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April 2025: Core Collection: 60 new plays now live
Highlights include: Ballet Shoes, an adaptation by Kendall Feaver of the classic novel by Noel Streatfeild; How I Learned To Swim by Somebody Jones who explores what lies beneath the surface of the Black diasporic relationship to water; Kyoto by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, now playing in the West End; Boys From The Blackstuff by James Graham, adapted from Alan Bleasdale’s BAFTA award-winning TV series.
Find out more about the Core Collection
April 2025: Nick Hern Books Collection: 30 new plays now live
Highlights include: Shifters by Benedict Lombe, nominated for the 2025 Olivier Awards’ Best New Play; Reunion by leading Irish playwright Mark O’Rowe; The Women of Llanrumney by Azuka Oforka, winner of Best Writer Award at the Stage Debut Awards 2024; The House Party by Laura Lomas, a modern day reimagining of August Strindberg’s Miss Julie.
Find out more about the Nick Hern Books Collection
February 2025: Global Plays Collection 1
Offering 100 plays in translation from Methuen Drama, this collection showcases the oeuvres of both established and emerging global playwrights, with the majority being translated into English for the first time. It offers work by dramatists from 25 different countries, including India, Nigeria, Argentina, Japan, Ethiopia, Algeria, and Ukraine. Each volume has been masterfully translated by leading practitioners in the field and includes materials which address the works and their themes.
Find out more about Global Plays Collection 1
January 2025: New learning resource: The Play Podcast
The Play Podcast is a podcast dedicated to exploring the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode focuses on a single play, discussed in depth with an expert guest. The conversations span the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact.
Find out more about The Play Podcast
October 2024: Core Collection: 70+ new plays now live
Highlights include: Frost/Nixon by Peter Morgan; Nye by Tim Price; Three Acts of Love by Laura Lindow, Naomi Obeng, and Vici Wreford-Sinnott; Blue Beard by Emma Rice; and Till the Stars Come Down by Beth Steel.
Find out more about the Core Collection
October 2024: Nick Hern Books Collection: 30 new plays now live
Highlights include: Backstairs Billy by Marcelo Dos Santos; Blue Mist by Mohamed-Zain Dada; The Flea by James Fritz; and The Hills of California by Jez Butterworth.
Find out more about the Nick Hern Books Collection
October 2024: TCG Books Plays Collection (American Drama): 21 plays now live
Highlights of this update include: Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Will Arbery; Humpty Dumpty by Eric Bogosian; The Fever Chart: Three Short Visions of the Middle East by Naomi Wallace; and Undesirable Elements by Ping Chong.
Find out more about the TCG Books Plays Collection (American Drama)
September 2024: Critical Studies and Performance Practice Update: 200+ new books added
Highlights include: The Arden Research Handbook of Shakespeare and Contemporary Performance edited by Peter Kirwan and Kathryn Prince; British Black and Asian Shakespeareans: Integrating Shakespeare, 1966–2018 by Jami Rogers; My Shakespeare: A Director’s Journey through the First Folio by Greg Doran; Anxious Masculinity in the Drama of Arthur Miller and Beyond by Claire Gleitman; Decolonizing the Theatre Space: A Conversation edited by Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway, with Kwame Kwei-Armah and Olivia Poglio-Nwabali; Musical Theatre Histories: Expanding the Narrative by Millie Taylor and Adam Rush
Find out more about the Critical Studies and Performance Practice collection
September 2024: National Theatre Collections: Audio Description for 16 more National Theatre performances
Audio description is available for 16 more performances in the National Theatre collections, bringing the total number to 37, making these productions accessible to a wider audience. Performances include Shakespeare plays such as Antony and Cleopatra, As You Like It and Othello, adaptations of Frankenstein and Jane Eyre (which also has a BSL interpretation), and contemporary plays like James Graham's This House.
Explore the National Theatre Collections - Collection 1, Collection 2 and Collection 3 to watch the relevant performances that are audio-described and in BSL.
