Fifty years of the National Theatre in photos

From Hamlet with Peter O’Toole to War Horse – how many of these classic NT productions have you seen? Read Michael Coveney’s personal recollections of the National’s first 50 years here

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1963: It all began at the Old Vic with a production of Hamlet starring Peter O’Toole, fresh from his success in Lawrence of Arabia the previous year

1964: NT founder Lawrence Olivier’s famous Othello, pictured here opposite Maggie Smith as Desdemona

1965: Another all-star Shakespeare – Much Ado About Nothing with Albert Finney, Robert Stephens and Ian McKellen

1966: Peter Shaffer’s Black Comedy reversed the lighting states to that ‘dark’ scenes were played in the light

1967: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, starring John Stride and Edward Petherbridge, launched the career of Tom Stoppard

1968: The programme cover for Oedipus, starring the legendary John Gielgud in the title role

1969: Peter Nichols’ farcical comedy The National Health made deadly serious points about the under-funding of the NHS

1970: Maggie Smith’s Hedda Gabler sees in the new decade at the Old Vic

1971: Laurence Olivier leads a revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer-winning drama Long Day’s Journey Into Night
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1972: Bond girl Diana Rigg stars as Dorothy in the premiere of Tom Stoppard’s Jumpers

1973: Peter Shaffer’s Equus, about a young man with an obsession with horses, premieres

1974: Michael Kitchen stars in a revival of Wedekind’s Spring Awakening, translated by Edward Bond

1975: John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson in the premiere of Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land

1976: Hamlet starring Albert Finney is the last National production at the Old Vic and transfers to the new Lyttelton Theatre

1977: Peter Hall directs Alan Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce

1978: The premiere of Plenty by David Hare, who will enjoy a long and fruitful association with the National

1979: Simon Callow and Paul Schofield star in Amadeus

1980: Howard Brenton’s Romans in Britain would become the subject of a lawsuit by infamous campaigner Mary Whitehouse

1981: Artistic director Peter Hall stages his acclaimed all-male production of The Oresteia

1982: Future AD Richard Eyre directs Bob Hoskins and Ian Charleson in Guys and Dolls, a huge hit for the National

1983: The world premiere of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, which would go on to win a Pulitzer, takes place in the Cottesloe
© Nobby Clark

1984: Another American success, this time Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love starring Ian Charleson and Julie Walters

1985: David Hare and Howard Brenton’s satirical play Pravda starred Anthony Hopkins

1987: Judi Dench and Anthony Hopkins take the lead roles in Anthony and Cleopatra

1988: Ian Charles and Lindsay Duncan lead the cast of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

1989: Declan Donnellan directs Adrian Mitchell’s version of Lope de Vega’s Fuente Ovejuna
© John Haynes

1990: Ian McKellen stars in Shakespeare’s Richard III

1991: Nicholas Hytner directed The Madness of George III starring Nigel Hawthorne

1993: Trevor Nunn directs Rufus Sewell and Felicity Kendall in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia

1994: Sheila Gish, Frances de la Tour and Jude Law starred in Les Parents Terribles, which later transferred to Broadway under the name Indiscretions

1995: Judi Dench won an Olivier for her performance in Absolute Hell

1997: Richard Eyre directs Ian Holm, Anne-Marie Duff, Barbara Flynn and Amanda Redman in King Lear

1998: The world premiere of Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen in the Cottesloe Theatre

1999: Hugh Jackman, Maureen Lipman and Josefina Gabrielle star in the “definitive” production of Oklahoma!, which later transferred to Broadway

2000: The world premiere of Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Andrew Lincoln and Bill Nighy

2001: Philip Quast and Lauren Kennedy star in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical South Pacific
© Tristram Kenton

2002: Trevor Nunn directs Anything Goes starring John Barrowman and Sally Ann Triplett, in repertory with the same cast in Love Labour’s Lost

2003: Nicholas Hytner directs the National’s first major Christmas show under his regime; His Dark Materials starring Anna Maxwell Martin, Patricia Hodge and Dominic Cooper
© Ivan Kynci

2004: The world premiere of Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, which became a global smash for the National Theatre

2005: The Coram Boy opens, before transferring to Broadway

2006: Simon Russell Beale stars in David Hare’s translation of Brecht’s The Life of Galileo

2007: Luke Treadaway stars in Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse, which had two seasons in the Olivier before transferring to the West End and Broadway

2008: Ralph Fiennes stars in Oedipus, continuing the tradition of Greek tragedy in the Olivier Theatre

2009: Fiona Shaw stars in Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children

2010: Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art reunited the author with Richard Griffiths, who replaced Michael Gambon

2011: Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternate the roles of Frankenstein and his monster in Danny Boyle’s production
© Catherine Ashmore

2012: Marianne Elliott’s staging of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time sees Luke Treadaway returning to the National
Manuel Harlan

2013: Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear star in Nicholas Hytner’s production of Othello
Johan Persson