National Theatre Live: A Streetcar Named Desire

A perceptive and funny study about the fantasies, inhibitions and dreams of two frustrated and lonely middle-class matrons who set up competing lemonade stands along a jammed highway. This short play incorporates comedy and tragedy, a touch of the bizarre, and ultimately, a sincere compassion in both women.

Accompanied by a child, the mathematician Galileo observes the firmament with a telescope. Ten years ago, the philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned in Rome for having supported the idea of an infinite and centerless universe, based on the work of Copernicus. By dint of observations and calculations, Galileo seeks proofs for his hypothesis of a cosmic system where the Earth is "an ordinary celestial body, one among thousands". From Padua to Venice, the mathematician shakes certainties by confronting the power of a Church which wishes to maintain its absolute power in the "crystal spheres" where Ptolemy has hitherto locked up the world.

Sweety has to contend with her over-enthusiastic family that wants her to get married but the ultimate truth is that her love might not find acceptance in her family and society.

Academy Award® nominee Ralph Fiennes (The English Patient, Schindler’s List, Oedipus at the National Theatre) plays Jack Tanner in this exhilarating reinvention of Shaw’s witty, provocative classic. Jack Tanner, celebrated radical thinker and rich bachelor, seems an unlikely choice as guardian to the alluring heiress, Ann. But she takes it in her assured stride and, despite the love of a poet, she decides to marry and tame this dazzling revolutionary. Tanner, appalled by the whiff of domesticity, is tipped off by his chauffeur and flees to Spain, where he is captured by bandits and meets The Devil. An extraordinary dream-debate, heaven versus hell, ensues. Following in hot pursuit, Ann is there when Tanner awakes, as fierce in her certainty as he is in his. A romantic comedy, an epic fairytale, a fiery philosophical debate, Man and Superman asks fundamental questions about how we live.

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.

Pauline Gibson has spent her life as a doctor, the inspiring leader of a local health campaign. When she crosses paths with her old boyfriend, a stalwart loyalist in Labour Party politics, she’s faced with an agonising decision. What’s involved in sacrificing your private life and your piece of mind for something more than a single issue? Does she dare?

"I wonder, just how long we are going to have to take it for? I wonder, what is going to happen when we can't take it any more?" Gary Owen's reworking of the classic Greek myth of Iphigenia is here moved to Cardiff. Effie, a typical discontented 'youth', finds herself in a situation that makes her rethink her entire life. This production, directed by Rachel O'Riordan, was captured by Digital Theatre, live at The North Wall Arts Centre in Oxford, UK. It received wide critical acclaim and features an extraordinary performance from Sophie Melville as Effie.

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It seems almost unbelievable, but it has been 30 years since István Örkény's Cat's Play premiered on the stage of the former Tyl Theatre, now the Stavovský Theatre, with Dana Medřická and Vlasta Fabiánová in the lead roles. It has been performed 403 times and has become a true cult production of the 1970s and early 1980s. The story of two sisters, whose lives are divided by the Iron Curtain, resonated with the audience with its truthfulness. In Dana Medřická's interpretation, the character of Erža Orbánová has also become a symbol of indomitable optimism despite the poverty of life. Not only this production, but also the acting performance of Dana Medřická and Vlasta Fabiánová have become legends during their lifetimes.

From The Public Theater’s Free Shakespeare in the Park at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park, experience this Shakespearean classic directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon featuring Tony Award nominee Ato Blankson-Wood (“Slave Play”) in the title role and Solea Pfeiffer as Ophelia (“Hadestown”).

Stuck in a loveless marriage to intellectual George Tesman, the ambitious Hedda Gabler hungers for a life her husband can't provide. Then a former flame, the successful Eilert, enters the picture, violence and blackmail aren't far behind.

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. Follow along as we leap from a barber shop in Peckham to Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos and Accra over the course of a single day.

Bullet doesn't want to call a hostel home. Eritrean Girl was smuggled here in a lorry. Singing Boy dreams of seeing his name in lights and Garden Boy just wants to feel safe. Homelessness amongst young people in the UK is at a record high, so when the big society doesn't work – where do you go? An inner-city high-rise hostel, TargetEast, offers a roof. Nadia Fall's verbatim play features performances from Michaela Coel, Antonia Thomas, and Kadiff Kirwan.

Counted among his greatest tragedies, Shakespeare’s unsettling combination of warring soldiers and ‘weird sisters’ is brought to life in this post-apocalyptic reimagining of the Scottish play. This production, directed by Gemma Bodinetz and starring David Morrissey in the title role, was captured by Digital Theatre live at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Theatrical adaptation of the film of the same name. In a fair and funny one-woman show, dancer Andréa Bescond recounts her tainted childhood and the consequences for her adult life. A moment of pure emotion, an unforgettable journey that touches our hearts. Odette is eight years old when Gilbert, a family “friend”, drags her into secret tickling sessions. The rest is collateral damage. The child becomes a dancer, which will save her. Misunderstanding from family and friends, difficulty building a life...

Acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love, Arcadia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead) returns to the National Theatre with his highly-anticipated new play The Hard Problem, directed by Nicholas Hytner (Othello, Hamlet, One Man, Two Guvnors). Hilary, a young psychology researcher at a brainscience institute, is nursing a private sorrow and a troubling question at work, where psychology and biology meet. If there is nothing but matter, what is consciousness? This is ‘the hard problem’ which puts Hilary at odds with her colleagues who include her first mentor Spike, her boss Leo and the billionaire founder of the institute, Jerry. Is the day coming when the computer and the fMRI scanner will answer all the questions psychology can ask? Meanwhile Hilary needs a miracle, and she is prepared to pray for one.

An African country teeters on the edge of civil war. A society prepares to drive out its colonial present and claim an independent future. Racial tensions boil over. Tshembe, returned home from England for his father’s funeral, finds himself in the eye of the storm.

It’s a dark, stormy night. The stars are out. Jim, the inn-keeper’s granddaughter, opens the door to a terrifying stranger. At the old sailor’s feet sits a huge sea-chest, full of secrets. Jim invites him in – and her dangerous voyage begins. Robert Louis Stevenson’s story of murder, money and mutiny is brought to life on the Olivier stage in a thrilling new adaptation by Bryony Lavery.

A Kuwaiti play talks about the life of Kuwaitis in the years of poverty experienced by Kuwaitis before the economic boom in the seventies, and discusses work in a comic framework of economic and social problems, including poverty, education, and health, by dealing with the stories of work heroes.

One of Vítězslav Nezval's most striking stories about unfaithful yet devoted love, full of suspenseful twists and turns and an enchanting chivalrous world, was first staged at the National Theater in 2016, losing none of its impressiveness and power. In 2021, Daniela Špinar, director of the original theater production, retold it in a highly original form using the language of film, shooting it as a film project in the authentic surroundings of the historic theater building.