August 2024: Stratford Festival Shakespeare Collection 2
This second Stratford Festival Shakespeare collection is now live with the following 4 filmed performances: All’s Well That Ends Well; Hamlet; Henry VIII and Richard III.
Find out more about Stratford Festival Shakespeare Collection 2
July 2024: Shakespeare's Globe to Globe Festival on Screen 3 now live
Shakespeare's Globe to Globe Festival on Screen 3 is now live, offering 10 more Globe to Globe Festival filmed performances, representing multiple cultures and languages: As You Like It (Language: Georgian); Henry IV, Part 1 (Language: Mexican Spanish); Henry IV, Part 2 (Language: Argentine Spanish); King John (Language: Armenian); Measure for Measure (Language: Russian); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Language: Korean); Richard III (Language: Mandarin); The Taming of the Shrew (Language: Urdu); Titus Andronicus (Language: Cantonese); Troilus and Cressida (Language: Maori).
May 2024: Core Collection: 60 new plays now live
Highlights include: Dear England by James Graham; Vanya by Simon Stephens; August in England by Lenny Henry; Strategic Love Play by Miriam Battye and many more.
Find out more about the Core Collection
May 2024: Nick Hern Books Collection: 30 new plays now live
Highlights include: A Mirror by Sam Holcroft; Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, adapted by Tom Basden; I, Daniel Blake by Paul Laverty, adapted by Dave Johns; The Way Old Friends Do by Ian Hallard.
Find out more about the Nick Hern Books Collection
April 2024: Theatre and Performance History Collection: Over 30 reference volumes live
This substantial new scholarly collection comprises original research and curated content that iIluminates, analyses and re-evaluates the contribution of key theatre artists from North America and Europe. Field-defining articles provide new readings in theatre history, theory, practice and legacy spanning the last century.
Find out more about the Theatre and Performance History Collection
February 2024: National Theatre Collection 3 now complete
This third National Theatre collection is now complete with 20 filmed performances, from Everyman, Greek tragedy and Shakespeare, to plays about Generation Z. Newly added performances include Othello starring Giles Terera, Rosy McEwen and Paul Hilton and The Wife of Willesden by multi-award winning, best-selling author Zadie Smith.
Find out more about National Theatre Collection 3
January 2024: Oberon Books Collection 2 now complete with 402 plays
This second collection now offers 402 plays, with newly added plays including: Come on Home by Irish writer Phillip McMahon, nominated for Best New Play for the 2019 Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards; 7 plays by Ryan Craig including The Glass Room which deals with Holocaust denial, and the semi-autobiographical Filthy Business; and 3 hard-hitting plays by Chris Thompson, including Carthage which won the Pearson Playwriting Award.
October 2023: Critical Studies and Performance Practice 2023 Update
Highlights include:
White People in Shakespeare: Essays on Race, Culture, and the Elite: What part did Shakespeare play in the construction of a 'white people' and how has his work been enlisted to define and bolster a white cultural and racial identity?
Shakespeare and Gender: Sex and Sexuality in Shakespeare’s Drama: This accessible introduction shows how gender debates are integral to the plays and poems.
The Woman's Voice: Explores the female voice through practical exercises and stories from the front line, as well as profoundly personal and formative experiences from Patsy Rodenburg's own life.
Download the 2023 Update title list here.
Find out more about the Critical Studies and Performance Practice collection here.
October 2023: Core Collection 61 new plays now live
Highlights include: Brilliant Jerks by Joseph Charlton; Hakawatis by Hannah Khalil; Folk by Nell Leyshon; Agreement by Owen McCafferty; Lie Low by Ciara Elizabeth Smyth; The Fellowship by Roy Williams and many more.
Find out more about the Core Collection
October 2023: Nick Hern Books 30 new plays now live
Highlights include: The P Word by Waleed Akhtar; Standing at the Sky's Edge by Chris Bush; The Motive and the Cue by Jack Thorne and Black Superhero by Danny Lee Wynter.
