15 June 2023
Ten more National Theatre productions will go live on Drama Online in September 2023. This latest set of filmed productions will be available exclusively on the Drama Online platform.
National Theatre Collection 3 will offer a total of 20 films by February 2024, taking the number of productions available to watch to 70.
New titles for September will include:
- Antony and Cleopatra: Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo star in the title roles in Shakespeare’s gripping tale of power.
- The Crucible: Olivier Award-winner Lyndsey Turner directs this electrifying new production with designs by Es Devlin in a restaging of Arthur Miller’s masterpiece.
- Jack Absolute Flies Again: Richard Bean and Oliver Chris’s play is based on Sheridan’s 1775 play The Rivals, and stars Caroline Quentin, Laurie Davidson, Natalie Simpson and Kelvin Fletcher.
- Much Ado About Nothing: Escape to the Italian Riviera in Simon Godwin’s production with a cast including Katherine Parkinson and John Heffernan.
- Phaedra: Writer-Director Simon Stone reimagines Seneca’s famous tragedy.
- Wuthering Heights: Shot through with music and dance, Emma Rice transforms Emily Brontë’s masterpiece into a passionate, powerful and uniquely theatrical experience.
New titles for February 2024 will include:
- Othello: Directed by Clint Dyer with Giles Terera in the title role and Rosy McEwen as Desdemona.
- The Wife of Willesden: Critically acclaimed, multi-award winning, best-selling author Zadie Smith’s play transports Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath to 21st Century North West London.
We are very pleased to offer these latest National Theatre titles exclusively on the Drama Online platform, further cementing Bloomsbury’s partnership with the renowned National Theatre. Drama Online occupies a pre-eminent place in the educational market for theatre and literary studies, underpinned by the wealth of content from Bloomsbury’s prestigious Arden Shakespeare and Methuen Drama lists as well as existing partnerships with world-leading theatre producers from the National Theatre to the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare’s Globe. It is the only resource to combine exclusively available playtext content and scholarly publications with filmed live performances, film adaptations and audio plays.
From September, the new titles will also be available to access for free in public libraries across the UK to library members in a new National Theatre Public Libraries Collection on Drama Online.
This free access provision follows the National Theatre Schools Collection, also available on Drama Online, which makes performances free to UK state-funded schools and FE colleges (schools and public libraries should contact JCS Online Resources for details). The National Theatre Schools Collection is now being used in the classroom by 85 per cent of state secondary schools across the UK. Through the National Theatre’s partnership with the Unicorn Theatre, new titles will also be made available free for UK state primary schools via the National Theatre Primary Schools Collection.
“With the National Theatre Schools Collection] we were able to share the experience of live theatre with our students, discussing the imaginative ways actors, directors and designers brought stories, worlds and characters to life – and the students’ own practical work has been inspired and improved as a result…We would honestly be lost without this amazing resource – and we recommend it wholeheartedly.” – Marianne O’Shea, Deputy Headteacher, The Hollyfield School
Jenny Ridout, Global Head of Academic Publishing, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC said, “We are absolutely delighted that our exclusive partnership with the National Theatre continues to grow as we work together to bring an increasingly diverse and current collection of world-class theatre to students, teachers and practitioners worldwide, ensuring the National Theatre’s work is accessible over the long term. We are also proud to continue our support for bringing live performance into state primary and secondary classrooms around the country for free, and to develop this provision through free access in UK public libraries, giving an even wider audience access to these latest inspiring productions.”
Alice King-Farlow, Director of Learning and National Partnerships at the National Theatre said, “We are excited to announce a third set of titles will be added to the National Theatre Collection in September in partnership with Bloomsbury Publishing and will be available to access for free in public libraries throughout the UK for the first time. The National Theatre Collection also continues to be available free for all UK state schools and FE colleges and given the current economic pressures affecting many schools and communities it is more important than ever that we create these avenues for people to access theatre that entertains and inspires. Expanding the National Theatre Collection’s titles allows a richer spectrum of titles to be available to fire imagination and creativity in as many communities as possible across the UK.”’
The National Theatre Collection is supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Fondation Hoffmann, the Sidney E. Frank Foundation and The Attwood Education Foundation.