National Theatre launches new digital streaming service
Harriet Clifford
Tuesday, December 1, 2020
The National Theatre (NT) in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies has today launched a digital streaming platform for audiences to watch NT Live and NT Archive titles at home for as little as £5.99.
Brinkhoff Mogenburg
Now available to watch online, on smart TV, on tablet and mobile apps, National Theatre at Home will stream NT Live productions previously broadcast to cinemas, as well as a selection of plays filmed for the NT’s Archive.
Viewers can opt for unlimited access to the National Theatre at Home catalogue for £9.98 per month or £99.98 per year, or gain access to a single play for a 72-hour window for £5.99 (NT Archive) or from £7.99 (NT Live).
National Theatre at Home’s digital streaming offer was first made available during the first lockdown, with productions made available for free on the NT YouTube channel every Thursday at 7pm, which were then available on demand for the following seven days.
Lisa Burger, executive director and joint chief executive of the National Theatre, said, ‘We were overjoyed to have had 15 million views for National Theatre at Home earlier this year and to discover we had reached so many audiences new to theatre both in the UK and worldwide.
‘With the agreement from artists, we are now able to showcase an extraordinary range of fantastic NT Live productions and, for the first time, some treasured plays from our NT Archive. This is a really exciting day for the National Theatre as we launch a major, online streaming destination for our filmed theatre productions which we hope will continue to provide audiences with the power and joy of theatre for as long as it is needed.
‘We want National Theatre at Home to once again bring people together from all over the world after what has been a very tough 2020 for so many.’
The NT Live titles launched on the service today are:
Amadeus, starring Adam Gillen and Lucian Msamati
Coriolanus, starring Tom Hiddleston, Alred Enoch, Deborah Findlay and Mark Gatiss
Medea, starring Helen McCrory, Michaela Coel, Danny Sapani and Dominic Rowan
Othello, starring Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear
Phèdre, starring Helen Mirren and Dominic Cooper
The Cherry Orchard, starring Zoë Wanamaker
Yerma, starring Billie Piper
NT Archive titles launching today are:
Dara, starring Zubin Varla and Prasanna Puwanarajah
I Want My Hat Back, suitable for children aged 3 years and older
Mosquitoes, starring Olivia Colman
Three Sisters, starring Sarah Niles, Rachael Ofori and Natalie Simpson
All of the productions will have captions available and a selection will have audio-descriptions and BSL versions available soon.