Find out more about the Nick Hern Books Collection
September 2023: Currency Press Collection - now offers over 300 plays
With more than 100 plays added this month, this collection now offers a total of over 300 titles from Currency Press, Australia's leading publisher of the performing arts and its oldest, independently-owned, active publisher.
Find out more about the Currency Press Collection
30th August 2023: National Theatre Collection 3 now live
This third National Theatre collection has launched with 10 performances, from Everyman, Greek tragedy and Shakespeare to plays about Generation Z.
Find out more about National Theatre Collection 3
August 2023: Ken Rea's The Outstanding Actor: Actor Training Workshop - 10 new acting masterclass videos now live
From The Outstanding Actor author and acting teacher Ken Rea, comes this masterclass collection of 10 actor training videos. Watch Professor Ken Rea in action coaching actors via exercises and games to help unlock the inner workings of trained actors and the secrets of giving your best performance.
Find out more about Ken Rea's The Outstanding Actor: Actor Training Workshop
July 2023: Focal Press Theatre Books - 72 practical stagecraft titles now live
This new collection contains 72 practical and vocational stagecraft titles from renowned theatre studies imprint Focal Press. Through an array of guides, handbooks, toolkits, and masterclasses, this collection is an invaluable resource for those taking practical courses relating to the theatre industry, whether in front of the curtain or behind the scenes.
Find out more about Focal Press Theatre Books
July 2023: Shakespeare's Globe to Globe Festival on Screen 2 now live
Shakespeare's Globe to Globe Festival on Screen 2 is now live, offering 10 more Globe to Globe Festival filmed performances, representing multiple cultures and languages:
All's Well That Ends Well (Gujarati); The Comedy of Errors (Dari Persian); Henry VI, Part 1 (Serbian); Henry VI, Part 2 (Albanian); Henry VI, Part 3 (Macedonian); Julius Caesar (Italian); Love's Labour's Lost (British Sign Language); The Merry Wives of Windsor (Swahili); Romeo & Juliet (Brazilian Portuguese); and Timon of Athens (German).
June 2023: RSC Live: All's Well That Ends Well and Richard III now live
Director Blanche McIntyre's offbeat anti-romcom production of All's Well That Ends Well explores the modern resonance of Shakespeare's enduring dark comedy. Gregory Doran's Richard III is a savagely comic analysis of the exercise of power, reminding us of the dangers of tyranny and our duty not to let it go unchecked.
Find out more about the RSC Live collection
June 2023: National Theatre Collection 3 to launch September 2023
National Theatre Collection 3 will launch exclusively on Drama Online with ten filmed performances this September. A further ten titles will complete this collection in February 2024. Six of the ten titles launching in September will include: Antony and Cleopatra starring Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo; The Crucible directed by Olivier Award-winning Lyndsey Turner; Richard Bean and Oliver Chris's play Jack Absolute Flies Again; Simon Godwin's Much Ado About Nothing set on the Italian Riviera; writer-Director Simon Stone's reimagined production of Phaedra; Wuthering Heights, Emma Rice's transformation of Emily Brontë's masterpiece. Two of the performances coming in February 2024 are: Othello, with Giles Terera (Hamilton) in the title role; and The Wife of Willesden: multi-award winning author Zadie Smith's adaptation of Chaucer's The Wife of Bath.
June 2023: Core Collection 60 new plays now live
Highlights include: Patriots by Peter Morgan; For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy by Ryan Calais Cameron; Brown Boys Swim by Karim Khan; The Last Return by Sonya Kelly; The Vagrant Trilogy by Mona Mansour; Black British Queer Plays and Practitioners: An Anthology of Afriquia Theatre, featuring plays by Paul Boakye, Rikki Beadle-Blair, Temi Wilkey, and more.
Find out more about Core Collection
June 2023: Nick Hern Books 30 new plays now live
Highlights include: The Father and the Assassin by Anupama Chandrasekhar; The Southbury Child by Stephen Beresford; All of Us by Francesca Martinez; The Unfriend by Steven Moffat and Rapture by Lucy Kirkwood.
