One of the great, generous-hearted and ingenious comedies of the English language, Oliver Goldsmith's play offers a celebration of chaos, courtship and the dysfunctional family. Directed by Jamie Lloyd with a cast including Cush Jumbo and Katherine Kelly.
Andrea Levy’s Orange Prize-winning novel brought to life in an epic theatre adaptation which embarks on a journey from Jamaica to Britain, through the Second World War to 1948 – the year the HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury.
An adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ timeless masterpiece directed by Benedict Andrews and starring Gillian Anderson, Ben Foster and Vanessa Kirby.
A timely, moving and funny insight into the workings of British politics. It's 1974 and to a backdrop of infighting and backstabbing the political parties battle to change the future of the nation.
Rory Kinnear is Mack the Knife in a new version of this landmark twentieth-century musical from the Olivier stage of the National Theatre.
Chekhov’s iconic characters are relocated to a 1960s Nigeria on the brink of the Biafran Civil War, in this bold adaptation by Inua Ellams. ‘Brimming with Life. Enlightening and heart-breaking’ Broadway World.
Lyndsey Turner directs Caryl Churchill’s wildly innovative play about a country divided by its own ambitions.
Brian Friel’s modern classic directed by Ian Rickson is a powerful account of nationhood, which sees the turbulent relationship between England and Ireland play out in one quiet community.
Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure of mutiny, money and murder is brought to life on the Olivier stage in a thrilling new adaptation by Bryony Lavery.
Ivo van Hove directs this stunning production which The Times called ‘One of the great theatrical productions of the decade.’
Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s tale of Alice, and supported by stunning sets, costumes, video projection, lighting, and a score by Blur’s Damon Albarn, this is a coming-of-age adventure for the online generation.
Billie Piper won an Olivier Best Actress award for her performance in Simon Stone’s radical production of Lorca’s achingly powerful masterpiece.
Shakespeare’s searing tragedy features an award-winning performance from Tom Hiddleston in the title role, directed by the Donmar's former Artistic Director Josie Rourke.
Rory Kinnear delivers an award-winning performance in this dynamic production of Shakespeare’s complex and profound play, directed by Nicholas Hytner.
In Nicholas Hytner’s production, Ben Whishaw and Michelle Fairley play Brutus and Cassius, David Calder plays Caesar and David Morrissey is Mark Antony.
The acclaimed Donmar Warehouse production of Shakespeare’s harrowing tragedy, starring Sir Derek Jacobi and directed by Tony Award winning Michael Grandage.
First performed as part of the National Theatre’s series of Shakespeare for younger audiences, Justin Audibert and the Company create a bold contemporary retelling of this dark play.
Rufus Norris directs Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff in Shakespeare's most intense and terrifying tragedy.
This acclaimed production, directed by Nicholas Hytner, was nominated for Best Revival at the 2013 Olivier Awards. Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear jointly won the Evening Standard Best Actor Award for their performances in the iconic roles of Othello and Iago.
Adapted by Ben Power, Bijan Sheibani's thrilling production of Shakespeare's classic story brings the greatest love story of all time alive for a new generation.
Starring Jessie Buckley and Josh O’Connor and filmed using the backstage spaces of the National Theatre during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Simon Godwin directs this joyous new production with Tamsin Greig as a transformed Malvolia, in a new twist on Shakespeare’s classic comedy of mistaken identity.
This exciting new version is the perfect introduction to Shakespeare for younger audiences: using colour, song and puppetry to tell this magical tale.
At the National Theatre, we make world class theatre that is entertaining, challenging and inspiring – and we make it for everyone.
We stage up to 20 productions at our three theatres in London each year, ranging from reimagined classics to modern masterpieces and new work by contemporary writers and theatre-makers. The work we make strives to be as inclusive, diverse and accessible as possible, playing in London, on tour across the UK, on Broadway, and around the world. The National Theatre reaches 7 million people worldwide each year through live, broadcast and digital programmes including NT Live, which broadcasts some of the best of British theatre to over 2,500 venues in 65 countries.
Our extensive UK-wide learning and participation activity supports young people and schools, through theatre-making and craft programmes, and touring directly into schools. We invest at scale in new work and talent development, working with 1,500 artists each year, and partnering with a range of UK and international theatre companies.
The National Theatre Collection is supported by Richard and Kara Gnodde, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), Sidney E. Frank Foundation, The Attwood Education Foundation, The Candide Trust, The Cranshaw Corporation for Mrs. Robert I. MacDonald, Barbara G. Fleischman, Linda Hackett, The Michael Marks Charitable Trust, and members of the NT Collection Syndicate.
