The National Theatre General Thread

Last two orders I did with the NT I wasn't sent e-tickets. The confirmation came through and I can see the tickets on my NT account. I suppose I can just use those? There is a QR code. This happen to anyone else?

I’m not the most tech person around here ( mods alert 😁) but I do find the email tix thing irritating. Sometimes you can’t see the tix on the email and sometimes you get a confirmation and then another email with the tix so do you have to keep both? Then they all lie there in my flagged in no particular order. So scroll scroll as you enter the venue.

Wow! You can do that? Thanks for the tip….off to try it out!!!!!

Was on my account earlier and saw this:

You can submit a request to exchange tickets you can no longer use for credit on your National Theatre account. You can then use this credit to pay for another booking for this production, or for any other show bookable on this website.
A ticket handling charge of £2 per ticket will be deducted from the value of your tickets for this service.

This used to be free right? Does anyone know when they introduced this fee for exchanges?

oh interesting! I've always just emailed them with my order number and never been asked to pay a fee so I didn't know if this was a new thing or not.

I hadn't realised that this year is the NT's 60th anniversary. I really enjoyed the 50th celebration the did via DVD so hope they are planning something this year that is big.

Aside that today RuNo and some others where with the Prime Minister and it all looks very sucking up like and a bit embarrassing.

Only two plays there written before 1950 and they are two of the more popular Shakespeare’s. I’m not counting Phaedra because it bore little relation to any of the source plays. If you needed any confirmation that the NT is failing in its duty there it is.

Assuming Shenton is accurate, taking on the three-ring Southbank circus with its international profile and numerous added pressures feels like an almighty upgrade. Presumably, a test of character before anything else, and about that we don't know much.

Glad to see a long lead-in, must be an extraordinary amount to get on top of, not least programming.

I doubt there were many serious applicants. Superficially to me she looks like continuity Norris but we‘ll see in due course.

She actually first directed at the National more than 20 years ago, during Trevor Nunn's tenure as AD, though doesn't seem to have done anything there during the Hytner years, but more than made up for it in the last five or six. She's directed productions on all three of the National's stages which works in her favour - but she has been almost entirely focussed on new works - with almost no classic work in her cannon. That's fine, as long as she gets some other people to direct those.

I've actually found much of the Rufus Norris years refreshing and enjoyable (hell I even just about managed to find something positive in 'Common' - though maybe the very, very low expectations helped) and I do think that National should do a lot of new writing. However, the balance between revivals - particularly of well-directed classic work - and new hasn't quite been right for some time. So hopefully if she does get the job, she'll recognise where her own directorial strengths, weakness and interests lie - and surround herself with creatives who can fill the gaps - and have some experience in these areas.

Today I completed a survey for the National Theatre (one of those on theatre habits with a potential prize at the end) and among the questions there were some questions on how much I would spend for potential future productions with actual examples. A couple were things I had not seen mentioned before so I was wondering if someone else had heard about them:

"Hamlet" with Idris Elba
"West Side Stories"