Who we are
We are Het Nationale Theater
Het Nationale Theater in The Hague is the largest touring theatre company in the Netherlands and creates performances for the entire country. With our own youth theatre company HNTjong, we are the only national theatre organisation making performances for all ages. We are also three theatres in The Hague. You can visit Het Nationale Theater at the Koninklijke Schouwburg, Theater aan het Spui and Zaal 3.
What we want to achieve
People come together in our theatres. Experience the Koninklijke Schouwburg, Theater aan het Spui and Zaal 3. Places with their own character, but at all three, you experience something together. A performance is also a proposal, a suggestion. We suggest how things shouldn't be done, and how they could be. Or the other way around. We push boundaries, make the strange normal, and the normal ever stranger. We commemorate our shared past and celebrate the festivities that bind us. Read more about this story here, or take a look at all our productions from this season.
The Hague, Restless and Skewed
We are located in The Hague, the city of Peace and Justice, right between the ministries and the political stage, and that's something we have to engage with. This all comes together in our theatres: join the conversation about power and powerlessness, recognise loneliness, and celebrate joy. Classic works get a new twist, and stories from the past turn out to still apply today. New talent shakes loose what's stuck, and that matters, especially in this city. New voices tell stories you haven't heard before, but might still recognise. We help makers keep their sights set on the horizon, so they can show their very best work.
This is your place
Home is where you can be yourself, and here, that's true too. Children, young people and adults keep discovering theatre, again and again. People with a disability, visible or invisible, should never feel held back from coming to the theatre. Together, we explore how to make a visit to the theatre as pleasant as possible. We adjust the seats, the lighting, the sound, provide audio description, and arrange a sign language interpreter. In the auditorium, you'll find your own place, even if you're simply here for fun. Welcome, all kinds of things happen here, and afterwards, we talk about it together.
Take a seat, be part of it
What we do
Het Nationale Theater creates and makes space
Het Nationale Theater creates productions that can be seen in The Hague and on stages across the country. In our three own theatres in The Hague, we show those productions, but there's much more besides. We also offer a stage to companies from all over the country. In our theatres, people come together for everything from cabaret to drama, from dance to theatre lectures. Through theatre, we offer a roadmap to the outside world; our education team teaches people how to look, and above all, that you're allowed to see everything.
The value of stories
Annual Report 2025
Het Nationale Theater contributes to an open and engaged society by offering a place for encounter, reflection and conversation about the themes of our time. We bring people together, spark curiosity, and create room for different voices and experiences. In this annual report, we make our social impact visible. This report focuses on 2025.
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In 2025, we welcomed over 310,000 visitors. In our own theatres (the Koninklijke Schouwburg, Theater aan het Spui and Zaal 3 in The Hague), at our performances around the country, and during festivals, celebrations and educational activities. More than ever, we choose dialogue, and we're committed to talent development, inclusion and craftsmanship in innovative ways.
What we stand for
Het Nationale Theater creates performances for the whole country
Theatre is mimicry, is living something out loud, is mockery, is love. We adapt classic works and show how stories from the past still apply today. We speak hopefully about our flawed society, but also about sex and growth. We unravel power and powerlessness, recognise loneliness, and celebrate joy. We bicker, laugh the night away, make poetry punk. We use imagination for what we are not, humour as comfort for what we are. We also show performances with an eye on the horizon, ones that break existing rules and pave new paths. Dreaming is necessary, it's how we invent the future.
"We bicker, laugh the night away, make poetry punk."
We are radically kind
We welcome the audience with open arms; in our theatres, you take part.
We are kindly radical
We're located right between the ministries and the political stage, and that's something we have to engage with.
We are active and engaged in the city and across the country
We commemorate our shared past and celebrate the festivities that bind us.
We remain endlessly curious
New talent shakes loose what's stuck; we imagine how things shouldn't be done, and how they could be.
If we talk about the future on stage, that future needs to actually exist. Sustainability matters to us. That's about our ecological footprint: making and travelling as sustainably as possible, preparing our buildings for the future. But sustainability is also about investing in long-term relationships with people and partner organisations. Read more about sustainability >