Writing about the National Theatre on its 50th anniversary, I said that it was as much a flexible concept as a permanent institution. As it comes up to its 60th this month, that still seems true. The National constantly changes according to the temper of the times and the temperament of its director: you only have to look at the stark differences between the organisation set up by Laurence Olivier at the Old Vic in 1963 and the complex machine run by Rufus Norris on the South Bank in 2023. But with Norris due to step down in the spring of 2025, the big question is what the future holds for the National.
While it is fair to say that each of the National’s six directors has redefined its role, some of their changes are now firmly embedded. There is no going back, for instance, on two of the ideas launched by Nicholas Hytner in his tenure from 2003 to 2015: cheap seats and NT Live. You can still go to the National for £20 (it was £10 when the scheme was first launched) and more people than ever watch NT productions in cinemas or on home screens: recent figures show that a Romeo and Juliet produced during lockdown played in 298 UK cinemas and that 358,587 hours were devoted worldwide to watching shows online using National Theatre at Home in the year April 2021-22.
