The National Theatre is overhauling how it stages productions - as its ambitious climate targets mean creatives are having to be even more creative. After setting itself the goal of achieving net zero as an organisation by 2030, off-stage quietly radical changes are under way. Sky News was invited to see how the theatre , based in Southbank, central London, has gone about overhauling its approach to staging productions, meeting with some of those who've worked on its adaptation of the much-loved children's classic Ballet Shoes.
While critics have been full of praise for the visual spectacle on-stage, how the whole look was created required a fundamental shift in approach. "All of the team have had to be on board with reinventing, recutting and reimagining items rather than just making them from scratch," costume designer Samuel Wyer said. A new resource they had to work with was the National Theatre Green Store in Bermondsey, southeast London.
The warehouse has more than 131,000 items of costume and almost 22,000 props now housed under one roof so that designers can repurpose items from previous productions to try to cut their carbon footprint. More on Environment Environment's winners and losers in 2024 - as 2025 set to be hottest year on record Countries fail to reach agreement on plastic pollution treaty after South Korea talks AI squirrel spotter deployed to protect endangered red squirrels Related Topics: Environment Net zero Theatre It's a surprisingly satisfying challe.
