Royal National Theatre

The Royal National Theatre of Great Britain is a building and theatre company on London's South Bank, located immediately east of the southern end of Waterloo Bridge. Housing three separate auditoria - the Olivier Theatre (named for the theatre's first artistic director, Sir Laurence Olivier), the Lyttelton Theatre (after Oliver Lyttelton, the first chairman of the Theatre), and the Cottesloe Theatre (for Lord Cottesloe, chairman of the South Bank Theatre Board) - it was designed by architect Sir Denys Lasdun and opened in 1976. The honorific "Royal" was added to the name in c.2000 but many people feel it is redundant, and choose to ignore it.

Artistic Directors

• Laurence Olivier (1963-1973)
• Peter Hall (1973-1988)
• Richard Eyre (1988-1997)
• Trevor Nunn (1997-2003)
• Nicholas Hytner (2003- )