Company Profile
The National Theatre was an idea long before it came into being, and our history and the drama on our stages has reflected the changing social and political fabric of Britain.
Throughout our history, successive Directors and their teams have explored and developed both elements of our name: what it means to make theatre, and what it means to be national.
The National Theatre now offers huge programme of opportunities for children and young people across the UK, including four major participation programmes for different age groups, and touring directly into school halls. A new huge community programme, Public Acts, uses the co-creation of theatre as a means of strengthening cohesion, confidence and local pride.
An emphasis on making major strides in diversity and sustainability on top of all this has shaped every part of the National Theatre’s work.
Notable productions have included Angels in America and Network (2017), Nine Night, Home, I’m Darling, Amadeus and The Lehman Trilogy (2018), Alex Zeldin’s Inequality Triptych (2016–2019), Small Island and The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2019).
Contemporary resonance combined with a progressive approach to onstage representation have become hallmarks of Norris’ personal artistic projects as Director, acknowledging the crucial social role of theatre in a period of unprecedented national challenge. In the wake of the EU referendum, Norris commissioned a project collecting reflections from people right across the UK, which would later become the verbatim production My Country; a work in progress. In his 2017 production of Mosquitoes by Lucy Kirkwood, Olivia Colman’s Jenny makes a terrible, life-changing decision because of her struggle to distinguish between expert opinion and theories circulated online. And in 2019, Norris directed Small Island, an adaptation of Andrea Levy’s novel set in Jamaica and London leading up to the arrival of the Empire Windrush.
Address
National Theatre
Upper Ground
South Bank
London SE1 9PX