NT : Go Backstage : Publications
NT Books
NT publications and co-publications:
Actors Speaking
In the late 1980s, Peter Gill, first director of the National Theatre Studio, sent a group of young actors and directors to interview some of the most respected actors of the time about speaking on stage. Those conversations, with actors such as Alec Guinness, Rex Harrison and Robert Stephens, are collected here for the first time. From initial questions about clarity, projection, technique and influences, the discussions take off in surprising directions, providing fascinating insights into the actor's craft and revealing how the skills of stage-speaking are passed from one generation to the next. 'These fascinating conversations reveal a great deal about the craft of speaking on stage, but even more about the history of theatre in the 20th century...a book to treasure' Peter Hall
The Horse's Mouth
by Mervyn Millar
The latest in the series 'The National Theatre at Work' follows the production of War Horse from early concept workshops, through the design and development of the magnificent life-size horse puppets, research of the play's languages and wartime setting, the exploratory process of making the adaptation, rehearsals with the ensemble, and onto the Olivier stage. Mervyn Millar's unique perspective as a member of the creative team and a puppeteer gives an extraordinary insight into the way this stage version of Michael Morpurgo's novel takes audiences on a journey through history.
Peter Hall's Bacchai
by Jonathan Croall
After huge successes with Aeschylus' The Oresteia and Sophocles' The Oedipus Plays, Peter Hall turned to Bacchai, Euripides' powerful tragedy about the cult of Dionysus. On the National's Olivier stage he presented a stunningly imaginative production played in masks, using a new translation by Colin Teevan, with original music by Harrison Birtwistle and designs by Alison Chitty. Jonathan Croall observed the rehearsal process in minute detail, regularly interviewing the actors and creative team as the production moved from readthrough to preview. His book offers an intimate and absorbing picture of how a team of world-class theatrical talents brought one of the masterpieces of Greek theatre to the stage. This new edition includes an extra chapter on the production's visit to the ancient theatre of Epidaurus in Greece, and a new foreword by Peter Hall.
The original version of the final chaptercan be read here .
The Alchemist Exposed
by Robert Butler
An essential guide to Ben Jonson, the play and its background, The Alchemist ExposedThe Alchemist. In this new book in the 'National Theatre at Work' series, Robert Butler explores Jonson's world and everything that makes his play bang up-to-date. follows the company and creative team of Nicholas Hytner's new NT production as they strip back the years to reveal the true nature of Published by the NT with Oberon Books. Priced £10
Faber Playwrights at the National
Faber Drama published some of the seminal plays of the twentieth century. Five NT Platforms – with Faber playwrights Christopher Hampton, David Hare, Tony Harrison, Frank McGuinness and Tom Stoppard – are collected in this volume, which is introduced by Alan Bennett and includes extracts from the plays under discussion. Available exclusively from the NT Bookshop for £6.99. Published by NT/Faber and Faber.
With The Rogue's Company: 'Henry IV' at the National
by Bella Merlin
The National had never before staged Shakespeare's two most admired history plays; it was ten years since Michael Gambon's last appearance at the Theatre, and five since director Nicholas Hytner had started talking to him about playing Falstaff. The plan was for Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2 – which Kenneth Tynan called "great public plays in which a whole nation is under scrutiny and trial" – to open the year's Travelex £10 Season. Bella Merlin follows the production from pre-rehearsal planning to opening night, charting the processes that make up two major productions in the Olivier Theatre.
p/b Oberon Books
Darkness Illuminated
Published by the NT and Oberon Books. £7.99.
A collection of transcripts from the series of Platform discussions that took place early in 2004 about His Dark Materials at the National Theatre. With an introduction by Robert Butler (author of 'The Art of Darkness', published last year), who asked the questions, the discussions are with: director Nicholas Hytner; author Philip Pullman, alone and in conversation with Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury; the two young lead actors from the first season – Anna Maxwell Martin and Dominic Cooper; adapter Nicholas Wright; and some of the production team, including the revival season's co-director Matt Wilde.
The Art of Darkness: Staging Philip Pullman's Trilogy
by Robert Butler
£12.99 p/b NT/Oberon
In writing the backstage account of His Dark Materials, Robert Butler follows Nicholas Hytner and his creative team over the six months leading to the first performance of both plays. The question running through it is the one anyone asks who knows the books: How are they going to do it?
Just About 'Anything Goes'
The National Theatre at Work
Robert Butler attended every day of rehearsal and talked to each member of the 38-strong cast, following the creation of Trevor Nunn¹s production of this classic musical through the eyes of its company. As with his earlier book in this series, Humble Beginnings, Robert Butler offers an absorbing portrait of an ensemble at work, from first read-through to first preview.
The final chapter is available in this section .
In Rehearsal at the National
Photographs 1976-2001
Compiled by Lyn Haill. Preface by Trevor Nunn. Cover designed by Andrzej Klimowski
The National Theatre on London's South Bank opened in 1976. In its first 25 years nearly 500 productions were rehearsed there and those rehearsals recorded by some of the world's leading theatre photographers. The more than 200 pictures drawn from the NT's Archive for this magnificent paperback, show the extraordinary breadth of the work and most are accompanied by something that was said at or about the time by one of the participants. The photographs capture the essence of theatre-in-progress - actors and directors at work behind closed doors - and mark the development of some of the great names of our stage.
The book also includes a complete record of all the productions staged by the NT in the first 25 years in its permanent home.
"In the Middle Ages, the word for a craft was 'mystery' - hence the Mystery Plays. I wish the meaning of that word was still current in our language because what happens rehearsing a play is a 'mystery' in both senses, a craft and something that is impossible to explain.
"We have in this book a collection of extraordinary images, a flicker book of memories that can almost persuade you the pictures are living and moving; they are the nearest thing we can have to recapturing the joys of creation, the pains of birth, the torrent of feelings and responses that are the wellspring of theatre, whose purpose, was and is, to hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature."
Published to coincide with the NT's 25th anniversary on the South Bank, by the National and Oberon Books at £19.99
Inside the Molly House
The National Theatre at Work
by Jonathan Croall
Jonathan Croall follows the success of his Hamlet Observed (see below) with a vivid inside account of the world première production of Mother Clap's Molly House. His book looks in revealing detail at the developing creative partnership between playwright Mark Ravenhill, director Nicholas Hytner, and the National company.
Published with the support of a grant from the Royal National Theatre Foundation.
Humble Beginnings
The National Theatre at Work
by Robert Butler.
For the second in the series of 'The National Theatre at Work', Robert Butler attended every rehearsal of Charlotte Jones' Humble Boy, talking to playwright, director, actors and production team, and following the production from first read-through to first performance in the Cottesloe Theatre. The result is a fascinating insight into the rigorous process of bringing a new play to the stage for the first time and will be of interest to theatre-goers, students, actors and potential playwrights alike.
Humble Beginnings was published by NT Publications immediately after the play's opening at the National Theatre in August 2001. A link to Robert Butler's account of the Press Night and reaction to the production is on the right. Published in association with The Caird Company
Hamlet Observed
The National Theatre at Work
by Jonathan Croall.
Simon Russell Beale has been hailed as one of the great Hamlets of our time. This is the backstage story of how he created the part for John Caird's National Theatre production.
Jonathan Croall watched the Hamlet company at work from the first rehearsal onwards, and travelled with them on tour to Elsinore and beyond. His book provides a revealing picture of the making of a production at the National.
Publication supported by a grant from the National Theatre Foundation