National Theatre Reviews 23

The Dorfman is such an intimate theatre; you really feel like part of the performance.

With such a small stage, which also has audience seating, how do they do all the room changes and take us down into the dungeon? It is really impressive.

All three actress in The Authenticator were brilliant and authentic in their roles, but Cherrelle Skeete was just so believable as Marva.

A great play and a delightful theatre.

Just sen the authenticator at national theatre. Unbelievable that this play was chosen to be performed. Appallingly written, impossible to act, neither funny, scary and nothing to say about racism. A total mess and waste of time. DO NOT GO!

Rented a production but can't play it back on a TV. EVERY other site works but National theatre apparently blocks playback...why take my money if I can't play it back?! Read the reviews and the help before renting or subscribing...it's as if they are trying to steal your money!!!!!

I bought a subscription as a birhday gift for my wife and we were most disappointed. Every evening we tried to watch it there were pauses, intermittent breaks in the sound and periods of 'whirling circle'. NT outsource it to Vimeo, whose support seemed to be very stretched, and they kept insisting it must be a WiFi problem. However, I measured 130Mbps to the TV and we have no problems with Netflix, Prime, BBC iPlayer, etc. Also, NTatHome is OK first thing in the morning, so it must be network congestion at busy times.
NTatHome gave us a full refund. If I were they, I would replace Vimeo, which is clearly not up to the job.

We subscribed to watch Prima Facie ( fabulous!} in February, each Month I have checked and there has been no new decent plays added in all that time. I tried to watch Peter Pan with my 6 year old grandson and even he was confused by the ‘nanny’. It just seemed like a diversity cast and ridiculous.
Waitress was great but nothing since!
I kept reminding my husband to cancel as it was set up with his Amazon account and it has been so frustrating he gave up and just cancelled the payments. By then we had paid £80 and watched 2 1/2 plays 🤬

I saw Bacchae last night, 29 October. I cannot believe this ridiculous adaptation was presented at the National Theatre. It has to be one of the worst plays I’ve ever seen. This was made for an audience of teenagers and should have been billed as such. All credit to the performers who did their best with the worst.

NT Live is THE most frustrating website - clunky, unfriendly. Insists I live somewhere else, has no scroll bar, Could go on but thats enough.

Very disappointed with what is being done with the classics. The updating -- the costumes (or lack thereof), the settings, the gratuituous violence, the awful striving for "relevance" -- it's all terrible. I could not find one play I could stand to watch for more than a few minutes. I have wonderful memories of the NT from the 1980s and 1990s, and had hoped to see younger actors in productions that remained true to the playwright's original conception.

The play Land of the Living was wonderful but sadly the experience was spoilt by lack of support from front of house staff for my disabled partner (mobility impairment due to cancer). The National needs to do better and look at other theatres and what they do.

Ive been attempting to sign up for National Theatre at Home. It is a nightmare. It doesn't work. I got as far as the page where I was asked to enter my credit card number (for a zero sum payment). I assumed for future reference. I did so but could still not sign on to the site. A couple of days later I had an alert from my bank that blazerix.com (google it) had fraudulently attempted to charge my card £39.99. My bank says this appears to be connected. You cant phone NTAH nor it seems can you phone Vimeo which handles payments etc. I have emailed and asked for contact from both to investigate this but, going by comments on here I am not holding my breath. I am certainly going to persist with this complaint in every way I can because you would have thought an organisation like National Theatre would be interested in their PR, wouldn't you

National Theatre at home is an IT disaster.

Have rented (not subscribed) easily in the past.

However, last month I couldn't rent a film as it was only accepting $ and trying to charge me tax. (Note - it's very hard to navigate to rentals, they try and force you to subscribe).

NT support assured me it was fixed. Last night I tried to rent again. Paid twice with Apple Pay. Nothing happened although AP 'accepted' (but not debited). Tried with my credit card - said there was an issue. Didn't say what it was.

If the NT wants to make money it needs to sort out its IT. Pathetic.

Still not managed to rent

We left in the interval.the production was pointless and pretentious- there was no depth of character. Woefully inadequate on every level - just so so disappointing the Emperor’s New Clothes springs to mind…

I need to share my absolutely infuriating experience with Vimeo's handling of my National Theatre at Home subscription. What started as a simple query about an unauthorized charge has turned into a frustrating battle with inflexible policies and a complete disregard for customer care.

Back in March 2021, without my knowledge, a National Theatre at Home subscription was activated on my account. This resulted in monthly charges of £9.98, which, over nearly four years, amounted to a staggering £451.08. To add insult to injury, I never once used the service, and I never received a single communication or reminder about the ongoing subscription.

My initial attempt to get a refund was met with a dismissive response from Vimeo support (Dhananjaya M). They hid behind their "non-refundable" policy and a vague "leniency" clause that conveniently didn't apply to me. I explained that I hadn't used the service and that I hadn't received any communication, but they simply refused to budge.

Frankly, I was appalled. Their response showed a rigid adherence to policy that completely ignored basic consumer rights and common sense. My follow-up email, citing UK consumer law and the Unfair Contract Terms Act, was my attempt to make them understand the sheer unfairness of their decision.

While the National Theatre's feedback team acknowledged my complaint and forwarded it to the National Theatre at Home team, the core of the problem lies with Vimeo's platform and how they handle subscriptions.

Here's what I found particularly concerning:

Lack of Transparency: I was never notified about the ongoing subscription. There were no reminders, no emails, nothing. This lack of communication allowed an unauthorized charge to continue for years.
Inflexible Refund Policy: Vimeo's refusal to even consider my unique circumstances, like the fact I never used the service and received no communication, shows a major flaw in their refund policy.
Poor Customer Service: The initial response I received was dismissive and completely failed to address the core issue of fairness.
Breach of Trust: This whole experience has completely eroded my trust in Vimeo and their partner services.

To sum it up:

In my opinion, Vimeo's platform, when used for services like National Theatre at Home, is severely lacking in user-friendly subscription management and customer-centric policies. Their failure to provide adequate communication and their rigid "non-refundable" policy, even in cases of clear non-use, is deeply problematic.

I sincerely hope that by sharing my experience, Vimeo will finally take steps to improve their subscription management practices and adopt a more customer-focused approach. Until then, I strongly advise anyone using their platform to carefully monitor their subscriptions and be extremely wary of unexpected charges. I certainly will be.

Nice theatres but seems to be a place that relies in its reputation than quality of productions. Too woke also. Be carefull of cheap seats as you can find yourself next door to school children that do not want to be there and amazing the teachers seem to sit as far away as possible from them. I lost a scarf so tried to retrieve it. I went back stage the day after and people seemed generally unhappy. Also woman produced scarf that was not mine from lost property and I think she knew.

Adverts adverts adverts

Adverts for 6 minutes before the show then 10 second adverts every 3 minutes after that. Watched 20 minutes of NYE before turning off.

ETA: Watched it a day later on my PC: No adverts. So the issue is the Youtube app.

Absolutely brilliant!

Had a fabulous evening
Play was amazing
‘A Tupperware of Ashes’

I can not praise Ellie Thrower enough. I attended the theatre with my daughter and her 5 month old baby who needed to be changed. Ellie went out of her way to facilitate this with a smile. A real gem member of staff. Thankyou.

I loved the show but i felt awkward with a staff member; I went to buy a pin his tone didn't help in the next phrase "Are you aware how much that is" but other than that every other staff member was very friendly.

The height of the stage for the current production of Dear England is ridiculous,Row A is sold as Restricted View but unless you’re 6ft 5 it’s no view.