Olivia Vinall

An aged king decides to divide his kingdom between his three daughters, according to which of them is most eloquent in praising him. His favourite, Cordelia, says nothing. Simon Russell Beale, whose recent appearances at the National include Timon of Athens and Collaborators, takes the title role in Shakespeare’s tragedy.

Leonora Carrington, an outstanding figure of surrealism, along with Frida Kahlo, was one of Mexico's most famous painters. As the long-time partner of Max Ernst and close friend of André Breton and Jean Miró, she continually struggles with her visionary imagination, which often triggers serious psychological crises.

Acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love, Arcadia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead) returns to the National Theatre with his highly-anticipated new play The Hard Problem, directed by Nicholas Hytner (Othello, Hamlet, One Man, Two Guvnors). Hilary, a young psychology researcher at a brainscience institute, is nursing a private sorrow and a troubling question at work, where psychology and biology meet. If there is nothing but matter, what is consciousness? This is ‘the hard problem’ which puts Hilary at odds with her colleagues who include her first mentor Spike, her boss Leo and the billionaire founder of the institute, Jerry. Is the day coming when the computer and the fMRI scanner will answer all the questions psychology can ask? Meanwhile Hilary needs a miracle, and she is prepared to pray for one.

The "Devil's Evil Guitar" has been removed from the world by the supreme being, and rock and roll is a thing of the past in this newly puritanical environment. But what happens when the guitar is sent back by Vicious, an angel punk?

Germany, 1944. Leyna, the fifteen-year-old daughter of a white German mother and a black African father, meets Lutz, a compassionate member of the Hitler Youth whose father is a prominent Nazi soldier, and they form an unlikely connection in this quickly changing world.

Guests at a housewarming party are slipped a mysterious drug. When ugly truths start to emerge, chaos reigns and threatens the relationships of old friends.

On the night of their 20th anniversary, Emelia discovers a deeply hidden secret about her husband’s identity through a pair of VR glasses, buried inside of him since before the two met.

When the father of the family, Conrad, has to spend the night in hospital after a minor operation, the rest of the family gather to spend the evening together at home.

The lines between art and reality are blurred as a woman copes with an uninvited man from her past, and dangerous strangers in the present.

On an island struck with a sleeping phenomenon, a rogue visitor falls for one of the inhabitants, not realising the personal danger it brings.

The Moorish general Othello is manipulated into thinking that his new wife Desdemona has been carrying on an affair with his lieutenant Michael Cassio when in reality it is all part of the scheme of a bitter ensign named Iago.

A year after their mother's death, two estranged siblings and their guilt-ridden father gather at the rural family home to remember her. As night falls, a winter storm hits and long-held resentments re-surface.

What starts out as a simple, reckless mid-life affair between a genetic scientist named Yvonne and a Westminster paper pusher takes an intriguing turn when she realizes he’s a spook – then suddenly gets very dark indeed. A provocative study of obsession, longing and just how far down a criminal path desire can take you.

The Doctor is a Time Lord: a 900 year old alien with 2 hearts, part of a gifted civilization who mastered time travel. The Doctor saves planets for a living—more of a hobby actually, and the Doctor's very, very good at it.

The lives of two half-sisters and their drawing master get caught up in a deadly conspiracy revolving around a mentally ill woman dressed all in white.

Matilda Stone is a perennially single female detective whose three aunts are well-known crime writers that help her solve whodunit style murders as well as set her up on blind dates.

The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty.