Royal National Theatre., London

A place that is very easy to write superlatives about - almost certainly the consistently best theatre in London, but also probably, the world.

The National has the distinct advantage over the majority of worldwide theatres that it doesn’t have to produce bankable shows with bankable (but often tedious to watch) stars. It can afford to use unknown (but excellent) actors and take risks with writing as well.

Occaissonally it will produce a 'duff’ show, but these are a rarity and along with the Young Vic, Donmar and Royal Court it is your best bet for theatre in London. Oh and it’s cheaper than most of the dross in the West End as well…

Great Theatre with some fantastic additional extras such as platform talks, backstage tours and other events.

It also houses one of the best Theatrical bookshops I have ever seen, so many choices, but quite expensive, ideal for any theatre students though!

Love bistro cafe with outside seats and reasonable prices!

I was very impressed by there recent performance of War Horse. It is always an enjoyable place to visit.

I was absolutely in a trance from the minute it started! Loved it!

Along with the Almeida, the Donmar and the Royal Court this institution sits at the utmost peak of Theatre in London, most probably the World. I do not understand why muppets troop off to watch Les Mis, now in it’s 100th year complete with pop (pap?) star casting and high school musical sets. I’m talking you old school high school sets, not the glitzy Disney version now storming the World, incidentally…

Not to mention the extortionate figures some of the West End Playhouses request so you can peer around a column and through a pair of binoculars to try and catch sight of that bloke offa Pearl Harbour when instead -OH JOY- you can have the constantly varied, versatile, challenging, entertaining and massive playbill such as the RNT provides.

Yes, they focus on male plays, playwrights and actors a bit too much and it’d be nice to see a female “History Boys” or “War Horse”, or at least a large scale play by a woman, featuring women that didn’t have to cover both feminism and lesbianism…. anyone for a cliche? BUT! That is to focus on the very few negatives and mostly positives rule here.

There is something here for everyone be it classics, satire, physical theatre, modern drama, family shows, comdeies, musicals or one (wo)man q&a sessions with some of our greatest practitioners.

Plus the TRAVELEX season…. tickets for a tenner? What joy! I can’t reccomend it enough.

Fantastic theatre. It’s obviously got a great location, on the South Bank - perfect for a pre-theatre walk along the river. They’ve always got an interesting selection of plays on. The theatre staff are a nice bunch too: I was there last week and some lady refused to get out of our seat. But the staff were very lovely and helpful, giving us tickets for another night. My tip would be to go sign up for the Travelex £10 ticket alert, then you can book bargain seats as soon as they come out. Previews also tend to be half price, so get in early.

Love this theatre only recently started going there! The theatres within this are great and I’ve went last week to an exibition there and it was brilliant and it was free. A lovely quiet place to go and get away. Very large building usually with an exibition type event outside of it. Nice little place to eat inside and the gift shop has loads to choose from and the staff in there are very lovely.

Excellent venue, when in London, should go and see a play. Good visibility of stage from all seating areas makes it special. There is lenty of interesting though provocative plays to choose from.

The National Theatre has some really fantastic plays on sometimes, with the finest quality acting and direction. The last play I saw was ‘In-I’ which was a piece of dance theatre. It was mostly enjoyable and it was very interesting to see Juliet Binoche dancing as that was not something that she originally trained to do. Sometimes I felt that the routines went on a little too long and did not really have a point to them. I wasn’t disappointed as I had got a student standby ticket for £10. I would not have wanted to pay the full price though.

This is the place to go see a play in London if you want something a bit more substantial than the usual musicals on offer in the West End. The South Bank itself is just great for a walk - with the massive second hand book stalls and views of the river. The National theatre itself is not the prettiest building in the world, but inside there are several auditoriums of varying sizes where you can see some of the best actors in the world performing “proper” drama. Their Xmas shows are particuarly renowned - but don’t expect the normal panto like fare - these are often darker productions, like His Dark Materials, Coram Boy etc.

I recently was lucky enough to receive tickets to see War Horse here. Whilst rather an ugly building both inside and out, you can not fault their productions. This was an amazing production put on with breathtaking skill and creativity. We also ate in the restaurant which was beautiful quality and service.

Went to see the Pitman Painters here and just loved the show. The script was well written, with the characters being appropriately complex without becoming unrealistic. There’s quite a bit of humour in it, despite the often dark themes that it addressed. I’d recommend seeing it if you get the chance (we got lucky waiting for returns…) I have to admit, though, I think that the National Theatre is kind of unfortunate in terms of its architecture (concrete is not becoming for any building, I’m sorry).

Although it can be hard to snare tickets for popular shows, the production value is of such a standard that it makes queuing for up to an hour for returns and stand-by worth it just to get a seat. They are commited to widening participation and a popular scheme of theirs is the Travelex £10 tickets.

They also run the National Theatre 'New Connections’ programme, an initiative created to give young people the opportunity to perform in plays written by leading playwrights commissioned by the NT.

Theatre can very often be boring and uninspiring but not here. I’ve seen many plays here and all of them were good. Some were amazing. They do a lot of deals on tickets so do some research. Great restaurant and cafe on the upper floors and a great place to have a drink. Excellent views over the river.

As has been mentioned in previous reviews, this is a seriously ugly building from the outside. However they have done a good job making the inside a really nice place to be.
Unsuprisingly I love the bookshop…Its brilliant for plays, biographies and other drama related text books, and I can happily while away hours in there.
The bars are all done differently, but are all nice, and they have entertainment and music in the evening in the main foyer.
In the summer the outdoor theare has a great mixture of shows that are free and often great fun.
Even if your not much of a theatre goer, the christmas shows at the National are always brilliant, and pitched well to be great for whole families from grandparents down to toddlers.

Even though I visit the Southbank quite regularly, I haven’t actually been to the National for quite a while.
I went to a preview performance of “in-i” with Juliette Binoche and Akram Khan at the Lyttleton last night. It was just fantastic (if you can still get your hands on a ticket - book now!!).
The concrete jungle of the Southbank architecture provides the perfect backdrop for all things creative.
Modern pieces which rely on minimalist stage sets and the audience’s imagination particularly benefit from the lack of distraction.
Yesterday’s stage design consisted of a square wall and two chairs only, but ever-changing atmospheres were created with the clever use of light. I felt completely immersed in the story.
Comfortable chairs and good views from whereever you are make this the perfect theatre.

I know nothing about theatre. But I really enjoyed coming here. A great example of how some decent lighting can make even the worst looking building look, well, quite interesting. It’s certainly distinctive.

I remember not being able to buy bitter in the interval, but perhaps one should be drinking wine under these circumstances.

You get very, very close to the actors. So have to be quiet. And you can always pretend you’re watching Heat if you get bored…

This lump of concrete on the south bank produces endless amounts of world-class theatre. With three theatres inside the building, producing 18 plus shows a year, and at ten pounds a ticket for many shows, it’s cheaper and better than most london cinemas. It should be made part of law that people should visit the National.

If you’ve never been, go. If you do go, go more. And if you see everything there, then you’re probably a critic.

True, it seems extraordinary that no-one has reviewed the National here, before now (although I think specific productions have featured…) still we are putting that to rights!

BushGirl has explained comprehensively why the National is such a treasure, and a must-visit, so I’ll just add a few personal highlights…

I have seen two of the best productions ever, here: The Rose Tattoo (Tennessee Williams, with Zoë Wanamaker, in 2007) and The Sea with Judi Dench, several years ago - both for a bargain ticket price… and long to remain in my memory.

The Cottesloe - the most informal and smallest space - is often set-up in the round, and especially audience-friendly. The Travelex and last-minute ticket offerings make good theatre accessible to all, so long as there are still tickets available for your chosen performance…

Don’t miss the National Theatre, it’s one of London’s star-turns!

I can’t believe no one has reviewed the National!

A stalwart of British Theatre since it’s inception in the 60’s/70’s and production house of many great shows over the last few decades.

This is the National Theatre, where all that is good in British Theatre should end up at or come from.

There are three seperate auditoria in the building, The Olivier (the largest, for the big time shows) , The Lyttleton (smaller, but still nearly 1000 capacity) and Cottesloe Theatre - an adaptable studio space for more experimental or developmental work.

By all accounts it’s an ugly building from the outside by day, by night it’s lit in various colours making it less of an eyesore on the lovely Southbank. Inside, it’s almost labyrinthian, with bars, cafes and the multiplicitous theatres snaking off in different directions.

Since 2003 Travelex sponsorship has allowed many NT tickets to be sold for £10, which is really terrific value for this type of stuff.

Recent highlights have included, Complicite’s Measure for Measure, Jerry Springer the Opera, The History Boys and His Dark Materials.

There are so many shows produced by the NT across the whole range - new writing, old classics, reworkings, star casts, star writers, new talent…. It’s a place teeming with theatrical activity.

Another good spot for coffee and people watching on the Southbank, there are often free outdoors performances on the terrace in the Summer.

Essential for any theatre lover.