NT Talks

Director Ian Rickson and writer/actor Wallace Shawn discuss the play, Evening at the Talk House. #EveningattheTalkHouse http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/evening-at-the-talk-house

Charlotte Brontë was a literary visionary, a feminist trailblazer and the driving force in her family, and in Jane Eyre she created a new kind of independent heroine. Her biographer Claire Harman (winner of the 2015 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem, The Mighty Hudson) and and journalist Lucy Mangan (Stylist and Guardian columnist) explore these very modern Victorian women. www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/jane-eyre #ntJaneEyre This is a recording of a live platform event.

Actors Delena Kidd and Alan Rickman, and former theatre critic Michael Ratcliffe, join Richard Digby Day to celebrate the life and career of the much-loved actress, whose work ranged from Feydeau, Webster and Brecht to award-winning performances in The Rivals and The Way of the World at the National, as well as Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit and The Barchester Chronicles on TV. This is a recording of a live platform event.

David Hare discusses his memoir, The Blue Touch Paper, which interweaves the history of the period, from 1947 to Margaret Thatcher’s election, with the story of how he first became a writer for film and theatre. Chaired by Tony Bicȃt. This is a recording of a live platform event.

Following his celebration of National Poetry Day on BBC Radio 4, the broadcaster is joined by actors Mark Gatiss and Fenella Woolgar for a selection of readings from his new book, We British: The Poetry of a People, illustrating how poetry of the past reflects the issues of today.

Director Nadia Fall and playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker discuss the new production of Our Country's Good. This is a recording of a live platform event. http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/our-countrys-good #OurCountrysGood

Director Ned Bennett and playwright Alistair McDowall talk to Dan Rebellato about the production, Pomona. This is a recording of a live platform event. http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/pomona #ntPomona

The director and writer discuss their new production, People, Places and Things. This is a recording of a live platform event. http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/people-places-and-things #PeoplePlacesThings

Michael Lobban, Professor of Legal History at LSE, and Deborah Oxley, Professor of Social Science History at All Souls Oxford, discuss the convicts on the First Fleet in 1787, as depicted in Our Country’s Good, and the impact of penal transportation. http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/our-countrys-good #OurCountrysGood

David Frost was the only person to have interviewed every British Prime Minister since Harold Wilson as well as US Presidents, actors, royalty, musicians and sporting heroes from the last 50 years. Set amid turbulent world events, these encounters became moments of history themselves. His biographer Neil Hegarty and his sons Wilfred and George Frost, celebrate the life of a man who didn't just report the news, he made the news. This is a recording of a live platform event.

Alongside the NT exhibition, Concrete Reality, and a new book about the building, historian Barnabas Calder, architect Patrick Dillon and Catherine Croft, Director of the C20 Society, reflect on Denys Lasdun’s work on the National Theatre, while NT actors Susannah Fielding, Richard Henders, Lloyd Hutchinson and Geoffrey Streatfeild read extracts from the NT Building Committee minutes in the 1960s. Chaired by Daniel Rosenthal. This is a recording of a live platform event.

In The House of Hidden Mothers, her new novel about female friendship, motherhood and love, the actor – last seen at the National in Behind the Beautiful Forevers - addresses topical themes of late parenthood and surrogacy. This is a recording of a live platform event.

The theatre critic discusses The 101 Greatest Plays, a personal selection from Ancient Greece to the present-day, and asks if greatness changes with time and circumstance. Chaired by Benedict Nightingale. This is a recording of a live platform event.

Stephen Lovell, Professor of Modern History at King's College London, and Cynthia Marsh, Emeritus Professor of Russian Drama and Literature at the University of Nottingham, explore the influence of the Russian countryside and landscape on the playwright’s work.

Philippa Gregory discusses her new novel The Taming of the Queen; the story of Kateryn Parr, Henry VIII’s final wife, and the play from her time in court as Regent that may have inspired Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Chaired by Chris Campbell.