National Theatre Collection: Translations

Working

April 1982 •English

This musical adaptation of the Studs Terkel book examines the average worker's viewpoint--showing that he or she is anything but average. Based on a series of interviews with real working people--construction workers, waitresses, firemen, secretaries, and cleaning women, Working is both an exploration of the individuals' occupations and a lament for lost hopes and dreams.

Miss Saigon : 25th Anniversary Performance

September 2016 •English

The epic love story tells the tragic tale of young Vietnamese bar girl Kim, orphaned by war, who falls in love with American GI Chris — but their lives are torn apart by the fall of Saigon.

National Theatre Live: The Boy With Two Hearts

October 2021 •English

When a young mother speaks out against the Taliban, she and her husband are forced to flee their home and country with their three sons. Embarking on a long and terrifying journey across Russia and through Europe, they seek final refuge in the UK. But, as their eldest son’s life-threatening heart condition worsens and requires urgent surgery, their escape soon becomes a race against time. Amit Sharma directs this widely acclaimed stage version of The Boy with Two Hearts (BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week). Based on extraordinary real-life experiences, it is a powerful story of hope, courage, and humanity – and a heartfelt tribute to the NHS.

Me and Orson Welles

September 2008 •English

New York, 1937. A teenager hired to star in Orson Welles' production of Julius Caesar becomes attracted to a career-driven production assistant.

National Theatre Live: Our Generation

March 2022 •English

Created from five years of interviews with 12 young people from across the UK, Our Generation is a captivating portrait of their journey into adulthood. Often too extraordinary to be fiction, this funny and moving play is for anyone who is – or has ever been – a teenager. Writer Alecky Blythe (London Road) brings her new verbatim play that tells the stories of a generation. Daniel Evans makes this directorial debut at the National Theatre. A production from National Theatre and Chichester Festival Theatre.

National Theatre Live: Coriolanus

January 2014 •English

When an old adversary threatens Rome, the city calls once more on her hero and defender: Coriolanus. But he has enemies at home too. Famine threatens the city, the citizens’ hunger swells to an appetite for change, and on returning from the field Coriolanus must confront the march of realpolitik and the voice of an angry people.

The Phantom of the Opera

December 2004 •English

Deformed since birth, a bitter man known only as The Phantom lives in the sewers underneath the Paris Opera House. He falls in love with the obscure chorus singer Christine, and privately tutors her while terrorizing the rest of the crew.

National Theatre Live: Leopoldstadt

January 2022 •English

At the beginning of the 20th century, Leopoldstadt was the old, crowded Jewish quarter of Vienna, Austria. But Hermann Merz, a factory owner and baptised Jew now married to Catholic Gretl, has moved up in the world. We follow his family’s story across half a century, passing through the convulsions of war, revolution, impoverishment, annexation by Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. A company of 40 actors represent each generation of the family in this epic, but intimate play.

National Theatre Live: Henry V

April 2022 •English

Fresh to the throne, King Henry V launches England into a bloody war with France. When his campaign encounters resistance, this inexperienced new ruler must prove he is fit to guide a country into war.

National Theatre Live: The Book of Dust — La Belle Sauvage

February 2022 •English

Two young people and their dæmons, with everything at stake, find themselves at the centre of a terrifying manhunt. In their care is a tiny child called Lyra Belacqua, and in that child lies the fate of the future. And as the waters rise around them, powerful adversaries conspire for mastery of Dust: salvation to some, the source of infinite corruption to others.

Revue Starlight ―The LIVE― #1 revival

June 2018 •Japanese

At the Seisho Music Academy, the 99th Graduating Class is rehearsing for the annual production of the theatrical play, Starlight. Behind the scenes, however, an underground "Revue Starlight" audition, orchestrated by a talking giraffe, pits the students against each other in stage battles in order to shine as the top star. Karen Aijō, upon being reunited with her childhood friend Hikari Kagura, comes across these auditions and battles to become the top star alongside Hikari.

Sister

December 2008 •Czech

Death of England: Face to Face

November 2021 •English

Britain is locked down. Michael and Delroy are dealing with issues closer to home. During an explosive afternoon in Delroy's flat, they are forced to confront their relationship with their country – and with each other.

High School Musical

January 2006 •English

A popular high school athlete and an academically gifted girl get roles in the school musical and develop a friendship that threatens East High's social order.

Une vie pour deux

October 2013 •French

Freely adapted from the eponymous novel, Une vie pour deux is inspired by real events, the discovery by the novelist's husband (director Jean-Pierre Ronfard) of the corpse of a young woman on a beach in Ireland in the late 1970s.

A Walk in the Woods

January 1988 •English

A true story about one US and one USSR delegate who, during 1982 talks in Geneva between USA and USSR on limiting medium-range nukes in Europe, met by accident in a nearby forest while on a stroll and informally started a key discussion.

True West

February 1984 •English

A screenwriter gets conned out of selling a script to a Hollywood producer by his brother, who pitches his own idea for a movie. This video recording of the 1982 Steppenwolf Theatre Company production was later broadcast by PBS.

Niente è come sembra

October 2007 •Italian

The Sorrows of Gin

October 1979 •English

An affluent suburban couple's empty and gin-fueled lives are observed through the eyes of their neglected, eight-year old daughter.

All's Well That Ends Well - Live at Shakespeare's Globe

September 2012 •English

Helena loves the arrogant Bertram, and when she cures the King of France of his sickness, she claims Bertram as her reward. But her new husband, flying from Helena to join the wars, attaches two obstructive conditions to their marriage - conditions he is sure will never be met. Featuring Olivier-award winning actress Janie Dee as the Countess of Roussillon.