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  Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre of Great Britain is a building and theatre company on London's South Bank, located immediately east of the southern end of Waterloo Bridge. The National Theatre was designed by architect Sir Denys Lasdun and opened in 1976. The honorific "Royal" was added to the name in 1988. In the years from 1963, before the south bank complex was completed in 1976, the National Theatre Company, as it was then termed, was based at the Old Vic theatre in Waterloo. It houses 3 separate auditoria:
The Olivier Theatre (named for the theatre's first artistic director, Sir Laurence Olivier), the largest space, is the main auditorium, and was modelled on the ancient Greek theatre at Epidaurus; it has an open stage and a fan-shaped audience seating area for about 1,160 people. The stage is made up of a rotating cylinder enclosed by an additional rotating ring. The cylinder also rises up and down out of the stage to allow for scenery changes.
The Lyttelton Theatre (after Oliver Lyttelton, the first chairman of the Theatre) has a proscenium arch design and holds up to 890 people.
The Cottesloe Theatre (for Lord Cottesloe, chairman of the South Bank Theatre Board) is a small adaptable studio space holding up to 300 people, depending on the seating configuration.
The National Theatre presents a highly varied programme, including Shakespeare and other classics, new plays by leading contemporary playwrights, and revivals of classic musicals. Each theatre can run up to three shows each in repertoire or repertory, thus further widening the number of plays which can be put on during any one season.
The National Theatre's foyers are open to the public, with a large theatrical bookshop, restaurants, bars and exhibition spaces. Backstage tours run throughout the day, and there is usually live music in the foyer before performances.
The Brutalist style of the National Theatre has sometimes been described as an obstacle preventing the general public from embracing the building. However a recent lighting scheme illuminating the exterior of the building, in particular its fly towers, has proved very popular.
Artistic directors
Laurence Olivier (1963-1973)
Peter Hall (1973-1988)
Richard Eyre (1988-1997)
Trevor Nunn (1997-2003)
Nicholas Hytner (2003 to date)
Notable productions
As You Like It (d: Clifford Williams) ~ the all-male production (Ronald Pickup as Rosalind, Jeremy Brett as Orlando, Charles Kaye as Celia, Derek Jacobi as Touchstone, Robert Stephens as Jacques) ~ Old Vic, 1967
Oedipus (d: Peter Brook; trans.: Ted Hughes) ~ John Gielgud as Oedipus, Irene Worth as Jocasta ~ Old Vic, 1968
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, 1969 ~ John Stride as Rosencrantz, Edward Petherbridge as Guildenstern ~ Old Vic, 1968
Jumpers, Arcadia and The Coast of Utopia by Tom Stoppard
The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Equus, and Amadeus by Peter Shaffer
Hamlet with Albert Finney, one of the opening productions in the Lyttelton
Ken Campbell's The Illuminatus! Trilogy, which opened the Cottesloe
Lark Rise and The Mysteries, both Promenade Productions in the Cottesloe
Betrayal by Harold Pinter
Plenty by David Hare
The Woman by Edward Bond, the first new play produced in the Olivier
The Romans in Britain by Howard Brenton, subject of a private proscecution by Mary Whitehouse
Guys and Dolls, the National Theatre's first musical
Pravda a collaboration between David Hare and Howard Brenton
Jerry Springer - The Opera, a musical by Stewart Lee and Richard Thomas
An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley 1992 (still touring 2005)
His Dark Materials, a stage adaptation of Phillip Pullman's novels, 2004
The Madness of George III and The History Boys by Alan Bennett
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