Nicola Coughlan and Helen Mirren to star in National Theatre Live cinema shows

Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan, Irish actor Aidan Turner and The Thursday Murder Club star Dame Helen Mirren are to appear in a series of National Theatre (NT) Live cinema shows in 2026.

The shows, captured in front of a live audience in London, will be screened in cinemas across the UK, with tickets going on sale from today.

Returning to cinemas on February 26 for the first time in over a decade, Dame Helen stars as Queen Elizabeth II in the Olivier and Tony Award-winning production The Audience, which Netflix royal drama The Crown was based on.

From May 28, cinema audiences can watch Coughlan star alongside Saipan star Eanna Hardwicke and Derry Girls actress Siobhan McSweeney in John Millington Synge’s The Playboy Of The Western World, directed by Caitriona McLaughlin.

McSweeney said of the play: “Synge’s language is musical and wonderfully unruly – it’s a joy to speak it and an even greater joy to know it will be heard by audiences across the globe with NT Live. 

“The Playboy Of The Western World is a play that refuses to sit quietly and I can’t wait for audiences in the theatre and beyond to feel just how alive and provocative it still is.

“Irish stories have travelled the world for generations and for this show to travel to cinemas internationally is a continuation of that tradition.”

The play tells the story of Pegeen Flaherty’s life, which is turned upside down when a young man walks into her pub claiming he has killed his father. Instead of being shunned, the killer, Christy Mahon, becomes a local hero.

Hardwicke added: “The Playboy Of The Western World is a play that reaches for the stars, Synge wanted to enthral and entertain whilst presenting life authentically, as he saw it across Ireland. It is a play that I feel stays true to the essential live and unpredictable nature of theatre.

“Some of my earliest experiences of London theatre were from watching NT Live screening in cinemas in Ireland – including a wonderful production of Antony And Cleopatra in the NT.

“It feels only right for this story, set over 100 years ago in a remote corner of the west of Mayo to be beamed beyond the theatre’s walls with the brilliant resource NT Live offers.”

The new production will be captured from its run in the Lyttelton theatre where it is playing until February 28.

Rivals star Turner will appear in Christopher Hampton’s celebrated adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses alongside Lesley Manville and A Complete Unknown star Monica Barbaro.

The production follows Marquise De Merteuil, a master in the art of survival, who, alongside Vicomte De Valmont, turns seduction into strategy and weaponises desire before the pair’s alliance collapses into rivalry.

The cinematic production, which will be released in cinemas on June 25, will be captured from its run in the Lyttelton Theatre, where it will play from March 21 to June 6.

The three productions will join the previously announced Hamlet, captured from its run at the National Theatre in autumn 2025, which will kick off the 2026 NT Live series when it is released in cinemas on January 22.

Tickets for the performances will go on sale at 10am on Thursday December 4, with audiences able to find their closest screenings on the NT website.