Find out more about Nick Hern Books Collection
May 2023: L.A. Theatre Works: 21 plays added to the collection
21 audio plays now live including: Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises; Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and The Ride Down Mt. Morgan starring Brian Cox; Tom Stoppard's absurdist, existential comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Twelfth Night adapted by Martin Jarvis; plus Five Short Stories by Women from some of America's most distinguished female authors: Sandra Cisneros, Nadine Gordimer, Amy Hempel, Rebecca Lee, Joyce Carol Oates.
Find out more about LA Theatre Works
May 2023: National Theatre Collections: Audio descriptions now available
Audio description is now available for 21 titles in the National Theatre collections, making these productions accessible to a wider audience. Performances include: Angels in America Parts 1 and 2; Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge and All my Sons; Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Othello, Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night; and many more.
Explore the National Theatre Collections
April 2023: Oberon Books Collection 2 now live
This second collection which will offer 400 titles has launched with 199, including plays by Hassan Abdulrazzak, Howard Barker, Alfred Fagon, Karen Zacarias and a wealth of stand-out plays by inspiring contemporary writers.
February 2023: Stratford Festival Shakespeare Collection content update
4 new films now live: Coriolanus, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Othello and The Tempest
February 2023: RSC Live: 5 new films now available
These performances were performed or broadcast in 2021 or 2022 and include: Henry VI: Part One, Henry VI: Part Two, Henry VI: Part Three, The Comedy of Errors and The Winter's Tale.
January 2023: Core Collection 60 new plays now live
Highlights include: Best of Enemies by James Graham; Mum by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm; An Unfinished Man by Dipo Baruwa-Etti; and Girl on an Altar by Marina Carr.
January 2023: Nick Hern Books 30 new plays now live
Highlights include: Red Pitch by Tyrell Williams; The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs by Iman Qureshi; Pride and Prejudice (sort of) adapted by Isobel McArthur; and The Meaning of Zong by Giles Terera.
December 2022: Six brand new video collections
Announcing a suite of six new video collections which explore theatre traditions from around the world and offer practical insight into the industry from leading writers and directors. These curated video collections are designed to enhance and expand your theatre teaching and research:
November 2022: Critical Studies and Performance Practice 2022 Update
New critical studies titles range from The Merchant of Venice: Language and Writing and Shakespeare in the Global South to The Changeling: A Critical Reader and Screening the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Performance practice titles include Teaching Playwriting, Peter Brook: Threads of Time, The Actor's Career Bible, and Thinking Through Theatre and Performance.
Download the 2022 Update title list here.
Find out more about the Critical Studies and Performance Practice collection here.
November 2022: 91 new titles added to the TCG Books Play Collection
91 new titles have been added to the TCG Books Play Collection, which is now complete. The collection offers 200 plays from TCG Books, the largest independent trade publisher of dramatic literature in North America.
September 2022: Currency Press Collection now live
The collection has launched with 201 titles and will complete with a further 99 in 2023.
11th August 2022: Shakespeare's Globe to Globe Festival on Screen 1
In the summer of 2012, Shakespeare's Globe hosted the hugely successful Globe to Globe Festival which saw companies from across the world perform in over 30 different languages. Now you can watch 10 of these performances on Drama Online.
3rd May 2022: Core Collection: 60+ new plays now live
Includes the powerful NW Trilogy, that shows us how we can change the world from our doorstep, as well as 5 Tom Stoppard plays.
28th April 2022: Nick Hern Books: 30 new plays now live
Features 2:22 A Ghost Story, nominated for 3 Olivier Awards, and What If If Only, Caryl Churchill's short play about grief and loss.
12th April 2022: Theatre Performance and Practice Video Library now live
Seven educational films from Pumpkin Interactive, the UK's leading producer of high-quality video content for schools, colleges and universities, which will enable users to understand first-hand the process of creating theatre from inception through to performance.
