The Night of Nights(1939)

Cadaver(no)

In the aftermath of a nuclear disaster, a starving family find hope in a charismatic hotel owner. Lured by the prospect of a free dinner, they discover that the evening's entertainment blurs the lines between performance and reality. Will they wind up the spectators or the spectacle?

Troubled Times(de)

The local theater in Armstadt has to take a step back; the budget gets cut due to less audience. However, the actors try their best to prepare for a new piece.

Stage Door(en)

The ups and downs in the lives and careers of a group of ambitious young actresses and show girls from disparate backgrounds brought together in a theatrical hostel.

La La Land(en)

Mia, an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian, a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.

Chickenhead(hu)

It is a tragedy, set among low-lifes on the outskirts of Budapest. Dramatic Exchange describes it as "Widely considered to be the most important Hungarian play of the last 20 years". The odd title of the play refers in the first instance to the chicken heads that an old woman feeds to her cat. However, it can also be taken to refer more broadly to the obtuse behaviour of the main characters in the play. The play is an odd mixture of pathos and nihilism, written against the bleak background of Stalinist totalitarianism from which Hungary was emerging. As with much modern drama, there is no hero in the play. The only noble behaviour that one can find belongs to one of the characters in the past, when he was a child, but he is no longer as he was. The hint that what once existed might be achieved again is the only faint ray of hope in a very bleak view of the human condition.

A Man of No Importance(en)

Alfie Byrne is a middle-aged bus conductor in Dublin in 1963. He would appear to live a life of quiet desperation: he's gay, but firmly closeted, and his sister is always trying to find him "the right girl". His passion is Oscar Wilde, his hobby is putting on amateur theatre productions in the local church hall. We follow him as he struggles with temptation, friendship, disapproval, and the conservative yet oddly lyrical world of Ireland in the early 1960s.

National Theatre Collection: Romeo and Juliet(en)

A new version for younger audiences by Bijan Sheibani and Ben Power. Originally staged as part of the National Theatre’s Shakespeare for younger audiences programme. This archival recording was captured in 2017. This contemporary production sees a company of eight tell the most famous love story of all time, set against a vivid urban backdrop bursting with excitement, colour, dance and song. A swift, contemporary celebration of Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Bijan Sheibani’s thrilling production brings Romeo and Juliet to life for a new generation.

Breaking Out(sv)

The enthusiastic Reine is forced to take a job as a social worker at Kumla prison.

Waiting for Godot(en)

Two derelicts occupy themselves as they wait for 'Godot' to make an appearance on Pozzo's estate.

The Dresser(en)

In a touring Shakespearean theater group, a backstage hand - the dresser, is devoted to the brilliant but tyrannical head of the company. He struggles to support the deteriorating star as the company struggles to carry on during the London blitz. The pathos of his backstage efforts rival the pathos in the story of Lear and the Fool that is being presented on-stage, as the situation comes to a crisis.

Partage de midi(fr)

A staging of Paul Claudel's play "Partage de Midi" by Antoine Vitez.

After the Rehearsal(sv)

Rational, exacting, and self-controlled theater director, Henrik Vogler, often stays after rehearsal to think and plan. On this day, Anna comes back, ostensibly looking for a bracelet. She is the lead in his new production of Strindberg's A Dream Play. She talks of her hatred for her mother, now dead, an alcoholic actress, who was Vogler's star and lover.

Rattlesnake in a Cooler(en)

A one act play about a young doctor who ditches his safe middle-class existence to become a cowboy out West. His cowboy fantasy eventually breaks down.

Le Roman d’un trader(fr)

L'Annonce faite à Marie(fr)

A staging of Paul Claudel's play "L'Annonce faite à Marie" by Yves Beaunesne.

Bonnie May(en)

Young actress Bonnie May finds work in a private play given at Mrs. Baron’s mansion, where she endears herself to all, especially Victor Baron, the invalid son who has written the play. He begs her to stay on to help him write another play, despite the reluctance of his mother.

Szamba(hu)

This story shows the two different parts of acting. The father is a strong, ambitious and inconsiderate actor but his son (Tibor) is a sensitive one. This all takes part somewhere in Hungary when socialism "controlled" the country.

The Story of Piera(it)

Piera is a young woman who grows up under the parentage of two extremely original overseers: both her mother and father have incestuous relations with her before they are committed to insane asylums. A special connection, between a mother and her daughter, full of sensuality and complicity, has allowed to portray a family full of fears, rather unbalanced, but nevertheless searching infinite love.

National Theatre Collection: Translations(en)

Owen, the prodigal son, returns to rural Donegal from Dublin. With him are two British army officers. Their ambition is to create a map of the area, replacing the Gaelic names with English. It is an administrative act with radical consequences.

4.48(fr)

In order to win over a tough dramatist at her next audition, a young actress turns to method acting to such an extreme that she slowly loses herself in the coveted role of a promiscuous bisexual self-destructive wild girl and starts sleeping around, provoking fights and cutting herself. Can she pull herself back from the edge of the abyss before it's too late?