National Theatre Live: Salomé

National Theatre Live’s 2010 broadcast of Alan Bennett’s acclaimed play The Habit of Art, with Richard Griffiths, Alex Jennings and Frances de la Tour, returns to cinemas as part of the National Theatre's 50th anniversary celebrations. Benjamin Britten, sailing uncomfortably close to the wind with his new opera, Death in Venice, seeks advice from his former collaborator and friend, W H Auden. During this imagined meeting, their first for twenty-five years, they are observed and interrupted by, amongst others, their future biographer and a young man from the local bus station. Alan Bennett’s play is as much about the theatre as it is about poetry or music. It looks at the unsettling desires of two difficult men, and at the ethics of biography. It reflects on growing old, on creativity and inspiration, and on persisting when all passion’s spent: ultimately, on the habit of art.

The 1888 play by the Swedish writer and playwright August Strindberg tells the story of the aristocratic Juliet and her servant Jean on Midsummer's Night. After an exuberant evening, their mutual affection grows into a night spent together that changes their lives forever. With the realisation of all the possible consequences of transgressing social conventions comes sobriety, fear and a difficult coming to terms with reality. What next? Is it even possible to escape it or forget it?

A flat in Ladbroke Grove, West London. 1952. When Hester Collyer is found by her neighbours in the aftermath of a failed suicide attempt, the story of her tempestuous affair with a former RAF pilot and the breakdown of her marriage to a High Court judge begins to emerge. With it comes a portrait of need, loneliness and long-repressed passion. Behind the fragile veneer of post-war civility burns a brutal sense of loss and longing.

In 2008, as the Large Hadron Collider searches for the Higgs boson, tragedy throws two sisters together. The collision threatens them all with chaos. Olivia Colman and Olivia Williams play the sisters in this drama from writer Lucy Kirkwood.

Julie Harris performs her one-woman show based on the life of Charlotte Brontë.

Seisho Music Academy, Siegfeld Institute of Music, and Seiran General Art Institute are to put on a play as part of an exchange program between the three schools. With Yachiyo supervising Siegfeld, she and the five middle schoolers meet with Claudine, Futaba, and Suzu. The play they will be performing is Seisho's popular program "The Wartime of Farewells". As it had been previously revived with Kaoruko and Maya in the lead roles, Claudine and Futaba participate with an extraordinary resolve; meanwhile, Suzu gains a keen interest in Siegfeld's newborn raw gems. Following Regalia, each of them has taken a step forward as a Stage Girl, but Shiro alone remains without a reason to stand on stage. Shiro has been a servant of the Siegfeld family since childhood, and has lived her life solely for Stella's sake, giving everything up for her. However, her reason of being is shaken up once a camaraderie between Stella and Ryoko starts to develop after their revue.

On a cold September morning in 1844 a young man from Bavaria stands on a New York dockside. Dreaming of a new life in the new world. He is joined by his two brothers and an American epic begins. 163 years later, the firm they establish – Lehman Brothers – spectacularly collapses into bankruptcy, and triggers the largest financial crisis in history.

When an old adversary threatens Rome, the city calls once more on her hero and defender: Coriolanus. But he has enemies at home too. Famine threatens the city, the citizens’ hunger swells to an appetite for change, and on returning from the field Coriolanus must confront the march of realpolitik and the voice of an angry people.

Teens! Bikes! Feathered Hair! Love and revenge! Leotards and acid-washed denim! It’s all here in the legendary Eighties BMX-racing action-drama-romance RAD! Join Mike, Bill and Kevin as they spin, flip and slow-bike-dance their way into your hearts, LIVE in theaters nationwide on August 17th! Don’t miss it, if you want to be RAD!

The timeless tale of Ebenezer Scrooge comes to thrilling new life as Tony winner Jefferson Mays plays over 50 roles in a virtuosic masterclass of a performance that must be seen to be believed.

Based on Michael Morpurgo's novel and adapted for the stage by Nick Stafford, War Horse takes audiences on an extraordinary journey from the fields of rural Devon to the trenches of First World War France.