The Royal National Theatre, London, England, is generally known as the National Theatre and commonly as The National. It is located on the South Bank in the London Borough of Lambeth, England, immediately east of the southern end of Waterloo Bridge. The National Theatre's building was designed by architect Sir Denys Lasdun and its theatres opened individually between 1976 and 1977. In the years from 1963, before the company's permanent home on the South Bank was completed, the National Theatre Company was based at the Old Vic theatre in Waterloo. Since 1988, the Theatre has been permitted to call itself the Royal National Theatre, but the full title is rarely used. The theatre presents a varied programme, including Shakespeare and other International classic drama; and new plays by contemporary playwrights. Each auditorium in the theatre can run up to three shows in repertoire or repertory, thus further widening the number of plays which can be put on during any one season.

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In 1847, a critic using the pseudonym Dramaticus published a pamphlet[1] describing the parlous state of British theatre. Production of serious plays was restricted to the patent theatres, and new plays were subjected to censorship by the Lord Chamberlain's Office. At the same time, there was a burgeoning theatre sector featuring a diet of low melodrama and musical burlesque; but critics described British theatre as driven by commercialism and a 'star' system. There was a demand to commemorate serious theatre, with the "Shakespeare Committee" purchasing the playwright's birthplace for the nation demonstrating a recognition of the importance of 'serious drama'. The following year saw more pamphlets on a demand for a National Theatre from London publisher, Effingham William Wilson.[2] The situation continued, with a renewed call every decade for a National Theatre, particularly around 1879 when the Comédie-Française took a residency at the Gaiety Theatre, described in The Times as representing "the highest aristocracy of the theatre". The principal demands now coalesced around: a structure in the capital that would present "exemplary theatre"; that would form a permanent memorial to Shakespeare; a supported Company that would represent the best of British acting; and a theatre school.[3]

Some gains were made, when the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre was opened in Stratford upon Avon on 23 April 1879, with the New Shakespeare Company; and Herbert Beerbohm Tree founded an Academy of Dramatic Art at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1904. This still left the capital without a National Theatre; a London Shakespeare League was founded in 1902 to develop a Shakespeare National Theatre - and with the impending tri-centenary in 1916 of his death – in 1913 purchased land for a theatre in Bloomsbury, this was an aspiration interrupted by World War I. Finally, in 1948, the London County Council presented a site close to the Royal Festival Hall for the purpose, and a "National Theatre Act", offering financial support, was passed by Parliament in 1949.[4]

Ten years after the foundation stone had been laid in 1951, the Government declared that the nation could not afford a National Theatre – the LCC offered to waive any rent and pay half the construction costs. Still, the Government tried to apply unacceptable conditions in order to save money; attempting to force the amalgamation of the existing publicly supported companies: the RSC, Sadler's Wells and Old Vic. In July 1962, with agreements finally reached, a board was set up to supervise construction and a separate board was constituted to run a National Theatre Company and lease the Old Vic theatre. The "National Theatre Company" opened on 22 October 1963 with Hamlet. The Company was to remain at the Old Vic until 1976, when construction of the Olivier was complete

The National Theatre building houses three separate auditoria:

    * The Olivier Theatre (named after the theatre's first artistic director, Laurence Olivier), the largest space, is the main auditorium, and was modelled on the ancient Greek theatre at Epidaurus; it has an open stage and a fan-shaped audience seating area for about 1,160 people. It houses the Drum Revolve, a unique piece of stage technology which goes 8 m under the stage. The Drum has two rim revolves and two platforms which can take 10 tonnes, facilitating dramatic and fluid scenery changes.
    * The Lyttelton Theatre (named after Oliver Lyttelton, the first chairman of the National Theatre Board) has a proscenium arch design and holds up to 890 people.

    * The Cottesloe Theatre (named after Lord Cottesloe, chairman of the South Bank Theatre Board) is a small adaptable studio space, designed by Iain Mackintosh, holding up to 400 people, depending on the seating configuration.

The riverside forecourt of the theatre is used for regular open air performances in the summer months. The terraces and foyers of the theatre complex have also been used for ad hoc experimental performances. The decor is frequently dynamic, with recent displays of grass turf as 'outside wallpaper', different statues located in various random places and giant chairs and furniture in the forecourt.

The National Theatre's foyers are open to the public, with a large theatrical bookshop, restaurants, bars and exhibition spaces. Backstage tours run throughout the day, and there is live music every day in the foyer before performances.

The style of the National Theatre building, described by Mark Girouard as "an aesthetic of broken forms" at the time of opening. Architectural opinion was split at the time of construction. Even enthusiastic advocates of the Modern Movement such as Sir Nikolaus Pevsner have found the Béton brut concrete both inside and out overbearing. Most notoriously, Prince Charles described the building in 1988 as "a clever way of building a nuclear power station in the middle of London without anyone objecting". Sir John Betjeman, however, a man not noted for his enthusiasm for brutalist architecture, was effusive in his praise and wrote to Lasdun stating that he "gasped with delight at the cube of your theatre in the pale blue sky and a glimpse of St. Paul's to the south of it. It is a lovely work and so good from so many angles...it has that inevitable and finished look that great work does."

Despite the controversy, the theatre has been a Grade II* listed building since 1994[6]. Although the theatre is often cited as an archetype of Brutalist architecture in England, since Lasdun's death the building has been re-evaluated as having closer links to the work of Le Corbusier, rather than contemporary monumental 1960s buildings such as those of Paul Rudolph.[7] The carefully refined balance between horizontal and vertical elements in Lasdun's building has been contrasted favourably with the lumpiness of neighbouring buildings such as the Hayward Gallery and Queen Elizabeth Hall, and is now in the unusual situation of having appeared simultaneously in the top ten "most popular" and "most hated" London buildings in opinion surveys. A recent lighting scheme illuminating the exterior of the building, in particular the fly towers, has proved very popular, and is one of several positive artistic responses to the building.

In September 2007, a statue of Sir Laurence Olivier as Hamlet was unveiled outside the building, to mark the centenary of the National's first artistic director.

The National also has a Studio, the National's research and development wing, founded in 1984. The Studio has played a vital role in developing work for the National's stages and throughout British theatre. Writers, actors and practitioners of all kinds can explore, experiment and devise new work there, free from the pressure of public performance. The National Theatre Archive is housed in the same building, which is across the road from the Old Vic in the Cut, Waterloo, and used to house their workshops