30th March 2022: The Playwrights Canada Press Annual update 2022 is now live with 57 new titles
24th February 2022: The National Theatre Collection 2 has now completed following the addition of 10 further filmed productions including Angels in America.
January 2022: TCG Books Play Collection now live
The collection has launched with 110 titles and will complete with a further 90 in Fall this year.
January 2022: Announcing the addition of Angels of America Parts 1 and 2 as two of the ten new filmed performances that will join the National Theatre Collection 2 in February!
December 2021: Announcing 8 of the 10 new filmed productions to go live in the National Theatre Collection 2 in February 2022 (with news on 2 more coming soon!)
November 2021: Over 90 new titles from Methuen, Faber & Faber, and Nick Hern Books are now live.
Download the title list for the entire Core Collection Annual Update 2021
Download the title list for the entire Nick Hern Books Modern Plays Annual Update 2021
22nd September 2021: The National Theatre Collection 2 has launched with 10 filmed productions.
6th September 2021: Critical Studies and Performance Practice 2021 Update
New titles range from An Inconvenient Black History of British Musical Theatre and Prison Theatre and the Global Crisis of Incarceration to The Arden Guide to Renaissance Drama.
Download the 2021 Update title list here.
Find out more about the Critical Studies and Performance Practice collection here.
29th June 2021: Oberon Books Collection is now complete
This content update includes stand-out plays from some of today's foremost British playwrights, such as Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, Inua Ellams, Dennis Kelly and Laura Wade, as well as key contemporary writers from the USA, such as Clare Barron and Anne Washburn.
Download the complete Oberon Books Collection title list here.
May 2021: Over 120 new titles from Methuen, Faber & Faber, Nick Hern Books, and L.A. Theatre Works now live.
February 2021: Oberon Books Collection is now live
Discover ground-breaking British plays and the best of international drama and plays in translation
Download the Oberon Books Collection title list here.
December 2020: Drama Online is one of Library Journal's Must-Have Databases for Academic and Public Libraries 2020!
Read more on Library Journal here.
November 2020: 90 new titles from Methuen, Faber & Faber, and Nick Hern Books now live.
October 2020: The Stratford Festival Shakespeare Collection - now live
10 filmed performances including: Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, King John, King Lear, Love's Labour's Lost, Macbeth, The Adventures of Pericles, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, and Timon of Athens
29th September 2020: Critical Studies and Performance Practice 2020 Update
New critical studies titles range from ShakesFear and How to Cure It, to Visions of Tragedy in Modern American Drama. Performance practice titles include those by working theatre practitioners, such as Patsy Rodenburg and Russell Jackson.
Download the 2020 Update title list here.
Find out more about the Critical Studies and Performance Practice collection here.
12th August 2020: RSC Live Collection completes with 4 new films
As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, Measure for Measure and Timon of Athens
Drama Online migration to new platform in July 2020
Access all the same high-quality content as before and benefit from an improved user experience.
April 2020: 6 new films now live in the National Theatre Collection
Drawing on 10 years of NT Live broadcasts and featuring 30 titles, this collection is now complete.
COVID-19 Response
Drama Online is now available to academic institutions upon request through the end of May 2020, at no cost or obligation and on an unlimited access basis. Find out more here.
The National Theatre Collection, already free to UK state schools and state-funded FE Colleges, is now available to those UK pupils and teachers via remote access. For a temporary period, whilst schools and colleges remain closed, log-in details can be shared with pupils to access resources at home. Register your school here.
March 2020: 90 new playtexts from Methuen, Faber & Faber, and Nick Hern Books now live.
Download the Core Collection title list here.
Download the Nick Hern Books title list here.
Case Studies
Find out how Drama Online has transformed teaching and learning by opening up new themes, topics, and ways of approaching the material.
January 2020: 5 new films now live in the National Theatre Collection
Drawing on 10 years of NT Live broadcasts, this collection now offers 24 titles.
